Jeremy Corbyn disdains the media. His first speech as Labour leader was sprinkled with warnings to the Fourth Estate to lay off the “abuse” and to not “attack people” who weren’t seeking fame. “Leave them alone, leave them alone in all circumstances,” he said.
He must have been thinking much the same thing the following night as he strode down the Embankment, surrounded by reporters and rolling cameras but determinedly tight-lipped in what was to become an internet hit titled “The Long Walk of Silence”. Now that he heads Her Majesty’s Opposition, Mr Corbyn can no more expect to be left alone than that other star of the silent screen, Greta Garbo.
Yet for the extraordinary first five days of his time as Labour leader, he tried to ignore the established rules of engagement between politicians and journalists.
The complex relations between political editors and spin doctors were being bypassed and interview bids from the flagship political shows were seemingly being shunned. Under normal rules of engagement, stories are briefed to friendly newspapers but, in the event of a new leader being elected, all broadcasters would have expected a 10-minute interview, at least.
Veterans of the Parliamentary lobby were aghast.
For the first 100 hours of his time as Labour leader, the Islington MP’s media strategy was chaotic to non-existent (AFP)
But to his new army of supporters, shouting approval on social media, the left-wing MP was taking a pin to the Westminster bubble. His leadership victory in the face of a hostile press was proof that “MSM” (mainstream media) had lost control, they said. “The mainstream media grossly underestimated the people’s ability to think for themselves and to see through their propaganda,” tweeted writer and activist Angharad Penryhn from Wales.
As Dean McAffrey of Sky News scuttled down the Embankment in pursuit of a quarry who had spent a long night choosing his Shadow Cabinet, he called out: “Jeremy, I cannot understand why you cannot talk to the media. Why are you so opposed to talking to us?” It didn’t stop him continuing to film, knowing the viral potential of a three-minute clip.
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The MSM wanted to ask Mr Corbyn why he snubbed Andrew Marr’s show and turned down Radio 4’s Today programme. Reporters wanted to quiz him on supposed sexism in his choices for the front bench. Again, Twitter rallied. “Cameron’s cabinet is one-third women. Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet will be majority women. Mainstream media: Corbyn is a sexist,” observed Aaron Bastani, a digital entrepreneur and political activist.
But, much as the grassroots support wanted to believe Mr Corbyn had everything worked out, those closer to the action could see something was wrong. Carmel Nolan, press officer for Team Corbyn in the leadership contest, had returned to Liverpool on the expiry of her contract. She told journalists she had “left”. Labour spin doctor Patrick Hennessy also quit to run the campaign for the party’s London mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan.
Mr Corbyn was left exposed out on the Embankment.
For the first 100 hours of his time as Labour leader, the Islington MP’s media strategy was chaotic to non-existent. “It has been a complete mess,” said one lobby journalist.
Minutes after his monumental election success, Mr Corbyn had retired to an upstairs “prep room” at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London and the remnants of Labour’s media team advised him against immediate interviews. He then stepped into the corridor and was collared by Jon Snow, who captured his comments for Channel 4 News.
Jeremy Corbyn refusing to speak to Sky News, the footage of which went viral
Unlike most new leaders, he was given no honeymoon period by the press. From the start, the right-wing papers were vicious and personal. But even his allies would say that handing these papers easy victories by refusing to sing the national anthem could have been avoided.
Mr Corbyn knows that even if he does speak to certain titles, they will only be interested in publishing negative headlines. As Ed Miliband found, he was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. The Sun, which has this week condemned him as both a traitor to the Queen and a false republican, claimed he planned to “Abolish the Army”; the Mail and Telegraph said his victory would bring strike “chaos”. The Times door-stepped him and made snide references to his “Chairman Mao-style bicycle” and “squat” terrace house. It questioned the newsagent where he goes to buy the Morning Star and the i paper, revealing that he is not entirely disengaged from the media. Further left on the newsstand, he fared little better.
On Monday, both the Daily Mirror (which supported his leadership rival Andy Burnham) and The Guardian (which backed Yvette Cooper) relegated Mr Corbyn’s historic win to a secondary story behind the refugee crisis.
At The Guardian’s headquarters, many younger staff feel energised by his conviction politics, while most of the paper’s senior writers have concerns for the future of Labour. It has been the impact of readers, interacting with stories on Mr Corbyn’s behalf, which has persuaded the paper it must at least be seen to have given the new leader a fair hearing.
Even that has not been easy, given the gifts Mr Corbyn has offered his media opponents.
There is a mine of material in the left-winger’s political past that his media enemies will exploit. Teams of journalists are working through the archives. But Mr Corbyn has generated plenty of news lines for the Tory press this week – and some of it could have been avoided. If he had an experienced spin doctor in place, this aide could have been flooding all papers – friendly and not – with policy stories and “lines” on unfolding events.
Meanwhile the appointment of his friend John McDonnell as shadow Chancellor allowed the right-wing press to highlight past sympathies for the IRA.
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On Tuesday, Mr Corbyn attended the Battle of Britain memorial service. As those around him sang “God Save the Queen”, he again opted for silence. “Corb Snubs the Queen,” shouted The Sun, right-wing but read by many Labour voters. In Mr Corbyn’s defence, a Theresa May parody Twitter account cited the tabloid’s hypocrisy – its sister paper hacked Royal mobiles.
RAF veteran Harry Smith tweeted he was “more offended by politicians who sell guns to tyrants”. But the newspapers were more interested in Mr Corbyn having left the service with a veteran’s packed lunch and that he seemed to have his top button undone.
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When he made his first public speech as leader, to the Trades Union Congress, he wanted to take his usual amble down from Brighton station as if nothing had changed. Broadcasters were not given a time for his speech, hampering preparation of live feeds. One senior BBC News executive said: “You might ask, when they knew for two weeks they were going to win, why they had not got together their senior communications staff.”
Mr Corbyn’s first Prime Minister’s Questions provided the chance to be a man of the public, asking questions sent in by “Gail”, “Angela” and “Steve”. Former Labour PR Damian McBride told The Guardian that the approach had “steadied the ship”.
Online, the blog Left Foot Forward complained of The Sun’s depiction of Mr Corbyn as a court jester and asked supporters to crowd-fund its MediaWatch project aimed at “analysis that cuts through lies and spin”. An internet petition was launched in protest at the BBC’s description of Mr Corbyn as “left wing”, demanding that David Cameron be termed “the right-wing Prime Minister”. A Twitter hashtag, #saysomethingniceaboutcorbyn, was started.
The leader went back to Channel 4 News to tell Jon Snow: “Of course I love my country.” Dai Baker, a Channel 4 cameraman, tweeted that Mr Corbyn was the first political leader to make him a cup of tea. Mr Corbyn gave an interview to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and committed himself to the European Union.
John McDonnell apologised on BBC’s Question Time for his comments (BBC)
But more hostile media were looking elsewhere. After Mr Corbyn, a former Morning Star columnist, had reluctantly taken a chauffeur, his driver was involved in a melee that left a BBC cameraman on a stretcher. The incident, in which Mr Corbyn was blameless, encapsulated his media problems. Channel 4 News began receiving calls from news groups bidding for interviews after being given a wrong number. Meanwhile Labour’s PR team, coping with dissension among its MPs, spoke for the party, not the leader.
Their long-established contacts with the political lobby were no use to a new leader who was doing his own thing. No one was briefing for Jeremy. Every leader of every party has had a press secretary, director of communications or both to field calls and make sure their man or woman is seen in a good light. A profile interview piece would have been set up with a friendly newspaper. Incoming fire from The Sun and the Mail could have been deflected with robust lines.
The Independent’s Matthew Norman and The Guardian’s Tom Clark spelled out that he “badly” needed a spin doctor. “He desperately needs a younger, less psychotic Alastair Campbell,” said Norman. One of Clark’s online readers, YeOldPhart, protested that Mr Corbyn had his opponents “worried”. But Stephen Fleming, who compiles a press digest for Editorial Intelligence, said: “Many people had never heard of Jeremy Corbyn five weeks ago and mainstream voters will be reading commentary in the papers and making their minds up.” A poll for The Independent yesterday found that three out of four Labour voters do not believe he looks like a prime minister.
Mr Corbyn finally called in back-up on Thursday lunch-time. Kevin Slocombe, a former spokesman for the Communication Workers Union, took the “Alastair Campbell” role as head of communications. Neale Coleman, a left-wing Oxford classicist and former adviser to Boris Johnson, is director of policy and rebuttal. The well-intentioned but inexperienced Ms Nolan is back.
The impact was swift. Mr McDonnell went on the BBC’s Question Time to apologise for previous comments on the IRA. Mr Corbyn wrote a piece for the Financial Times on his economic policy.
The Daily Mail attacked Ed Miliband's father, calling him "the man who hated Britain" (Steve Anderson)
It was an acknowledgement that the media is a necessary vehicle if he is to retain credibility. Much as his supporters want him to embrace a politics where debate is conducted on the more open platforms of social media, Mr Corbyn is learning he will have to at least partly play by the rules if his reputation is not to be traduced.
For the man who spoke so vehemently about his distaste for the media, he seems to have accepted that politicians have to work alongside journalists or else their message is lost. After all, if he wants to win an election, he cannot just carry on holding public rallies across the country.
Will it end the animosity? Of course not. A “Reds in the bed” story of his historical affair with Labour colleague Diane Abbott has thrilled the right-wing press. The Sun was yesterday pointing to “a convicted arsonist and a football lout” on Mr Corbyn’s front bench.
A 66-year-old politician with an unwillingness to compromise and a lifetime of radical campaigning behind him can expect no let-up in media attacks. But at least he no longer thinks that silence is his best response.
