Why Jeremy Corbyn Is No Friend of the Poor

This article originally appeared in Lisa Muggeridge's blog, The Idge of Reason. Read the original article.

My name is Lisa, I am a qualified social worker, and for six years I watched the deliberate exploitation of inequality as a response to austerity. I lived with it while I raised my daughter under attack by the Tories. During this time I watched the Labour left you represent abusing people and demanding they didn't discuss political consensus while you manufactured a Labour focused anti-cuts movement. This particularly affected social work, vulnerable children, social care, and women like me. Single parents. My trade union said some cuts were OK as long as it was UNISON members hit repeatedly. I got a cast iron demonstration of how the working class were disenfranchized and I got it from the Labour left. Our trade unions were loyal to you but not us. You wanted us as objects in your identity and there was no opposition to austerity.

You are the protective seal around neo liberalism. I know that the Labour Party are looking to understand inequality, and I am at LSE's new Inequality Institute. I know that the problem we have goes much deeper than Labour policy. The economic advisor Thomas Piketty, who resigned from your economic advisory panel today, is an early challenger to synthetic inequality modeling and we are long way from understanding and addressing this crisis. But thanks to the Labour left I got a demonstration of how the working class have been disenfranchized over six years. I will always be grateful for this demonstration and will be using it as a chapter in my Phd.

In the period where I was living with austerity I got a demonstration of what the country is seeing now. Your rent-a-mob elite white male left, who are abusive to women, abuse people online and do everything they can to defend you, used to do so to protect your ability to whitewash consensus on austerity for Labour.

On Thursday night while you were asleep I, like many people, was left stunned as Britain voted to leave the EU. Even though I knew this was a catastrophe and is, I understood the punch that had been thrown and it was thrilling. But it is still a catastrophe. The economic and political consequences of that moment have already resulted in the disintegration of our political system, our finance system may never recover and the people who will pay for this are people like me. Not you. The people I know. The people you already disenfranchized to have your Labour-focused anti-cuts movement that didn't actually discuss austerity. My friend lives round the corner from a shop that was firebombed, I have other friends suffering racist abuse. I watched as Nigel Farage attempted to throw away all our negotiating cards at the EU parliament and read the world's shock at the political vacuum that has opened. For you it was like Christmas had come early.

You only had one job when you woke up (finally) on Friday morning. Your job was Leader of the Opposition. Your friend John McDonnell is the shadow chancellor; these are important jobs. We needed three things this week. 1. A government. 2. An opposition. 3. A plan.

Your views on Europe made your position untenable. This wasn't a big deal. This happens. You should have resigned. The world needed Labour to send out politicians with platitudes about calm and unity, but you saw an opportunity. You and John McDonnell decided to attempt to take over the Labour Party and shut down democracy. The same rent-a-mob of elite white activists, who prevented discussion of austerity at the same time equality was rolled back for working class women, decided this was your moment. On the eve of the most important day in British history, our shadow chancellor invited ten thousand people to the lawn of Parliament Green. You deliberately generated a visible crisis the night before the most important day in years. You did so knowing the world was watching to see if we had the political stability to get through this crisis. You knew the impact of this. So did I. You decided to hold the country hostage and tear apart your party because this was your moment. This is not your moment.

Like many women I have spent days being abused by your followers. This is not new to me. Nothing more threatening to the elite white left than a clever working class woman who understands their place in things. I have spent today trying to patiently explain to your followers that when you demand your rent-a-mob takes precedence over parliamentary democracy, it is dangerous. They explained to me why your coup was necessary, why it was that your democratic mandate meant they had the right. They didn't know they don't.

They didn't know you can only get a democratic mandate in one place. From a voting booth. They didn't know that in a democracy the only way to get a democratic mandate is in an election regulated by the Electoral Commission. They thought you could get democratic mandate to rule parliament through an internal labour leadership election by paying three quid. They were disgusted when I said you couldn't. I gave many of them the KS2 educational resources my daughter uses, so they could learn the basics about democracy.

You have deliberately created a political vacuum. You have done this at a time when fascism is a threat and the country is in crisis. While race hate crime is on the rise. You held my country hostage at a time when we needed you to project the image of political stability and you have done so for your own gain. It will be me scrimping on food next year, not you. I already had malnutrition once while your culture denied me the ability to discuss austerity.

I have some news for you Mr Corbyn. You can't discuss the relationship between our social policy and economics and inequality faultlines through an elite white male left, selling fairy tales of the default white working class men. You can't be the mediators for that discussion. You have no purpose. You have exploited austerity, deliberately created a political vacuum and are attempting to replace parliamentary democracy with party buraucracy at a time when democracy has never been more needed.

A week ago you were a weak leader who needed to resign, and a relic of a culture who have no purpose. Now you are a despot holding a country to ransom and it is the poor you wear as a badge for your political identity who pay for this. It is my friends who pay for this, the people I know. The same way they paid so you could have an anti-cuts movement that supported Labour and didn't discuss austerity. I know from discussions with people within the Labour Party, including the economist who just refused to work with you, and the evil Blairites you treat as bogeymen, that the Labour Party are trying to figure out inequality. I know from the Inequalities Institute that they are not the only ones.

The question now Mr Corbyn is, if not you then who? You have deliberately and recklessly endangered the economy. You have deliberately and recklessly threatened to tear apart our main opposition party and to leave us exposed to fascism. You have deliberately attempted to undermine democracy with your rent-a-mob. The question is now what Labour will do when you are gone. How will they demonstrate they have completely rooted you out, your culture and the rent-a-mob you call your mandate? A union-funded private mob who exist only for your needs. Stop exploiting people like me, Mr Corbyn.

There is a part of me that is glad you are demonstrating what I have known about the Labour left for a long time. The British public will never forget your attack on democracy at this time of crisis. You may be able to whip up internet mobs but we will never vote for you and you will be remembered as the man at the center of the personality cult that tried to take the country hostage.

You have shown yourself to be unfit for any public office and the same goes for John McDonnell and Diane Abott. I am not writing this letter to tell you to resign, which you will eventually do, but to tell you the poor do not need men like you exploiting us. And to put on record that it is your culture who ensured that last week people felt so disenfranchized they voted to leave the European Union. And it is us who will pay for your disgusting behavior this week.

Lisa Muggeridge is an independent blogger. Follow her on Twitter @LisaMuggeridge1