At the General Election, support for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party shocked politicians and pundits alike. So what happened? In a series of interviews, we speak to the campaigners, mobilisers, concert organisers, educators and pundits changing the political landscape and energising a new generation of the left in Britain…
Owen Jones has been one of the most prominent left-wing voices in recent years, a near ubiquitous presence on TV, radio, in print and on social media. The 32-year-old has become one of the country’s most high-profile political thinkers – and, according to recent research, was the most influential individual on Twitter during the election campaign apart from Jeremy Corbyn himself.
Even Jones had a crisis of confidence in Corbyn, if not his policies, ahead of the election. So, once the snap election was called, what was his strategy? “I had campaigned for Jeremy to be leader the first time and voted for him twice. But I looked at the polling before and thought, blimey, we’re in a lot of trouble.
“I just decided to throw everything at it. We had nothing to lose. My own strategy had quite a few elements to it.
“I tried to up my social media game at this election. I was sceptical before, even though I use it a lot. But, without wishing to humblebrag, my Facebook reach exploded – from around 2 million to 10 million engagements, by sharing posts, articles, videos. I really tried to get younger people to register to vote.
Lots of activists had never knocked on doors before, some had never even voted
“One key strategy of mine was to try to get people to come and knock on doors in constituencies we needed to defend, but also places like Battersea and Croydon Central where we might have a chance to win. And we did. I worked closely with Momentum. They did a brilliant job. It was about co-ordinating with other people and using social media to get people to do face-to-face campaigning.