When Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader spoke at events seven years ago, crowds blocked roads and scaled street furniture to catch sight of him. Chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn!” boomed around stadiums and music festivals, and the bearded politician took on the aura of a rock star. But the lead-up to the 2024 general election has been a significantly more muted episode. At a time when Tory voters appear to have deserted their party and the political battleground is closer to the centre-right, previous Corbyn supporters have been left politically adrift, feeling sidelined and ignored by the major parties. For those swept up in the movement, 2017 was a time brimming with optimism and possibility, pushing back against the misery of a Tory government and a brutal regime of austerity that was driving millions into poverty.
“It felt like this amazing euphoria of suddenly the whole country had started to back Corbynism,” said Gerard Corvin, who began canvassing for the party that year. “It was fun to be knocking on doors for the first time. I remember going out several times in constituencies near me, which were tight, and it felt like I was winning people around. And that was really, really inspiring.” Alexander Hulme, an actor, first got involved with Labour in 2017 when he went to canvassing groups organised by Momentum. Later, in the run-up to the 2019 election, he was hired for viral videos, first by Momentum and then by the party. Characters he played included an underpaid and overworked firefighter, a tech billionaire rubbing taxpayers’ money all over his face, a naked footballer, and Batman (whose wealth was held in an offshore tax haven), in videos that garnered tens of millions of views. “I was just over the moon to be able to help by doing something that was fun,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a waste of time,” Hulme said, reflecting on how the videos ultimately were not part of a winning campaign. “I was trying to get a decent Labour party elected. It didn’t happen, and that was very sad. And then I sort of tuned out a bit afterwards.”
He was not the only one. At the peak in 2017, the Labour party had 564,443 members, making it the largest political party in western Europe. As of March this year, Labour’s membership had plummeted to 366,604. Joseph-Dodo Levin is another one of those who eventually left the party. He had joined after spending years frustrated by the Conservatives’ claim that austerity was necessary to fix the broken economy. “Jeremy Corbyn was the strongest and first politician to come along to really challenge that narrative. And I still think that’s the correct analysis,” he said. “It was very special, that little window of hope.” But it was a difficult time, he said, especially as someone from a Jewish family feeling that the media were only interested in the Jewish voices who attacked Corbyn, and not those who defended him. “During that period, I think 2018, I cried a lot. I felt quite shaken by it. I felt like I turned on the TV and I was being attacked. It was a really emotional time for me,” he said.
In 2024, his main issue is the “guilt by association” levelled at more leftwing party members such as the former Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll and the Chingford and Woodford Green candidate Faiza Shaheen, whom Levin had campaigned for, who were blocked from standing for the party. He said he was trying to encourage others on the left to put their unspent energy into improving electoral systems so people could vote with their conscience. “I think that across society people are demoralised. They’ve lost trust in politics and lost faith in electoral politics,” Levin said. First past the post was the biggest problem in this election for most former Labour supporters the Guardian spoke to. Many voiced frustration at feeling a need to support a party they felt had betrayed them, in order to keep the Conservatives out of government – something they said Corbyn’s critics had refused to do in 2017 and 2019. “Those supposedly on the left who are suddenly decrying the Tories in 2024 but basically previously campaigned against Labour – I just despair,” said Aimee, 33. This election she would “be the bigger person” and vote tactically, she said. “I am voting Labour this time but only because I feel so anxious about being trapped in another Tory government. I know people say it can’t happen, I know, I know, but they said Brexit wouldn’t happen and look at the mess we’re in now.” Hulme’s stint as Batman led to him starting a superhero company with some friends and he has been out in Islington, where he lives, dressed as Spider-Man in support of Corbyn’s campaign as an independent, after the former leader was ousted from the party. He said: “My involvement with Labour started and ended with Corbyn, really. Luckily I live in his constituency, so who I’m going to vote for is an easy decision.” For many, the fact that Labour is predicted to claim a landslide victory will allow them to vote for another party that more closely aligns with their beliefs – with the Green party likely to pick up a large proportion of these votes, based on the leanings of those who spoke to the Guardian. Corvin is one of those who will vote Green on Thursday. He said: “I’m not wanting to sound like I’m just undermining all of the enthusiasm I had for political change then, but I do look back on that period and think that was an unhealthy amount of energy and emotion to place in the fortunes of one political party or one politician in just a small, relatively insignificant country. “There’s so much more happening in the world and [not being a Labour member] doesn’t stop you from engaging in protest and caring about the environment and caring about what’s happening in Gaza. And there are other ways of expressing that than just via the fortunes of a political party.”