On jeremy corbyn, jo swinson has got it absolutely right | thearticle

New Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has been on the receiving end of a lot of anger today. She declared that she will not work with Jeremy Corbyn to make him a ‘caretaker Prime Minister’ leading

some kind of Government of National Unity. The Labour leader had written to her and other opposition politicians saying he will table a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s government

“at the earliest opportunity at which we can be confident of success”. He said he would then aim to have the confidence of the House and sit as Prime Minister “for a strictly time-limited

government” during which he would call a general election. Answering questions this morning, Swinson rightly pointed out that it was highly unlikely Corbyn could command the confidence of

the House and that his plan would work. But she and her Lib Dems colleagues are absolutely right to reject this overture from Corbyn for another reason: he is an anti-Semite. He’s allowed

anti-Semitism to fester and grow in his party, a party that, shockingly, is currently being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The idea of Corbyn becoming Prime

Minister for even an hour is terrifying to the UK Jewish community. His presence at the top would validate abuse against us. What’s more, as Daniel Johnson pointed out this morning, there is

no guarantee that once Corbyn was installed as Prime Minister he would have to call an election. Even if he did, he would without doubt have an advantage as the incumbent. His time in

Number 10 might not be so limited after all. It is easy to present Swinson’s approach as pure party politics, but actually this is a moral issue. The Lib Dems can’t facilitate bringing into

power someone who strikes such fear into the heart of a minority community, and for legitimate reasons. (For the record, I will have very little patience for any quips about the Lib Dems

working with David Cameron and George Osborne. Whatever you think about the politics and policies pursued by the Coalition, directly comparing the two situations would be, frankly,

ridiculous and contemptible.) On the issue of Brexit itself, which Corbyn claims he would be selflessly solving by installing himself in Downing Street, the Labour leader is basically a

Leaver. At every stage his support for Remain, and subsequently for stopping Brexit, has been lukewarm – at best. Why on Earth would the Lib Dems work with someone like that? Corbyn’s plot

is little more than a Trojan Horse. A desperate attempt cooked up by his far-left allies to use the circumstance of chaos which he has happily helped create to get into power. A lot of the

criticism directed at Swinson is misunderstanding, wilfully or otherwise, that the Lib Dems have said they won’t work with Corbyn, nor Labour as a whole. The problem, for them, is the

Leader, and the far-left infrastructure around him, not the moderate part of Labour. Indeed, Swinson clearly is working with the party’s Deputy Leader, Tom Watson. The two have spoken about

their desire to stop a no-deal Brexit, and appeared on the same Remain platforms. None of this should come as a surprise, either. In an interview for the House Magazine, Swinson told me she

would not work with Corbyn. She described him as a Brexiteer “harking back to the 1970s” and complained that he “plans for the economy as if nationalisation is the answer to everything,

which it is not”. Not a lot of wriggle room there. As I said earlier this week, a Government of National Unity is not a bad idea in and of itself. It might be the only solution. However,

unity is the crucial word. Such a government needs a unifying figure to lead it. Jo Swinson is absolutely right to say that Jeremy Corbyn is not that person.