The conspiracy surrounding the “north London metropolitan liberal elite”
The Conservative party in government, hellbent on delivering a no-deal Brexit disguised with people versus parliament election campaign, has invaded the party and ended its moderate One Nation tone espoused by its predecessors. Boris Johnson has catapulted to the forefront of a nationalist and authoritarian-like government that is overseeing a trepidation of Brexit negotiations. Whilst they do this, they attach their opponents and the so-called “snowflake” liberal elite of being too exclusive to govern the UK and extract the country from its partnership with the EU.
This is how the term “north London metropolitan liberal elite” has been used to invoke hostility. A scapegoating campaign against the left with aim to stoke tensions in a class warfare that has entrenched itself in Britain’s prevailing culture war. The Labour party, helmed by a socialist radical left-wing leader in Jeremy Corbyn, has faced repeated rebukes from his Tory counterparts when sowing the discord in an antagonistic political climate. What right-wing punditry and hyperbolic commentators fail to understand is the sheer danger of tainting the left’s socialist leadership as one managed by a cabal of leaders from the corners of Islington in London.
This terminology raises fear and loathing towards a socialist campaign intent on emancipating the working-classes from the holds of excessive Tory-led austerity cuts. Although this regular adage is being batted about across all media outlets, its inception into the commentariat began with a by-election in 2014.
The election was triggered once the Rochester and Strood incumbent MP, Mark Reckless, defected from a Conservative platform to a UKIP one. The election and its result became a propaganda tank for far-right activists to siege a seat that is regularly seen as a working-class enclave. Soft left MPs, particularly Emily Thornberry, resigned from the Shadow Cabinet after her party’s mighty defeat to third place. She accused racial divisions and white-van man culture of weaponizing aggravated assaults against immigration at the behest of UKIP’s manifesto. Thornberry was immediately attacked by her political foes, who claimed who snootiness put the Labour’s traditional stance as proponents for the working-class in jeopardy.
The Labour party leadership in its current form took a hard-left term after Corbyn’s leadership victory in 2015. The most prominent members of his Shadow Cabinet; John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry and Corbyn himself, have retained seats in north east London. This has allowed him and his closest parliamentary colleagues’ promise to expand public service and the welfare state for the many to be overshadowed by direct attacks from middle-country right-wing zealots. The home secretary and MP for Whitham in Essex, Priti Patel, recently remarked that she “needs no lectures from the north London metropolitan liberal elite” when discussing “taking back control” of immigration policy. Meanwhile, former Labour prime minister and centrist voice in the party, Gordon Brown, was accused of being totally disengaged with voters after he accused a woman of being “bigoted” when discussing his proposals for immigration on the campaign trail in 2010.
A tough pill to swallow is that this recurring label, championed by conservative politicians and figures, is gaining traction amongst the electorate. Its tactic to completely the divide the Labour party between the masses and the ruling classes has denigrated a leftist agenda and propped up an illusory people-powered government under Johnson. Not only that, Tory politicians have used longstanding racial tensions to infiltrate their policies within target seats for the upcoming general election. Other organisations, such as the Jewish Labour movement, regard this conspiracy to be a race-based attack — due to a large Jewish demographic in north London- and a “worrying allusion to the sort of antisemitism where Jews are hinted at in coded metaphors”.
In the 2017 snap election, Corbyn’s Labour did considerably well against Theresa May’s “strong and stable” rhetoric, albeit what pollsters predicted. Nevertheless, Labour’s approval points with middle-class and educated votes spiked by ten points, whilst the Conservative party attracted working-class votes in leave-swaying constituencies by a surge in ten points. This does very little to alleviate the supposed optics surrounding Corbyn’s popularity amongst the more affluent compared to his traditional position with the under-class.
The blame for Corbyn’s trailing numbers in the polls and for Johnson’s successful dialogue towards being a “people’s” prime minister is entirely on the media. The red-top tabloids and Murdoch-funded broadsheets continue to lambast a leader of the opposition in a wag the dog manoeuvre to avoid scrutiny of the Tory party’s policies.
The “north London metropolitan liberal elite”, stirred and propagated by right-wing messengers, does not exist. The Conservative government frequently use identity politics with immigration and equality to attract the white working-class voter frustrated with the establishment in Westminster. To not be considered as so outlandishly racist by the many, Johnson appoints surrogates of his from a minority-ethnic background to prominent positions in Cabinet as a form of tokenism in his quest for votes and high ratings.
For Corbyn to retain the most ardent working-class constituencies long held by Labour, he must hold the mainstream media, the establishment and his Tory opponents to account. This will end the elitist stereotype that the Labour party has been incongruous with upholding. With just over a week to go before the election and Labour’s stronghold territory in the north under threat, Corbyn must reveal the media ruling class as one waging war on the many.
