Heads up - webchat with Jeremy Corbyn Monday 19th Sept @ 2pm.

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello,

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with the leader of the Labour Party (and candidate in the current leadership election) Jeremy Corbyn MP on Monday 19 September at 2pm.

Jeremy has been MP for Islington North since 1983, and before 2015 was best known as a rebellious backbencher and chair of the Stop the War coalition. His leadership of Labour over the past year has inspired enthusiastic support as well as attracting sustained criticism. Among other things, he’s taken a new crowd-sourced approach to Prime Minister’s Questions, opposed military intervention in Syria and proposed the renationalisation of the railways.

His last webchat on Mumsnet (alongside fellow leadership candidate in 2015, Liz Kendall) featured lively discussions about socialism, electability and the provenance of Jeremy’s vests (Holloway Road market, since you ask).

Please do join the chat on Monday at 2, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance. If you know people who you think would like to ask Jeremy a question, do please share the link around on social media too.

(If you’re interested in our webchat with the other Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith, take a look here .)

As always, please do keep in mind our webchat guidelines - one question each, follow-ups if there’s time and above all, keep it civil [taps nose like that geezer Shaw Taylor in Police 5] (Horribly showing my age there).

Come on: Stance on prostitution and I want to know how on earth you are going to reunite a party who seem to have no faith in you.

Hmmm...cherry picking the easy questions there Jeremy

The prostitution question was asked way before the biscuit question.

If people stopped moaning that their question hasn't been answered, which is actually against webchat guidelines, then the thread wouldn't fill up and we could actually read the responses.

@quail

(Sorry, AA. As I said, not sure of the convention, I'm not a frequent poster.)

I'd like to ask a question about immigration. I was an Ed Milliband fan but despaired over the way he still promoted misconceptions about immigration. It seems to be one the biggest obstacles to winning Labour voters, because so much is blamed on immigrants - lack of provision for schools, the NHS, social security & housing. Is JC at all optimistic about being able to change this narrative, and how?

Thanks for your question. Our society has benefitted enormously from migration, and given us health, transport and education services often reliant on migrant workers, or people that migrated to Britain fifty years ago, and during the EU referendum campaign, I made the point that most people were more likely to be treated by a health professional from Europe than be standing in the queue alongside someone from Europe. I do recognise that where there is a substantial influx of people into a community it has an impact on services, and therefore the government's abolition of the migrant impact fund has made it worse. I want communities to work together to improve local services and facilities.

I think I have changed the debate. The first thing I did after election as leader was to speak at a rally welcoming refugees as victims of war and oppression, and to counter the rise in abuse and hate crime, I have attended a number of events bringing all faiths and communities together.

Jeremy
Do you think your love of shortbread biscuits will now cause marginalisation and segregation of the much loved Jaffa?

What on earth? Talk about preaching to the converted with that last q/a!

If you manage to win the GE and be prime minister, will you abolish the disgusting bedroom tax policy? My neighbour has been trying to downsize since it was brought in and the smaller places are not available to move into..but she is being penialized anyway for something that is not her fault. When I moved into this property I was told the waiting list for a 1 bed was 2 years at least. We got a 3 bed as we have joint custody of DHs children. Smaller properties are even less common now than they were then (8 years ago) so how can people be 'charged' when there is nothing they can do to change their situation?

Its hard to type non answers when you can't find a seat on the train lol.

So the answer to that abuse question is - if my critics do it to me, that's bad and it's their fault.

If my supporters do it to my critics, then it's society's fault?

Have I got that right?

Hi Jeremy, I'm not a Labour member but would definitely be voting Labour if you remain leader of the party at the next election. I am so pleased at the route you are taking the Labour party down, a route that is true to its roots!

My question: Do you have any ideas about how police violence can be dealt with and how the system can be reformed to better hold police officers to account who have clearly acted far beyond using reasonable force? I ask this question in light of the news that the CPS are being asked to consider the prosecution of a number of officers implicated in the horrific injury of Julian Cole, who has been left in a vegetative state after the undue violence of his arrest. The IPCC themselves recommended that 4 of the officers involved be suspended from service and currently nobody has been held to account given that 1 of the 4 has retired already and the other 3 are still on active service! Is this an area that you are interested in tackling before any more people are left in the position of Julian Cole and his devastated family?

Hi Jeremy life long labour voter here. How do you plan on uniting the party once you are re-elected as leader?

Also - just a comment - I find the way you stick to your beliefs refreshing in this age of the headline grabbing, position changing politicos!

Good luck

I'd like to know how you will battle the main stream media to win an election. Many newspapers in this country are a disgrace and they need to be challenged. Will you you please be the one to challenge them hard and expose their irresponsible failings. I blame them for Brexit and I'm not happy about Brexit.

Would you be able to see the real hurt that your leadership is causing if I sent you a postcard about it?

You might have fans but the general public need an opposition not a leader.

'most people were more likely to be treated by a health professional from Europe than be standing in the queue alongside someone from Europe'

is that even true? the last i saw there were about 50k migrants working in the nhs in England out of about 1.2 m employees

Dear Jeremy, I really like the Welsh 'Wellbeing of Future Generations Act'.. Could we have something like this across the UK, to ensure government & public services do things sustainably?

Well, I'm relieved we know his views on biscuits.

I can't wait for Private Eye's column giving us his views on spoons next week.

This is painful.

You normally need to win power to have laws passed.

Hang on. How can a person be anti sugar when one of their hobbies in making JAM?!

@collieflourplease

Hi Jeremy

Sadly I won't be able to vote for you as I had my membership revoked in the latest purge.

This was for sending an "inappropriate" tweet on a date when I was not even in the UK (or with access to the internet). No evidence has been provided. I have appealed but won't get a vote in the Leadership contest. I have been a member of the LP for a number of years.

I do hope you win and stand behind you 100%. I know you cannot comment on what is currently taking place with the NEC and PLP - so I'll ask a different question!

Do you have a favourite book that you never tire of re-reading?

Really hard choice as I love books and reading. I've just re-read Things Fall Apart, but I think the prize has to go to Ulysses on the grounds that it's very hard to understand the first time and doesn't get much easier on the third or fourth reading of it. I first read it as my companion on a complicated series of trains travelling from London to Marrakech.

That biscuit answer will be a headline in the DM tomorrow.

@0phelia

Hi JC.

The biggest disappointment after your initial landslide win has been Tom Watson. I expected more support from him.

I suspect you and many of your colleagues have personal differences but your new brand of Labour has reached out to an unprecedented high volume of support simply never seen in politics. You cannot ignore the numbers in Labour membership increase, and how stadium sized venues are filling out to hear you speak. I understand why you cannot resign. You are committed to democracy and a very principled man. There is a clear undeniable left wing movement taking place across our country and it's all in your hands, Jeremy.

I am interested in an honest answer to the issue of mandatory reselection of MPs.

Will you be introducing this process?

(FWIW I believe this will be the only way to pull Labour back to the left and save our country).

New boundaries are likely to come in and therefore every constituency will have to have a selection for a new candidate. Sitting MPs with a substantial geographical claim will be automatically shortlisted, and a trigger ballot will be held to decide whether local members want to widen the choice or not. If they do, a full selection process will take place.

The party membership is now over half a million, and three hundred thousand people have joined in the past fifteen months.

srsly answer a question about women