Today the Financial Times published a visual survey of figures around Jeremy Corbyn, Opposition leader and head of the British Labour Party. The story can be found here: https://ig.ft.com/jeremy-corbyn-labour-inner-circles/. I feature in it. There is one minor error: I did not ‘step away’ from advising the Corbyn team after the European Referendum of 2016. The other economists on the advisory board stepped away…. I was the only one to remain. The following are extracts from the story.
Jeremy Corbyn is an atypical leader of the Labour party; one with almost total factional control of Britain’s opposition. To achieve this, the 70-year-old is surrounded by a tight cabal of influencers who shape both his politics and policies and are seen by many as the real people running Labour.
Many operate in the shadows; some hold elected offices, some are in parliament, and some wield power through informal networks. But nearly all of these individuals come from interconnected leftwing factions that were dismissed until Mr Corbyn became leader in 2015. They have campaigned, organised and socialised together from the sidelines for decades, having long ago given up on the idea of power.
As the prospect of government has never been closer, we reveal the power behind Mr Corbyn’s throne: those who have the leader’s ear at all times, those who are influential but not fully trusted, and those who nominally have a key role but whose influence is inconsistent.
This is Mr Corbyn’s new establishment, perhaps soon to become Britain’s new establishment.
The figures around Corbyn
mid:key figures in the Corbyn project who occasionally find themselves out of favour
Ms Pettifor is director of PRIME (Policy Research In Macroeconomics), a network of Keynesian economists. She is also a fellow of the New Economics Foundation and an honorary research fellow at City, University of London and made her name predicting the financial crash. She has advised governments on sovereign debt restructuring, helped drive the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign and advocates a “Green New Deal” to shift the world away from fossil fuels. She serves on John McDonnell’s economic advisory committee only to step aside after the EU referendum, but has recently resumed advising the shadow chancellor
Policy makers
A small number of influential academics and think-tank members who formulate the basis of Mr Corbyn’s economic and social policy agenda.
