Jeremy Corbyn is a 'disaster', says Stephen Hawking

Labour leader: Corbyn accused of 'clinging to past' on Clause IV

10 August

Jeremy Corbyn's rivals have jumped on his apparent suggestion that Labour should reinstate Clause IV, the party's historic commitment to the public ownership of industry, abandoned by Tony Blair in 1995.

Team Corbyn has since tried to clarify his remarks, made in an interview with the Independent on Sunday. A spokesman said Corbyn he was not advocating a return to Clause IV but was seeking to "open a discussion" about public ownership.

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But just the whiff of the old Clause IV and what it represented was enough to get Corbyn's leadership rivals accusing him of "clinging to the past" and "turning back the clock".

Corbyn's opponents were also able to point to a Sunday Telegraph report claiming that five top Labour donors will stop funding the party if the "economically illiterate" Islington North MP becomes leader next month.

What was Clause IV?

Clause Four of Labour's 1918 constitution stated that the party was committed to "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange".

In April 1995, less than a year after being elected Labour leader, Tony Blair persuaded a special conference to scrap the clause and replace it with a new one committing the party to a "dynamic economy, serving the public interest" with "a thriving private sector and high quality public services".

As for public ownership, the party would now advocate a system "where those undertakings essential to the common good are either owned by the public or accountable to them".

Blair himself called it a "defining moment in the history of my party". As the Daily Mail reports, it helped "convince voters that the party could be trusted again in government after the wilderness years of the 1980s"

So, what did Corbyn actually say?

Asked by Jane Merrick of the Independent whether he wanted to restore Clause IV, Corbyn said: "I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that's restoring the Clause IV as it was originally written or it's a different one, but I think we shouldn't shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways.

"I'm interested in the idea that we have a more inclusive, clearer set of objectives. I would want us to have a set of objectives which does include public ownership of some necessary things such as rail."

The Independent on Sunday interpreted the comments like this: "Corbyn reveals that he wants to reinstate Clause IV."

How his rivals responded

Yvette Cooper: "Labour needs radical ideas for the future, not to turn the clock back. We've always been a progressive party that's embraced the future – this is not the time to be reactionary and cling to the past."

Liz Kendall: "This shows there is nothing new about Jeremy Corbyn's politics. It is just Bennism reheated, a throwback to the past, not the change we need for our party or our country… We are a party of the future, not a preservation society."

Corbyn's clarification

A spokesman says Corbyn was not advocating a return to Clause IV but that he would seek to open up a discussion about "public ownership objectives for the 21st century" – including the railways – if he won the leadership election.

"Jeremy is not saying he wants to return to Clause IV, nor does he want a big 'moment' such as that," the spokesman added.

Labour donors' protest

The Sunday Telegraph claims it has spoken to five of the party's biggest individual donors, all of whom have pledged to stop funding Labour if Corbyn wins the leadership election. "It could leave the party almost entirely dependent on trade union funding," the paper warns.

Multi-millionaire Assem Allam said: "I never back a dead horse". Richard Brindle, who gave £100,000 when Ed Miliband was leader, said he would withdraw because of Corbyn's "economically illiterate" policies.

An anonymous donor said a Corbyn victory would be electoral "suicide" and leave Labour in opposition for 20 years.

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The Financial Times quotes an interview Corbyn gave to the charity Greenpeace, in which he said he wished "that the big six were under public control, or public ownership in some form".

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