Labour’s stunning loss to the Tories in the Copeland by-election, a seat that Labour has held continuously for some 80 years, isn't shaking Corbyn's confidence in his own leadership:
Mr Corbyn said while it was "a day of disappointment in Copeland" he would not be quitting as Labour leader. Asked if he would fall on his sword following the defeat, he said: "No. I was elected leader of this party - I'm proud to lead this party."
Proud indeed. Latest poll numbers indicate Labour’s support is at a historic low, losing to the Conservatives 24% to 40%. The party has been bogged down in infighting, leaks, and internal division. Corbyn hasn't gained any kind of personal traction with the public either. His personal favorability ratings have never been good, they started off bad, got worse, ticked up a bit and have since remained flatly terrible:
YouGov’s latest favourable ratings follows the pattern from the end of November where Mrs May is the only politician with a net positive rating, her lead over Mr Corbyn has widened from 40% at the end of November to 46% now, mostly because Mr Corbyn’s ratings have moved from minus 35% to minus 40%, for this Labour leader it appears things can’t get only better for him and his party. The only positive Labour and Team Corbyn can glean is that Mrs May is down from her honeymoon high of 12% net favourability rating last Autumn.
My mouth was left wide open, but actually only two other people in Britain are less popular than Corbyn: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Let that sink in.
Shockingly, he reversed himself from his lukewarm pro-Europe position to becoming a Brexiteer, which gained him nothing but resignations from his own front bench.
If there was any good news yesterday for Corbyn it was holding on the seat in Stoke despite the challenge from UKIP. Still, even there Labour’s percentage of the vote dropped two points from the last election.
One has to now wonder what exactly is Corbyn actually trying to accomplish as Leader. If its leading Labour back into government he is clearly not equipped to do that. Perhaps his goal is to shape Labour into a small but radical leftist party and then wait patiently for a Tory stumble. Which could, in fact, work out pretty well if given enough time. The question is will Labour’s union leaders remain convinced that they have to wait with him? They could always wait with someone else.