With only a few weeks to go until election day, Labour’s campaign to boot out the Tories is gathering momentum and the gap in the polls is narrowing. Despite a concerted and co-ordinated effort by the Tories, the right-wing press, and the Blairites to discredit Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader and his campaign are cutting through the web of lies and slanders by appealing directly to workers and youth on the basis of mass rallies and a bold and radical programme.

The recent local elections provide important lessons for the labour movement as a whole. In many areas the Labour vote decreased and the party lost overall control over some of its core local authorities, such as Merthyr Tydfil, the home constituency of Keir Hardie, the first Labour MP in the House of Commons.