Exclusive: ‘unspun’ Jeremy Corbyn used an old speech rejected by Miliband

On its own terms, I imagine Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the Labour conference can be considered tolerably acceptable. Much of it, after all, consisted of time-served bromides with which almost no-one could reasonably disagree. It was a Marx and apple-pie speech that omitted most of Marx. And who dislikes pie? Nevertheless, what was new was not good and what was good was not new. Much of it, actually, was not new at all. I can disclose that a significant chunk of Corbyn’s speech was, in its essentials, written many years ago. Not by Corbyn, of course, but by the writer Richard Heller. Mr Heller (with whom I should say I have played cricket in the past) has been offering his speech to various Labour leaders since the days of Neil Kinnock. Four years ago, he offered Ed Miliband this unsolicited advice. As best I can tell, Miliband ignored him – as previous Labour leaders had.