Seumas Milne’s appointment as Labour’s new head of communications and director of strategy has generally been met with his dismay in the party — but it does tell us something about Jeremy Corbyn: compromise is not a phrase in the Corbynite dictionary. John McDonnell’s appointment as shadow chancellor was the first hint that beneath Corbyn’s cuddly beard lies a tough ideologue. Milne’s appointment adds credence to that notion. One former Labour staffer describes Milne’s appointment as the ‘icing on the cake’:
‘This is who Jeremy and John wanted from the start. This is who they really are. This is what their politics is about.’
John McTernan, Tony Blair’s political secretary and a former adviser to Jim Murphy takes a slightly different view that Milne is actually the perfect man for the job, noting that the ‘fascination with staffers is one of the least edifying and most unproductive facets of modern politics’:
‘Seumas Milne is the right person for Jeremy Corbyn to have as a Director of Strategy and Communications.
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