Winning ugly: the art of Jeremy Corbyn's shambolic shuffle

The Labour leader’s long-winded and limited shakeup left him looking like a total loser. The look was deceptive

A veteran leftwinger such as Jeremy Corbyn is unlikely to have fond memories of the late Sir Robert Mark, who was London’s hard-as-nails reforming police chief in the street-fighting 1970s of Corbyn’s hot youth. The current Labour leader has always been more of a Marxist than a Markist.

But perhaps Corbyn should look again at Mark. That’s because the former Met commissioner once told an interviewer that the art of policing was “to win while appearing to lose”. Which is pretty much exactly what Corbyn has done in his shadow cabinet reshuffle.

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