Labour's “Youthquake”: How Corbyn Defied His Critics

“Jeremy Corbyn advocates a gentler politics, but on election night his supporters were riotous,” said Gabriel Pogrund and Sanya Burgess in The Sunday Times.

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At one all-nighter at a bar in Islington, Corbynistas standing on tables jeered when Tory MPs appeared on TV. As for Nick Clegg’s shock defeat in Sheffield Hallam, that brought “mayhem”. This crowd hadn’t forgotten Clegg’s U-turn on tuition fees, and “his concession speech brought chanting, dancing”. Remember: this was not only Corbyn’s night, it was young Britain’s night, too. A record 1.05 million 18- to-24-year olds had registered to vote during the campaign. Pundits had predicted that, as with the EU referendum, many wouldn’t turn out – but this time, they weren’t going to let their voices go unheard. The young are thought to have been behind the huge swings to Labour – notably in cities with high concentrations of students, such as Warwick, Sheffield and even Canterbury, which has a Labour MP for the first time in 99 years.