Why did Glastonbury only pull controversial Corbyn film after backlash?

What a turn of events. Yesterday morning LabourList published a review of Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, including a call by author Paul Mason for the Glastonbury Festival not to screen the controversial film this week. Within 24 hours, it had been cancelled. The festival told us it had “become clear that it is not appropriate to screen”, as Glastonbury is about “unity and not division”.

What is not clear is why Glastonbury did not take this stance in the first place. Many venues had already previously been “reluctant to show the film”, according to producers, the TUC had banned it from a festival and the Campaign Against Antisemitism had warned it would “alienate Jewish ticket-holders” – organisers at Glastonbury of all places can hardly argue they lacked the knowledge or resources to know what they were dealing with. Instead, their cinema team initially appeared to revel in the controversy, their website reportedly noting this “might even be a rare opportunity to watch…’the banned Corbyn documentary'”.

All that changed on Monday was the issue being picked up more widely in the media and the scale of the backlash, with the Board of Deputies of British Jewswriting to organisers highlighting Mason’s review and their “deep concern” at a film portraying them as having helped to “orchestrate” Corbyn’s downfall. Mason had argued the film’s presentation and conflation of Jews, Jewish groups, Zionists and Israel as part of a co-ordinated force which brought down Corbyn “appears to match” examples included in the IHRA definition of antisemitism – such as the “myth about a world Jewish conspiracy”. Security minister Tom Tugenhadt spoke out too, saying it was “not often I find myself agreeing” with Mason.

You could be forgiven for hoping the left could unite in condemnation in response, whatever one’s views on the Corbyn project. Corbyn himself did not tweet about it yesterday (and did not appear in the film). But the level of bile and denial directed online yesterday at Mason – a one-time Corbyn ally, rather than a right-wing critic – signals once again how far there is to go in rooting out antisemitism on the left. LabourList has approached the filmmakers for comment. Dorset Eye quotes film producer Norman Thomas calling allegations of antisemitism “without any foundation… a total lie” and noting some interviewees were Jewish. He also claimed the film’s withdrawal amounted to “rank censorship”..

Elsewhere, Labour will be hoping to keep at least some attention not just oncannily exposing Tory divisions over Boris Johnson last night, but also their green mission – after Keir Starmer’s speech yesterday fleshed out plans for a publicly-owned, Scotland-based Great British Energy firm. If you missed it, read it in full here, read Starmer’s pointed warning about the “consequences” of Labour’s fiscal rules here and read the LabourList team’s seven key takeaways here about Labour’s current priorities, tactics and worries from the event. Starmer focused as much on cutting bills and creating jobs as saving the planet, perhaps taking a leaf out of former leader Harold Wilson’s book.

As Baroness Hayter argues for LabourList in a piece on the lessons of Wilson for Labour ahead of an event on the theme tonight, the ex-Prime Minister knew he’d convince voters more talking about “jobs, pay, prices” than “environmentalism”. You can read reaction to Starmer’s green plans too from the IPPR think tank here, Unite here, green industries here and, if you’re curious, the SNP here and theTelegraph here.

Labour faces more critical questions instead though on whether it would actually do anything to fix the big issue in the spotlight this week as inflation figures and an interest rate rise loom – rising prices, rents and mortgages. Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray told sceptical Sky News presenter Jayne Secker this morning Labour wouldn’t have crashed the economy in the first place and would “work with” mortgage providers and regulators to find a way through – two good points, but not enough to have many politically undecided homeowners chanting ‘Oh, Ian Murray’ all the way to the polling station next year.