How original was Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour conference speech?

Chunks of the Labour leader's speech came from passages offered by a speechwriter to Ed Miliband in 2011, and he also used a joke already told by a comedian.

By Anoosh Chakelian

Jeremy Corbyn has delivered his first party conference speech as Labour leader. But it already appears to be unravelling. Alex Massie over at the Spectator points out that a number of its sections seem identical to passages written by the author, professional speechwriter, and former political adviser to Denis Healey and Gerald Kaufman, Richard Heller, on his blog in August 2011.

Parts of Corbyn’s speech sound very similar to what Heller wrote in his blog, which is a series of passages he suggested were available to Ed Miliband – “speaking passages offered to Ed Miliband, without reply” – to use in his conference speech in 2011 (Miliband declined to do so). Heller later criticised the speech Miliband gave at the 2011 conference.

The Times‘ Sam Coates tweeted that Corbyn’s team initially denied Heller’s involvement:

Team Corbyn deny Richard Heller had anything to do with this speech. It was written by ppl who are “a lot cleverer” https://t.co/rZ7wFVZDDE

— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) September 29, 2015

But that story has changed, with Labour saying his remarks were used as a “template”:

So just to recap, Team Corbyn confirm they used Ed Miliband reject speech as template

— Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) September 29, 2015

Jeremy Corbyn’s team confirms some of his speech was written by the writer Richard Heller, who wrote v. similar speech for Miliband in 2011

— Matt Dathan (@matt_dathan) September 29, 2015

Heller himself has said that his passages were available to others, upon request. Corbyn’s team claim that he was “happy” for them to use his writing.

Corbyn spokesman: “Heller was approached because JC thought some of his material captured what he wanted to say and he gave permission”

— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) September 29, 2015

I have contacted Heller to ask if he expressly gave them permission to use the passages. It’s likely – he appears to be supportive of Corbyn, praising his authenticity in an opinion piece for the Yorkshire Post.

But that’s not the only thing. One of Corbyn’s jokes about his negative press coverage was one written by the leftwing comedian Mark Steel. Steel mocked the Times’ description of Corbyn’s bike as a “Chairman Mao-style bicycle – a less thorough reporter might only mention that he rides a bicycle” in an article for the Independent, and made the same joke on a recent episode of BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz. Corbyn used the same joke at the beginning of his speech. I have yet to confirm whether he asked Steel’s permission to use the joke.