An attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers is an attack on Jeremy Corbyn

Unite the Union disagrees with Paul Mason on Labour’s Brexit position.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 29: Demonstrators attend a pro Brexit rally in Parliament Square on March 29, 2019 in London, England. Pro-Brexit supporters including the March To Leave joined together to protest at the delay to Brexit on the very day the UK and Northern Ireland should have left the European Union. Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage addressed the crowd along with Members of the European Parliament and other high profile Brexiteers. At the same time MPs voted against the Prime Minister's Brexit deal for the third time. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

It is true, as Paul Mason argues, that one day the left will have to move on to Corbynism after Corbyn. In the meantime, however, he now advocates Corbyn without Corbynism – the man without most of the political platform with which he has revived Labour and energised British politics.

Mason presents this as an attack on advisers rather than the leader himself. This is the time-honoured cowardly circumlocution of those who fear to fight but still wish to wound. Politicians should answer for their policies and positions, not staff.