A still from the documentary Manifesto

FOR the many, not the few – lines written by the poet Percy Shelley in 1819, inspired by Ancient Greek historian Thucydides taking about the origins of democracy – and then adopted by the Labour Party under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The slogan remains a potent idea, the MP told an audience at the Dalston Rio cinema on Sunday, following a screening of Manifesto, a documentary that tells the story of the 2019 general election.

“There are several million people in this country who self-identify as Socialists,” he said.

The MP for Islington North was quizzed by a sell-out crowd, with questions ranging from his place in the Parliamentary Labour Party to the parts of the 2019 manifesto he believes were popular and should remain policy.

Joined by director Daniel Draper, whose film follows activists in Walton, Liverpool, this was a raw reminder of the election defeat – and opportunities missed to build a Britain for the many, not the few.

Corbyn called on the current leadership to recognise the power of the membership, and understand what inspired more than 500,000 people to join when he was at the helm. Calling for unity, he said: “You cannot make radical politics and socialist ideas a dirty word and expel people because they do not agree with someone else.

“There has to be a degree of understanding and a degree of tolerance. That is how the Labour Party was founded and they are the principles on which it has gone forward.”

Walton is the Labour Party’s safest seat and Manifesto offers a ground-up look at what the policies under a Corbyn-lead party meant.

And while the MP was diplomatic as ever in his language about the internal politicking between left and right party factions, he urged members not to be distracted and recognise a duty to the millions suffering under the current government.

“You don’t win by bureaucratic manoeuvres, you do it by going out and campaigning, mobilising, empowering. That is my kind of Socialism – where com­munities win together and the aggregation of those victories gives us the chance to form a government that can do the same on a grander scale.”

Whether he will be able to continue to promote his brand of international socialism from the back benches after the next election is not clear. But Corbyn – who had the party whip removed because of comments he made on the findings of a report into anti-Semitism in the party – told the audience that he planned to stand as a Labour candidate in the next election.

Jeremy Corbyn

“The way things stand at the moment is I am a member of the Labour Party,” he said. “I campaign and work for the Islington North Labour Party. I attend the meetings, I speak at them, I work with the branch and all it does.

“I believe the whip ought to be restored. I have been a member since 1966, I have been a Labour MP for 39 years, I think that should count for something.

“What happens next, I do not know.”

Since 2019 – now three prime ministers on – entrenched problems in the UK have become starker, he said. “Had we won in 2019 we would have faced the most horrendous opposition from the richest and most powerful people in the land.

“If we want to eliminate poverty, if we want to protect the environment, if we want to live in a world of peace, if we want to inspire, then we had to seek evidence-based answers and not be afraid to think in new ways to tackle established problems.

“We worked very hard preparing the manifesto, particularly the green industrial revolution. We had to produce a policy that protected and enhanced our environ­ment. It has to also be about changing attitudes and protecting jobs. You can’t blame a truck driver for driving a diesel truck, any more than you can blame someone working on an oil rig. You have to have a strategy that protects jobs and investment, and takes people with it. I was also very proud of the section on bringing the NHS into complete public ownership, and alongside it a national care service.”

The manifesto offered a cultural road map too, he added.

“Socialism isn’t grim – its bread and roses too,” he said. “I was proud we guaranteed music, art and theatrical education opportunities to every child in every school.

“The weakest areas of our education system are the teaching of history and the creative arts subjects. I do not see art and music as luxurious add-ons, they are something that helps a child develop their imagination and their scientific interest as well.”

He was able to laugh at some of the stranger excesses of the politics attacks he faced. Recal­ling a policy to offer free broadband across the country, he said he was surprised where the criticism came from.

“We prepared and costed it carefully. I thought criticism would come from British Telecom, who might not like being taken partly back into public ownership,” he said.

“Instead there was a line peddled about this being ‘broadband communism’ and it was evil. I did not get it. People were not going to get ripped off any more.”

Such crass kneejerk attacks were so frequent they eventually lost their original shock value.

When Corbyn uncovered Tory plans to let American health care providers make a profit from taking on NHS work, the validity of the allegations was ignored.

“We had documents on USA companies gaining access to our NHS,” he recalled. “What was the response? I was accused of spouting Russian propaganda. It was nothing to do with Russia, it was to do with the greed of these people who see money in the NHS do not care about service or care, and want to destroy the principle of health as a human right.”

The legacy of the manifesto is a blueprint of ideas that cannot be dismissed because of the election defeat, he said.

“The light of socialism has not disappeared,” he added. “I want us to always have a strong, creative, inclusive and respectful socialism, which that brings people closer and creates a country, as Shelley said, that is for the many, not the few.”