Aaron Bastani is getting a lot of airtime as the top Corbynista blogger from Novara, an eccentric far-left site which fangirls over Jezza. So who exactly is Corbyn’s greatest cheerleader? Guido can reveal that Bastani used to go by the name Aaron Peters. In 2009, an article appeared under his name in the UCL Conservative Society student newspaper, in which ‘Aaron Peters’ praised Iain Duncan Smith and Blairite James Purnell:

“While the two major parties may substantially disagree over a number of key issues Ian Duncan-Smith’s Centre for Social Justice’s recent report of Breakthrough Britain: Dynamic Benefits seems a continuation of the excellent ‘workfare’ policies of former Labour cabinet member James Purnell in his short time as head of the Department of Work and Pensions”

Bastani/Peters admits to Guido that he did agree to write an article for the Tory newspaper as a favour to a friend. However he insists the friend “modified” his words to add the bit about IDS and Purnell. He claims “I didn’t write” the words that appear under his byline. You can see why he’d want to distance himself – this would ruin his street cred with his Corbynista mates…