Jeremy Corbyn is appearing at a press conference with UB40 this morning, and it’s a fitting endorsement in more ways than one. The eighties reggae band are of course themselves famous for an acrimonious split. After years of costly legal wranglings and bitter battles in court, the two competing factions of UB40 continue to perform separately but under the same name. One UB40 splinter band now calls the other “Judas“, which is incidentally one of Labour general secretary Iain McNicol’s banned words for the leadership election. The Labour of Love…

The similarities don’t end there. While Corbyn motorcycled around communist East Germany, UB40 visited the Soviet Union, earning condemnation from the United States. The Labour leader shares their view of the monarchy – UB40 describe “Queen and country” as “propaganda, spin and lie”, while Jez is an avowed republican who won’t sing the national anthem. Food for thought. 

Who do UB40 hate more than anyone else? They say Tony Blair is “Uncle Sam’s poodle in need of a shrink”. Corbyn even agrees with UB40 when they say “ganja… every man got to legalise it”. Jez paraphrases: “it is now time to decriminalise possession and cultivation”. First-hand experience of splits, past flirtations with communism, costly legal battles and hatred of Blairites – UB40 are the perfect warm-up act…