The #ToriesforCorbyn campaign, spearheaded by the ever-charming, breast-ogling Toby Young, is urging Conservatives to join the Labour Party and vote for Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn, these ardent Tory tweeters believe, will offer such an outlandish vision for the future of Britain that the Labour Party will inexorably receive a well-deserved thumping in the 2020 general election. They are so certain that the electorate will admonish Corbyn's 'radical' policies, in fact, that some even predict the total destruction of the Labour Party and the emergence of the final stage in Britain's political teleology: complete Tory dominance.
The #ToriesforCorbyn campaign, however, has a slight problem: the electorate widely support Corbyn's purportedly outlandish policies. Corbyn's anti-trident, anti-austerity and small-scale nationalisation agenda might seem unpalatable to Fleet Street commentators, but the polls suggest otherwise.
According to a survey conducted by the Mail on Sunday, 63% of Britons support scrapping Trident to reduce the deficit. A recent YouGov poll suggests that 66% of Britons support renationalisation of the railways. Indeed, the same poll indicates that 68% of Britons want to go further and bring energy companies back into public control. Furthermore, according to a Populus Poll, only 41% of Britons support further austerity and several polls - including surveys published by the Mail on Sunday and the Guardian - show broad support for raising the 45p rate of income tax for higher earners.
Therefore, according to the polls, there is an appetite in Britain for a left-wing alternative. This alternative will only be electable, of course, if the argument is properly contextualised. Corbyn, as his performance on the Newsnight leadership debate demonstrated, can provide such a context. He is passionate, emotionally driven and committed to debunking Tory myths - he is, in this sense, the antithesis of a robotic Miliband that remained faithful to the Conservative narrative.
So, can Corbyn realistically win the Labour Party leadership contest? The current election process for the Labour leadership is a simple 'one member, one vote' formula. Plenty of disillusioned lefties - such as myself - have recently joined the Labour Party to vote for Corbyn. He will garner support from pro-nationalisation and anti-war factions. The grassroots of the Labour Party have already pledged their allegiance to Corbyn and trade unions are slowly offering support. This, however, may not be enough. Corbyn might just require a final push. What the Corbyn campaign might just need, perhaps, is a bunch of self-assured Tories.
The #ToriesforCorbyn campaign is widespread. The Telegraph published an article that called for Conservatives to join the Labour Party. The Sun columnist Louise Mensch even placed what is colloquially known as a Twibbon - which I'm assuming is a portmanteau of Twitter and ribbon - below her profile picture as an act of anti-Labour solidarity. The #ToriesforCorbyn hashtag was trending for a short period, leading to several ironic screenshots of Conservatives 'sabotaging' the Labour Party for the good of the cause. Guido Fawkes crushed the numbers, claiming that 80,000 Tories would have to sign up - Fawkes even called on Lynton Crosby to fund the campaign.
There is no way of knowing how many Conservatives, or indeed actual Labour supporters, will vote for Corbyn. What is obvious, however, is that the general antipathy toward left-wing alternatives, as demonstrated by #ToriesforCorbyn, underestimates the appetite of the electorate. The public overwhelmingly support scrapping trident, avoiding further austerity and embracing small-scale nationalisation - policies that Corbyn, and no other Labour candidate, has placed at the forefront of his campaign.
Corbyn has been portrayed as simply a welcome addition to the leadership debate, with little acknowledgement that he might actually win. However, Corbyn's support from earnest lefties and right-wing saboteurs is increasing every day. If Corbyn wins the Labour leadership and manages to provide a coherent left-wing alternative that adheres to public opinion on the aforementioned issues, it is not unthinkable to imagine him as Prime Minister. And how delightful it would be to witness the emergence of the most left-wing government since James Callaghan because a bunch of self-assured Tories accidentally misjudged the appetite of the electorate.