Quote:
Originally Posted by roughbeast
You are right, Corbyn had a long-held anti-EEC stance, mostly because he regarded it as a capitalist club,which it was. However, after Maastricht and the dawn of the EU, it became a different animal. Features, such as the Social Chapter, gradually morphed the EU into an increasingly socialistic enterprise with protection for worker rights, human rights and the environment.
When Corbyn saw that he could become leader of the Labour Party and thereby PM he developed a vision. His ambition was to become PM in an EU member state and to use that position to drive the reform of the EU from a socialist perspective. A first step would have been to create a socialist alliance of MEPs from all countries of the EU. This would have enough collective voting power to push through badly needed reforms, thus addressing Corbyn's criticisms of the EU. I know this because I took part in a discussion group led by him in 2014. He was passionate about this. It was natural that he would be in the Remain camp thereafter.
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All the above sounds entirely credible and I've no reason to disbelieve you. The issue I have is he just never seemed enthusiastic about the EU during the referendum campaign. That's why I saw him as being agnostic on the issue or potentially even a closet Leaver.