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Covid-19 is a “psychological operation to close down the economy in the interest of mega corporations.” That is according to the conspiracist, climate change denier and anti-vaccine

activist, Piers Corbyn, and it’s a view he put recently in an interview when he appeared on the Good Morning Britain show. Dr Hilary Jones, who was also taking part in the interview, was

appalled. “All of the statements you have made there are dangerous,” said Jones, “and I don’t know where you get your rubbish fake news from. You are dangerous and you shouldn’t be on air.”

Corbyn wrapped up his interview with the remark that his brother, Jeremy Corbyn, shared many of his views. Piers Corbyn is the first person to receive a fine of £10,000 for organising a

protest, in this case against lockdown. He believes that Covid-19 is a fabricated conspiracy that is destroying the lives of the ordinary working man. If you strip away the specifics of what

he says and instead look purely at his political thinking and world view, you see just how closely his views resemble those of his brother. Both brothers hold an anti-imperialistic, heavily

socialist ideology. They find themselves repeatedly positioned against the government and more broadly against the entire Western capitalist world. Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-imperialist ideology

has seen him align with brutal dictatorships. He has laid a wreath on the grave of terrorists and the leader of the Labour party he remained uncritical of the Venezuelan regime and of

Putin’s actions on UK soil and in Ukraine. When it came to the more recent rising tensions between Iran and the US, we knew where Corbyn would stand. For those working in counter-extremism

in the UK, the rise of Corbyn was a troubling time. His affiliation with Islamism and anti-Semitism made him a rich fertiliser for extremist views. Far left views became increasingly

mainstream, especially those that portrayed the West and Israel as evil and Israel. This was an outlook shared by Islamists, anti-Semites, Assadists and terrorists. For those on the left, we

felt the Labour party that once stood for equality and human rights had become so marred by a Marxist agenda that human rights and equality were no longer something it prioritised. As such,

Labour was no longer the home of the broad left. This coincided with a growth in populist and nationalist right wing sentiment among the political elite — having the opposition become a

laughing stock meant no respectable opposition at all. Corbyn as PM could have been a disaster to national security and international relations. It could have seen us pull away from our

allies and trade partners, while radically weakening our military and security apparatus. However the Corbyn era did not end without leaving its mark; it split the Labour leadership and left

its typical supporters, the working class and traditional left, without a party to call home. The Conservative gathering up of lost Labour supporters at the last election has had a direct

impact on our democracy. Democracy does not work without there being parties of comparable power in opposition to one another. Politics should be competitive and responsive to the people’s

needs. Right now we have a shattered Liberal Democrat party, which never recovered from its stay in Downing Street. We have a weak and broken Labour party and a Conservative party with an 80

seat majority. This is a system in ill-health. We may have dodged the bullet of a conspiratorial, anti-Western hard-left leader. We may now be able to look at the similarities between him

and his brother with whom he apparently “shares many views” and laugh. But he has not left the political landscape unscathed. Keir Starmer is recovering some of Labour’s lost ground — but it

will take years until Labour’s traditional support gains confidence in its party and moves back home.