A progressive alliance, grime style.

A host of grime’s biggest names have declared their support for Jeremy Corbyn in the run-up to the snap general election called by prime minister Theresa May for June 8 – and the Labour leader has been returning the love.

Yesterday, Jme combined useful voting registration information and a Corbyn endorsement in a single tweet.

Jme isn’t alone. Fourteen years, three Labour leaders and three general elections since Dizzee Rascal famously declared “I’m a problem for Anthony Blair” on Boy In Da Corner’s ‘Hold Ya Mouf’, the grime scene in 2017 feels rather more affinity for a man who was a consistent backbench rebel against Blair’s mission to drag Labour to the right – and into overseas wars. Corbyn won the party leadership in 2015 by promising to stand up for disillusioned working-class voters and to defend immigrants, and over the past week AJ Tracey, Novelist – who joined the Labour Party last June – and Akala have all tweeted in support of him.

https://twitter.com/ajtracey/status/854308194952392704

Thoughtful as ever, Akala went on to explain: “[F]or the first time in my adult life there is a chance to elect someone I would consider a sane and decent human… He has consistently voted/spoken against UK foreign aggression. This alone makes him the most electable politician we have ever had… [A]nti-austerity, pro-NHS and at least being openly ideologically opposed to UK empire is as good as we are ever likely to get… Homie @jeremycorbyn was anti-apartheid back when the Tories had Mandela down as a terrorist. Safe.”

Stormzy also cited Corbyn’s anti-apartheid stance as a reason for supporting him last May, telling the Guardian: “My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says. I saw some sick picture of him from back in the day when he was campaigning about anti-apartheid and I thought: yeah, I like your energy… I feel like he gets what the ethnic minorities are going through and the homeless and the working class.”

The grime stars’ words haven’t gone unnoticed. Corbyn, who gave a shout-out to Stormzy in March for his openness about his mental health issues, had responded by yesterday evening to Jme:

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