He was in opposition for twenty-three years and under his leadership mass resignations led to his only having twenty-five MPs in his party. While this may be Jeremy Corbyn’s political obituary it actually describes Charles James Fox’s career.
That’s as far as the comparison goes. It would be fanciful to expect Corbyn to be held in the same esteem as Fox in two hundred years plus. In fact there may be parallels with Boris Johnson’s career. Fox was Britain’s first Foreign Secretary, aged thirty-three, in 1782 under the Marquess of Rockingham. He resigned but was re-appointed the following year under the Duke of Portland. They don’t make Prime Ministers like that anymore. Then the Whigs were out of power until 1806, when he was Foreign Secretary for a third time, under William Grenville. This became possible because William Pitt had died in January 1806. Fox himself died in office, at Chiswick House, in September of the same year aged fifty-seven.
Fox’s support for the French Revolution cost him the support of many of his MPs who crossed the floor to join Pitt and the Tories. Unlike Corbyn he did achieve a lot in his twenty-three years opposing Pitt. He was a statesman, an orator, anti-monarchy (George III) and pro-liberty. He was radical in opposing slavery, encouraging religious tolerance and trying to stop the king interfering in government. Getting it wrong on the French Revolution and his quarrel with the king doomed him to the opposition benches. It is remarkable that such an apparent failure is remembered and held in esteem today. There is at least one dining club that honours him and his London house in Clarges Street is now The Fox Club. I once had an incredibly high-octane Dry Martini there.
