In April, several U.K. grime artists caused a Twitter storm by backing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming General Election. Artists including Jme, Novelist and Akala – part of the British rap genre that Drake and Kanye West are fans of – shared their views on Corbyn and youth voting.
Now Corbyn and Jme have taken their unlikely relationship one step further, lunching together Sunday. They appeared on each other's Snapchats to discuss "music, education and art." Jme also tweeted about the event and encouraged his 697,000 followers to engage in politics and register to vote.
The pair had exchanged tweets in late April, with Corbyn thanking Jme for his support.
Polls regularly indicate that younger demographics in the U.K. are more likely to vote left of center. The latest data from YouGov ranks Labour support among 18-24 year olds at 49 percent, while that for Conservatives is 29 percent. But as was demonstrated in the 2015 General Election, this age group is less reliable at turning up on polling day.
Harnessing the left-leaning youth vote is strategically important in June's election, considering that the governing Conservative party is widely predicted a landslide victory. The aim is also part of the focus of pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller's Best for Britain movement.
Corbyn and several artists on the U.K. grime scene share political views. Novelist joined Labour in June 2016, tweeting of the party's leadership crisis:
Multi-award winning Stormzy told the Guardian newspaper in May last year that Corbyn's anti-apartheid campaigning first drew his attention, adding: "I feel like he gets what the ethnic minorities are going through and the homeless and the working class."
