As the Tories’ lead in the polls narrows, and Theresa May’s malfunctioning android interview technique exasperates journalists and the public alike, I’m beginning to feel something resembling hope. I am aware that this is not good. It’s the hope that kills you, in the end.

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More notable even than May’s incompetence in this general election campaign has been Jeremy Corbyn’s affable brand of charm. While May is swerving the TV debates and looking wooden around members of the public, Corbyn is sharing Pringles with them and passionately declaiming about food banks to audience applause. Seeing the things I always admired about Corbyn – first and foremost his commitment to a more equal society – translating surprisingly well on to our screens has been a strange experience.

Over the past year, I have become what you might call a shy Corbynite, and I suspect I’m not the only one. I went from embracing him enthusiastically at the outset and voting for him as leader in the first contest, to feeling deflated about his performance in the referendum and sceptical of his ability to properly lead the party. When I voted for him a second time in the leadership election, I didn’t spread it about. The reframing of Corbyn as a doddery old fool whose politics belonged in the 70s or 80s and whose incompetence would result in a Tory landslide was so complete that I felt somewhat embarrassed about the previous two years. What was I thinking? Was I high?

I had become so used to political commentators popping up every time I expressed admiration for Corbyn’s principles to call me naive or a narcissist or an Islington-dwelling champagne socialist or a loony lefty, as though we were in some pompous game of whack-a-mole, that I began to sort of believe it. But I never did stop believing in the same things Corbyn does – in equality, social justice, social mobility and peace. Nor did I ever doubt that families such as my own would be much better off under a Labour government than a Tory one. Which is why I’m going to vote for him again.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Why should any young person cringe at voting for a party that has committed itself to tackling generational injustice?’ Supporters wait to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak in Basildon. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

It’s time to ditch the shame. It was always astonishing how rarely the “don’t slag off the voters” mantra applied to Conservatives and Brexiters was extended to Corbynites. Instead, people like my mother, who is on benefits after struggling to find full-time employment after years of caring for my disabled brother, and has been canvassing for Labour in Cheshire, are branded fools by some commentators.

But she isn’t a fool, and nor are any of the other people I know who are voting for him. They are ordinary, decent people, who don’t live remotely near Islington, but who see the wealth gap widening and want a society that works for everyone. The sort of society that the Labour manifesto – the most inspiring lots of us can recall ever seeing – actually offers.

Much of this election has been about Brexit, and who is best to sit around the negotiating table. What Corbyn recognises, and May ignores, is that the vote for Brexit didn’t spring from nowhere, but came after years and years of brutal cuts to benefits and frontline services. Why should anyone feel embarrassed to back an anti-austerity politician in this context? Why should anyone who cares passionately about the NHS remaining safe from being transferred into private ownership feel ashamed to support a politician who is committed to it? Why should any young person – most of whom seem to be voting for Corbyn – cringe at voting for a party that has committed itself to tackling generational injustice?

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This isn’t nose-peg time, it’s time to get behind the Labour that we have been offered and to endorse it without shame as the only real alternative to a country that is set to crash out of the EU to become a corporate tax haven that treats its vulnerable people as though their suffering is of their own making. In all likelihood, we’ll be waking up on 9 June to a Tory victory and five more years of brutal cuts.

It’s easy to understand why many voters feel disengaged and hopeless. Since Brexit, the country has appeared to become so right wing that many of us barely recognise it. If believing in the same things as Corbyn made you a crank in 2015, then what are you in 2017? The narrative has shifted so much in the Tories’ favour, to the point where to announce you’re voting Labour feels subversive and threatening – like telling your nan over Sunday lunch that you’re a fan of Throbbing Gristle.

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The frame has moved, but we still have the same brains, the same hearts, and the same guts. And my brain, my heart, and my gut are telling me that I would never forgive myself if I didn’t back Labour at this crucial time. There’s a line in the Billie Holiday song It Had to Be You that I’ve always felt perfectly summed up relationships: “With all your faults, I love you still.” It’s also how I feel about the party. It has to be Labour. And I’m not ashamed of it.

Getting romantic about a party led by a man with an enthusiasm for manhole covers? Well, yeah, I’ll admit: that’s embarrassing. But it also feels right.