JEREMY CORBYN enters this election as the first bearded leader of a mainstream British political party since Keir Hardie. Since he became Labour leader in 2015, Mr Corbyn’s beard has fascinated the press, who see it as symbolic of the hard left’s takeover of the party. A study by the London School of Economics found that 69% of newspaper articles that attacked Mr Corbyn bristled about his looks, clothing or habits.

Labour has a long record of fighting pogonophobia. He may have only a razor-thin chance of winning in June, but Mr Corbyn wears his facial hair with pride, a counter-cultural badge of defiance against smooth-talking, smooth-faced capitalists.

According to Christopher Oldstone-Moore’s history, “Of Beards and Men”, there was a backlash against beards under New Labour when surveys revealed that voters didn’t like politicians with facial hair, prompting Peter Mandelson to suggest that bearded candidates should shave (he snipped off his moustache). Dissenters rebelled against the shear cheek of the New Labour machine. Frank Dobson told advisers who wanted him to get rid of his when he ran for mayor of London in 2000 “to get stuffed”. (He lost.)

Over 35 years Mr Corbyn has refashioned his beard from a scraggly heap to today’s short and tidy style. The Beard Liberation Front, which protects the rights of the unshorn, describes it as “hirsute informal”. Last year Mr Corbyn won the BLF’s “sexiest beard” award. He came first in the Parliamentary Beard of the Year contest for a record seventh time—and not by a whisker, taking 64% of the vote.

Beards are now sprouting across the political class. Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s joint chief of staff, sports a fine one. On Labour’s right, Roy Hattersley grew one last year, insisting his “was not a tribute beard” to Mr Corbyn.

Facial hair is one area where Labour’s leader can claim to be ahead of the curve. A YouGov poll in March found that “beards are growing on the British public”. In 2016 almost a fifth of men flaunted a full beard, up by seven percentage points from 2011. Among 18- to 39-year-olds, 61% sported some form of facial hair. Women are less turned off by stubble than before: in 2011 two-thirds said they preferred a man without a beard, whereas now only 46% do.

That could trim the Tories’ lead in the polls. But history is not on Mr Corbyn’s side. The last prime minister with a beard was the Marquess of Salisbury, who left office in 1902.