LABOUR’S bitter infighting could boil over this week when its depleted parliamentary party meets at Westminster with calls for Jeremy Corbyn to go swiftly along with his top backroom advisors.
As the dust began to settle on the Opposition’s worst General Election performance since 1935, which saw its so-called “red wall” of seats in the Midlands and northern England crumble to a Tory surge, John McDonnell insisted: “I own this disaster.”
The Shadow Chancellor, who over the weekend announced he would step back from the frontbench, said: “If anyone's to blame, it's me, full stop.”
However, he also cited Brexit and particularly the right-wing media for having "demonised" Jeremy Corbyn relentlessly ahead of the party’s dismal defeat.
The party leader has suggested he would stay in his role for several weeks until Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee sorted out a new leadership contest but Lord McNicol, the party’s former General Secretary, insisted: “Jeremy should stand down now and we should move to a caretaker leader.
"Go to one of the grandees from before like Harriet Harman or Hilary Benn or Yvette Cooper, bring in someone who can actually put the pressure on Boris Johnson on the Conservatives while we go through the next leadership election," added the Scot.
Elsewhere, a call was made for Karie Murphy, Mr Corbyn’s Chief of Staff, and Seumas Milne, his Director of Communications, to go too.
One Labour MP told the PoliticsHome website: "Jeremy’s departure is totemic but, ultimately, irrelevant. Karie and Seumas have had power-of-attorney for months, if not years. They are culpable and they need to go along with their army of acolytes.
"Normal service will not be resumed next week. Even the project’s supine fellow-travellers, who’ve served on the frontbench or just kept their heads down, know it’s crunch-time. They will administer the final blows at the PLP on Tuesday night.”
Mr McDonnell described Labour’s performance as “catastrophic” and accepted full responsibility.
"It's on me, let's take it on the chin, I own this disaster, so I apologise to all those wonderful Labour MPs who have lost their seats and who worked so hard,” he told BBC TV’s Andrew Marr Show.
When it was suggested that selling Mr Corbyn as a potential premier was the party’s main problem, the London MP insisted it was Brexit “that did it” and the media had done a “number on Jeremy for four years solid; every day”.
But he insisted the radical left-wing policy programme he and Mr Corbyn headed and their analysis of society had been the “correct one and that holds sway within the Labour Party”.
This point was echoed by Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, saying “all of Labour’s policies were extremely popular” and the party’s defeat was down to Brexit.
The internal strife continued with Labour’s former Caroline Flint, who lost her Don Valley seat to the Conservatives, and who was highly critical of "ardent Remainers" within the party, citing among them Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, for having "contributed to sacrificing 59 seats" during Thursday's rout.
She told Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "Keir Starmer led us to a policy that did not listen to Labour Leave voices who urged caution, he led us down the path of a second referendum, and I'm afraid Emily Thornberry did as well; she said to one of my colleagues: 'I'm glad my constituents aren't as stupid as yours.'"
This drew a furious response from Ms Thornberry, who accused her Labour colleague of sharing a "total and utter lie".
The London MP, who is seen as a potential contender to succeed Mr Corbyn, said: "I've never said that to anyone nor anything like it nor would I ever think it. Whatever our differences, let's not sink into that gutter."
Among other possible leadership contenders, is Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan, who admitted she was “considering” throwing her hat in the ring.
The 40-year-old former Shadow Energy Secretary said it was "undoubtedly true" Mr Corbyn was to blame for the devastating defeat but insisted that it was not a rejection of the ideas in the Labour manifesto.
Instead, she stressed: "We've got to rediscover how we can earn people's trust in order to make that radical change the country needs."
Jess Phillips, 38, whose weekend Observer column was being seen as a potential leadership pitch, said Labour was facing an "existential problem" that working-class voters dis not believe the party was "better than the Tories".
The MP for Birmingham Yardley, a Leave-backing constituency, added: "It's time to try something different. The truth is, there are corners of our party that have become too intolerant of challenge and debate."
Shadow Cabinet ministers Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner are also tipped to be in the running.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel