Jeremy Corbyn is set to address the remaining
Labour MPs amid bitter recriminations over the party’s catastrophic general
election defeat.
MPs are returning to Westminster with the party in turmoil following its worst election performance since 1935. Labour lost 59 seats, dropping from 262 MPs being elected in 2017 to just 203.
Some furious MPs and defeated candidates have angrily pointed the finger at Corbyn, saying the Labour leader’s past record and left-wing policies were poison on the doorstep.
Speaking after she lost her seat, former Don Valley MP Caroline Flint said it was clear that “many long-standing Labour supporters rejected our candidate for prime minister and the politics around him”.
Corbyn revealed on election night that he would stand down as leader after a “process of reflection”, with the new leader expected to be in place by the end of March.
However, that is unlikely to lessen the anger when he addresses the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in Westminster on Tuesday evening. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham told
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve always been a coalition between traditional[ly] supporting working-class communities and, let’s say, a university-educated liberal left.
“Labour has not been speaking to both sides of that coalition for some time.
“And, actually, with the position taken on
Brexit at the recent election, it was almost as if they were thwarting the views of people who had been our traditional supporters.”
Meanwhile, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is reported to have agreed to step aside in the leadership race to support her close friend, Rebecca Long-Bailey.
Shadow business secretary Long Bailey – a protege of shadow chancellor John McDonnell – has long been seen as the favourite of the left to succeed Corbyn.
Rayner, who had also been touted as a possible contender, is reported to be considering a run for deputy leader instead.
Other potential candidates include shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, and backbenchers Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips.
There have been calls for the next leader to hail from the north, where Labour’s traditional supporter base deserted the party at the election.
But Jenny Chapman, who lost her Darlington seat to the Conservatives, said it was “patronising” to think that Labour voters in places like the north-east felt the “next leader has to have ovaries, or a northern accent”.Related...
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