Tories brace to take on Corbyn-led Labour
JEREMY CORBYN said yesterday he was ‘‘looking forward’’ to taking charge of Britain’s Labour party as his rivals conceded that he is on course to win the leadership election.
The hard-Left candidate said that he had ‘‘a big job to do’’ as he appeared to declare victory nearly 48 hours before the result is officially disclosed at a Labour conference tomorrow.
Corbyn held a rally in north London last night where he thanked thousands of supporters for taking him from the contest’s rank outsider three months ago to Labour’s leader-elect.
Sources revealed that yesterday he began approaching people with offers of jobs in his shadow cabinet. Prime Minister David Cameron also appears certain that Corbyn will become Labour leader. Today the PM will launch his strongest attack on the MP, warning that Labour now ‘‘pose a clear threat to the financial security of every family in Britain’’.
Less than an hour before the polls closed at midday yesterday, Liz Kendall effectively conceded defeat during a speech in central London. Appearing close to tears, Kendall said that she would never serve under Corbyn. ‘‘The programme Jeremy Corbyn offers is not new,’’ she said. ‘‘His politics and policies are the same as in the 1980s – and will end up with the same result.’’
Minutes after voting finished, sources in the camps of Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham came close to conceding that Corbyn is now almost certain to be declared Labour leader.
‘‘The most likely outcome is that Jeremy will win,’’ a shadow minister supporting Burnham’s campaign said.
A senior figure in Cooper’s camp said: ‘‘Yvette had a surge but it looks like it might have been too late.’’
Burnham later told the BBC that he has only an ‘‘outside’’ chance of winning the contest.
Speaking to ITV shortly after polls closed, Corbyn all but declared victory in the election and said he was ‘‘looking forward to working with colleagues’’ in the party.
Asked if he was worried about division in Labour, he said: ‘‘I’m not worried at all. I’m looking forward to it because we have a big job to do.
‘‘A big job in exposing the Government’s austerity programme and what it is doing to the poorest and vulnerable in our society and their Bill on welfare reform, their Bill on trade union issues and the way in which they are actually systematically slicing up public services in Britain through massive cuts in local government grants.’’
It is understood Corbyn has already approached Labour front benchers and asked them to serve in his team.
An aide to Corbyn said: ‘‘He wants a considerable amount of continuity. Speculation of bloodlust coups is wide of the mark. ‘‘The blood-thirsty descriptions of him are completely wrong.’’ Corbyn, who is chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, was criticised yesterday questioning the killing of terrorist Reyaad Khan, who was assassinated in an RAF drone strike after directing a plot to kill the Queen.
In a sign of how divisive a Corbyn-led Labour Party could be, the Islington North MP said: ‘‘I’m unclear as to the point of killing the individual by this drone attack.’’
A spokesman for Cameron said: ‘‘I think the Prime Minister set out very clearly . . . that (Khan) posed a threat to Britain and the lives of British people.’’
The prime minister will today say that Labour is ‘‘arguing at the extremes of the debate’’ and that he has been watching the Labour leadership election ‘‘with some bewilderment’’.
In a thinly-veiled attack on Corbyn, he will say: ‘‘This is now a party that has completely vacated the intellectual playing field and no longer represents working people. It is arguing at the extremes of the debate, simply wedded to more spending, more borrowing, and more taxes.
‘‘They pose a clear threat to the financial security of every family in Britain. There’s only one party that understands the big question facing our country, and one party that is developing an answer to it – and that’s the modern Conservative Party.’’
Cameron yesterday held a meeting of his Cabinet at Chequers – the prime minster’s official country residence – to discuss how the Tories take on Corbyn when he is declared leader. There are fears among Cabinet ministers that his election could lead to ‘‘violent protest’’ on the streets.