CORBYN IS ‘PAST HIS PEAK’
As Labour fails to make big poll gains it expected, party is forced to confront stark claims that...
JEREMY Corbyn was forced to deny claims that he was ‘past his peak’ yesterday after his party failed to make the expected big gains in the local elections.
In a highly disappointing night, the party did not win any of the key battlegrounds in London, including Wandsworth and Barnet, despite pre-polling day boasts of being on the ‘edge of a significant victory’.
Labour also suffered losses outside the capital, including in the Brexit-voting West Midlands, and lost control of Derby, where Mr Corbyn’s ally Chris Williamson is an MP, and Nuneaton. But it won back Plymouth and became the largest party in Trafford, Greater Manchester.
Forced to travel to Plymouth for the scene of a Labour victory, Mr Corbyn faced embarrassing questions over whether Britain had reached ‘peak Corbyn’. He replied: ‘No, no, there’s much more to come and it’s going to get even better.’
However, election expert Sir John Curtice delivered a downbeat verdict on Labour’s performance, saying: ‘Jeremy Corbyn looks as if he will come away empty-handed. Expectations for Labour were rather high... there isn’t much for Labour to celebrate.’
Mr Corbyn’s failure to deal with the antiSemitism allegations engulfing the party was blamed for the haemorrhaging of support in boroughs comprising large numbers of Jewish voters.
In recent weeks he has also been criticised by members of his own party for his feeble response to the Salisbury poisonings and his reluctance to put the blame on Russia. Labour had high expectations that the party would make big gains following Thursday’s elections – and especially that the party might perform spectacularly in London.
Instead Mr Corbyn came away virtually empty-handed, while the Conservatives emerged effectively unscathed.
Theresa May declared that Labour had ‘failed’ as she visited Wandsworth in southwest London to congratulate Tory activists. The Prime Minister said: ‘Labour thought they could take control. But they failed, and the people of Wandsworth re-elected a Conservative council. That’s the message of these local elections around the country – that Conservative councils deliver great local services at lower taxes.’
Earlier Mr Corbyn held a rally in Plymouth, where Labour won the council in one of its few major victories of the local elections.
He said Labour achieved ‘solid’ English local election results despite not making big gains but conceded it had ‘lost a bit of ground’ in parts of the country.
Asked why Labour had failed to make the predicted gains, Mr Corbyn said: ‘The story of the night is that Ukip have collapsed across the country, that we have gained in Plymouth. We have also put up our vote in a lot of other places and gained wards we’ve never held before in some of the London boroughs. We’re ready for a general election whenever it comes.’
But tonight Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, will warn that Labour is a ‘ long way from where we need to be’ to win a general election. Mr Campbell will use a keynote address to the centreLeft pressure group Progress to say ‘huge swathes of the country’ cannot accept ‘this Labour Party’ in power. Meanwhile MP Chuka Umunna called for an election ‘ post- mortem’ to look at why expected gains hadn’t materialised. He said the Government was ‘divided and incompetent’ yet Labour had not seen ‘the big win that was expected’.
Last year London mayor Sadiq Khan had boasted there was ‘now no corner of London where Labour can’t win’ including the ‘crown jewels of Wandsworth and Barnet’. But the Tories retained control of Wandsworth after winning more than half the seats. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell raised the prospect last month of the party securing a ‘significant victory’ in Hillingdon but the Tories also retained control there.
The two main parties, however, both lost control of key councils outside London. In the North West, the Tories lost their only council in Greater Manchester in a defeat Labour claimed as a ‘huge coup’. Labour, however, lost a Midlands council in an area considered a bellwether seat at the general election.
After 14 years of Tory rule at Trafford Council it went to no overall control. Labour lost Nuneaton and Bedworth Council, as well as Derby, with both falling to no overall control. Shadow local government secretary Andrew Gwynne admitted there had been some ‘disappointing’ results. ‘It was always going to be a limited number of gains that we could make within some of those councils,’ he told BBC Radio 4. A Labour shadow minister told The Sun on Thursday: ‘Jeremy has not
spent the 11 months since the general election winning Middle England, and now never will. We’re not going to do as well as we should, and I suspect these results will show we are past peak Corbyn.’
Last night there were reports Heidi Alexander, the former shadow health secretary, was on the verge of quitting to work at City Hall with Mr Khan. The Labour MP, who represents Lewisham East, was said to be waiting until her local count was over before making an announcement.