Corbyn: We won’t give up or retreat
Defiant despite by-election loss
JEREMY Corbyn has urged Labour not to “retreat or give up”, despite its humiliating by-election defeat in Copeland.
Labour lost its 82-year grip on the Cumbrian seat as the Tories won a 2,147 majority last week. The result, the first by-election gain for a governing party since 1982, has put Mr Corbyn under renewed pressure.
Speaking at Labour’s Scottish conference, the leader appealed for unity.
He said: “The scale of how hard our task is to persuade people of our message was underlined just this week in Copeland. I cannot lie and say the result was what we wanted.
“But now is not the time to retreat, to run away or to give up. Comrades, let us never forget it’s not called the struggle for nothing.”
A Sunday Mirror poll showed more than a third of Labour voters believe Mr Corbyn should be replaced.
But Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson insisted having Mr Corbyn at the helm was not “a suicide approach” for the party. He added: “We can win an election with Jeremy Corbyn, but things have to change.”
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell also claimed Labour’s problems were “not a leadership issue”.
He said: “I understand Copeland. It’s hit me very hard, it’s hit Jeremy very hard. But let’s turn it into an opportunity, let’s use that to start coming together for that discussion.”
But former Labour deputy prime minister, John Prescott, said: “There’s no getting away from it. Some people do have a problem with Corbyn.”
He added that Labour will be finished if it loses “countless other Copelands at the next election”.
Ex-deputy leader Harriet Harman told the BBC there were “painful echoes” of the 1980s. “If we recognise the problem is not the public, but us, and we’ve got to change, then I think we can start rebuilding,” she said.
“The thing about being leader is, the buck stops with you. You can’t be blaming anybody. You have to take responsibility for making it right.”
Mr Watson asked why Unite general secretary Len McCluskey was not defending Mr Corbyn. The union said: “Len McCluskey will take no lessons in loyalty from Tom Watson.”