Labour slump sparks calls for Corbyn to go

JEREMY Corbyn faced fresh calls to quit last night after Labour’s disastrous showing in the by-election.

The party slumped to fourth in the Brecon and Radnorshire seat, behind the Brexit Party, Tories and Lib Dems. Labour’s candidate Tom Davies picked up just 1,680 votes, down almost 5,000 on its third-place showing at the 2017 general election.

This amounted to just 5.3 per cent of the vote, just above the threshold of 5 per cent to avoid the party losing its £500 deposit to take part in the election.

Labour’s vote share has fallen by 12.5 percentage points since 2017 – the largest slump among any of the parties.

The result strengthens the hand of Mr Corbyn’s critics, who say his fence-sitting on Brexit is costing the party votes.

Yesterday Mr Corbyn said he was ‘disappointed’ by the result, adding: ‘The Liberal Democrats won it after doing a deal with Plaid Cymru and the Greens.

‘I think that a lot of voters were determined to get rid of the Conservatives and they voted accordingly.’ But he still faced fresh calls to go. Pat Glass, the former Labour MP for North West Durham, tweeted: ‘Let’s not forget that Labour... got just 5 per cent of the vote and came in fourth behind the Brexit Party.

‘When are we in the Labour Party going to wise up, smell the coffee and get ourselves a new leader?’

Ian Austin, the independent MP for Dudley North, who quit Labour over antiSemitism, tweeted: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is certainly consistent, as well as hopeless. If Labour MPs and the shadow cabinet won’t get rid of him because of the racism and extremism that has poisoned Labour, surely they’ll act out of self-interest?’ Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson told The Times she was ruling out a Remain alliance with Labour, saying Mr Corbyn could not be trusted on Brexit.

FORMER Labour minister Frank Field will stand against his ex-party at the next general election. Mr Field, 77, currently sits as an independent after resigning the Labour whip last year, citing antiSemitism in the party. He has been the MP for Birkenhead in Merseyside since 1979, and plans to stand as the ‘Birkenhead Social Justice’ candidate whenever the next election is held.