EU emails show frustration at Corbyn failure
JEREMY CORBYN yesterday faced accusations that he sabotaged the campaign to keep Britain in the EU after leaked emails revealed Labour frustration with his apparent uninterest.
The Labour leader’s office deleted lines referring to immigration and the EU in speeches, and attempted to block a letter backed by 200 MPs, according to the messages.
Frustration with Mr Corbyn’s failure to fully engage in the campaign is also detailed, with one email showing the bemusement of some involved as one asks: “What is going on here?”
The emails, which were shown to the BBC, reveal the tensions in Labour’s EU campaign as it became clear that chunks of the party’s normal support base were backing Brexit.
A poll on voting day suggested as many as one in three Labour supporters backed leaving the EU as areas such as Hartlepool, Sheffield and Birmingham voted for Brexit.
An email from the leader’s office reportedly said that Seumas Milne, Mr Corbyn’s director of strategy and communications, was believed to be behind the reluctance towards the pro-EU campaign. One message discussing the leader’s EU speeches said that changes were made because of the “hand of Seu-
it, mas”, much noticesIn he another,adding:will it.” to water hope pro-EU“If heit downcan’t nobody Labourkill so figures complainedoffice that are “thereto said Mr is Corbyn’sto no haveEU contentThe Labourhere”. leader’s “lacklustre” involvement in the Remain campaign was cited by many shadow cabinet ministers who resigned yesterday. During the campaign, Mr Corbyn rated his passion for staying in the EU at “seven, or seven and a half ” out of 10.
Mr Corbyn and his team repeatedly defended his performance during the referendum campaign, with supporters insisting he had gone through a “journey” to back staying in the EU.
He defended his campaign during TV appearances on Friday, saying: “A lot of the message that has come back from this is that many communities are fed up with cuts, they are fed up with economic dislocation and feel very angry at the way they have been betrayed and marginalised by successive governments in very poor areas of the country.”