McDonnell warns of ‘soft coup’ trying to oust Corbyn

JEREMY CORBYN’S closest ally has blamed Labour’s disastrous performance on a “soft coup” by moderate MPs as it emerged that several “Clive For Leader” website addresses had been registered in the name of Brexit rebel Clive Lewis.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said an “alliance” was working behind the scenes on a “planned, coordinated and fully resourced” plot to bring down the Labour leader and warned that the party’s “very existence” is at risk.

He also claimed the coup was being led by “elements in the Labour Party and the Murdoch media empire”, suggesting that Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers had published “absolute fiction” by reporting that Mr Corbyn was preparing to stand down.

One former Labour minister described the comments as “unhinged”.

Moments after Mr McDonnell’s theo- ry was published online, it emerged that someone called Clive Lewis had registered website names including cliveforleader.org.uk.

Mr Lewis, who stood down as shadow business secretary after defying Mr Corbyn’s three-line whip on legislation to trigger Article 50, denied that he or any of his staff were responsible.

He blamed unnamed Labour figures who he said were taking an “unhealthy interest” in him for registering the websites. The domain names were reg- istered in June last year, two days after Mr Lewis joined the shadow cabinet.

Mr McDonnell wrote on the Labour Briefing website: “We have to alert party members and supporters that the soft coup is underway.

“It is being perpetrated by an alliance between elements in the Labour party and the Murdoch media empire, both intent on destroying Jeremy Corbyn and all that he stands for.

“The coup is not being waged up front in public, but strictly behind the scenes ... the coup plotters are willing to sacrifice the party at elections just to topple Jeremy and prevent a socialist leading the party.

“The irony is that they are willing to go so far in denigrating Jeremy that they endanger their own parliamentary seats and endanger the very existence of the party.” Within hours, Mr McDonnell was trying to distance himself from his own comments, with sources close to him saying the article “does not represent his current view”.

Having last night avoided the first meeting with his own MPs since the Copeland by-election loss, Mr Corbyn will face another test at the polls in the weeks ahead. The Manchester Gorton seat will be contested in a by-election triggered by the death on Sunday of the Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman.

Sir Gerald, who was the longestserving MP, died after a long illness.