Corbyn accused of leading party to disaster
JEREMY CORBYN has been accused of leading Labour into a general election in the face of warnings that the party would lose seats “up and down the country.”
The Labour leader was last night attacked over claims that he had sided with his closest aides instead of senior shadow cabinet ministers, who had urged him to resist going to the country before Christmas.
Allies of Mr Corbyn scotched claims that he had been “cajoled” by Seumas Milne, his communications director, and Karie Murphy, his former chief of staff, insisting that he had made the decision independently.
However, The Daily Telegraph understands that the decision was questioned by Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, who warned that many Labour MPS did not support a poll before Christmas.
Her views are thought to be shared by at least half a dozen frontbenchers, including John Mcdonnell and Tom Watson, who have been privately pushing for a delay until the new year.
According to a senior Labour source, they had been told just days beforehand that the party remained opposed to an election and had been considering plans to table a no-confidence vote tomorrow.
But to their surprise, Mr Corbyn told a shadow cabinet meeting yesterday morning that he would now support a poll in early December because his demand that a no-deal Brexit be taken off the table “has now been met”.
An insider who was present claimed Ms Thornberry responded by highlighting the widespread unease among Labour MPS, while Lesley Laird and Christina Rees, the shadow Scottish and Welsh secretaries, were described as looking visibly “worried”.
Ms Thornberry is said to have raised similar concerns at a meeting on Monday, prompting Diane Abbott to retort that in 2017 the same MPS had been “crying in my office... as if it’s a f---ing funeral... then they all got re-elected with increased majorities”.
Nick Brown, Labour’s chief whip, also warned Mr Corbyn that he faced a “rebellion” on the back benches, after dozens of MPS warned they would vote against a December poll.
A shadow cabinet source told The Telegraph: “Look at Scotland, look at Wales, they are f-----. This could be really damaging in Wales and Scotland, but up and down the country we are going to lose seats.”
However, a pro-corbyn frontbencher dismissed their concerns over Brexit, telling this newspaper that Labour would focus on “the NHS, the cost of living, policing” and other major domestic issues. “You can pivot fairly quickly out of Brexit and move on to the domestic stuff,” they said.
Following the meeting, Mr Corbyn faced a backlash from backbench MPS, several of whom claimed he had caved in to pressure from his inner circle against the will of the parliamentary party.
They included Barry Sheerman, the MP for Huddersfield, who said: “A clear majority of our shadow cabinet were against a December election yesterday but Jeremy Corbyn has been persuaded to override them after interventions from Milne and Karie Murphy.”
Last night it emerged that at least 15 Labour frontbenchers, including deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow ministers John Healey and Dawn Butler, abstained during the vote on the Bill.
However, it was unclear whether they had deliberately defied orders, with several MPS complaining they had received confusing messages from the Labour whips on how to vote.
Mr Corbyn had earlier announced that he would back a pre-christmas election now that a no-deal Brexit was “off the table” – saying he could not wait to “get out there on the streets”.
Boris Johnson then attacked Mr Corbyn’s previous moves to block an election, after it was voted down on Monday.
The Prime Minister said: “All they want to do is procrastinate. They don’t want to deliver Brexit on October 31, on November 31, even on January 31.”
He added: “They just want to spin it out forever, until the twelfth of never. And when the twelfth of never eventually comes around, they’ll devise one of their complicated parliamentary procedures and move a motion for a further delay and a further extension then.”
Introducing his Early Parliamentary General Election Bill, Mr Johnson said it was needed because delaying Brexit is “seriously damaging to the national interest”, while a fresh parliament would have a “new mandate to deliver on the will of the people and get Brexit done”.
MPS overwhelmingly backed the Early Election Bill at its second reading without a formal vote last night.
Cross-party MPS then tried to push through last-minute attempts to give EU nationals and 16 year-olds the vote.
Tory rebels Dominic Grieve and
Guto Bebb, who lost the party whip last month, were both signatories on an amendment to lower the voting age to 16. Another amendment sought to extend the vote to EU citizens with settled status, which Downing Street said could cause “administrative chaos”.
Separately, Ian Murray, the member for Edinburgh South, attempted to outflank Mr Corbyn by tabling an amendment to the Bill to push the election date back to May 7 2020. The proposal was backed by more than 30 Labour MPS but was not selected.
Yesterday afternoon, Tory MPS expressed their concern that the election could be in jeopardy if the amendments succeeded. However, Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker, did not select the amendments. It is understood the Commons clerks advised that such changes would require changes to other legislation, as well as a “money resolution” to make the necessary funding available.
Mr Hoyle chose a Labour amendment to bring the date forward to Dec 9, the date the Liberal Democrats and the SNP had originally insisted on, but this was voted down.
Downing Street had said holding the election three days sooner would not work because time is needed to pass the Northern Ireland Budget Bill and the general election legislation.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “In the modern era we have never held an election on a Monday because it would provide challenges and increase costs. Returning officers would not be able to access polling stations over the weekend to set them up, for example.”
Talks had been going on behind closed doors for most of the day between the Conservatives, Lib Dems and SNP after Mr Johnson announced Dec 12 as the election date on the Bill.
The Lib Dems and SNP said they wanted the poll on Dec 9, partly to make sure students were not “disenfranchised”. However, Government sources pointed to research that showed that the 39 biggest universities by student population will not break up for Christmas until Dec 13, and a Yougov survey that showed 70 per cent of students voted in their home towns in 2017.
‘A clear majority of our shadow cabinet were against a December election ... but Jeremy Corbyn has been persuaded to override them’