Labour urged to end the ‘sniping, plotting and corridor coups’ Dugdale calls for infighting to stop
JEREMY CORBYN has urged Labour to “wipe the slate clean” after he was re-elected as party leader following a bitter campaign which saw him defeat challenger Owen Smith.
He trounced his rival to become the newly re-anointed leader, his second mandate to govern the fractured party in mere months.
His speech made a pointed call for MPs to unite behind his leadership and help build support for “a genuine alternative” to the Conservative Government.
His triumph was also widely hailed by union leaders who have backed him from the get-go.
“I have no doubt this party can win the next general election whenever the Prime Minister calls it, and form that next government,” said Mr Corbyn, shortly after the result of the leadership poll was announced yesterday morning. “To do that, we have all got to work together.”
Referring to the “passionate and often partisan” contest, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “things are sometimes said in the heat of the debate on all sides which we later come to regret”.
But he added: “I will do everything I can to repay the trust and support, to bring our party together, to make it an engine of progress for our country and the people who depend on the Labour Party to protect their interests, and win power to deliver real change.”
The bruising leadership contest followed a mass walkout from the shadow cabinet and a 172-40 vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn’s leadership by MPs.
Despite this, Mr Corbyn was keen to point out that Labour had more than tripled in size since its general election defeat last spring to become the largest political party in western Europe, with a “nationwide movement” that could potentially win the party a general election.
“Now is the time for all of us to focus every ounce of our energy on exposing and defeating the Tories and the damage they are doing to our country,” he said.
Mr Corbyn saw off Mr Smith with 61.8% of more than half a million votes cast in the contest.
His tally of 313,209 was more than 60,000 higher than the 251,417 (59.5%) SCOTTISH Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has warned Jeremy Corbyn he faces a “difficult task” to reunite the party in the wake of a divisive leadership election.
Ms Dugdale, who had backed challenger Owen Smith, congratulated the reinstalled leader and urged the party’s MPs to get behind him.
“We can’t fight the Tories when we are fighting each other,” she warned. he secured in 2015. Mr Smith took 193,229 votes – 38.2% of the 506,438 votes cast, out of a total electorate of 654,006.
Union leaders were among the first to warmly welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s victory, but said Labour now had a big challenge ahead.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: “Jeremy Corbyn has won because he’s captured the imagination of party members.”
While Len McCluskey, leader of Unite and one of Mr Corbyn’s key backers, said the party’s MPs should now listen to its members and stop the “sniping, plotting and corridor coups”.
He said: “This election contest was needless, a distraction that the Labour party and its members could have done without.
“But after a summer of unrest we can now look forward to the party taking on this Conservative government, exposing its divisive and elitist policies.”
The Lothian MSP, who has recently secured more autonomy for the party north of the border, added: “Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK took part in this election and the Labour Party is now the largest in Europe.
“We need to harness that energy and enthusiasm of our movement into real change for the people of the UK.
“Jeremy can unite the Labour Party, but he needs to want to unite it.
“It will be a difficult task, but not an impossible one.
“Likewise, the Parliamentary Labour Party must recognise that a divided Labour Party serves no one.”