Labour to stay hard Left in search for Corbyn’s successor

Staunch socialists launch bid to cling on to control of the party, blaming Brexit for defeat at the ballot box

LABOUR’S hard Left launched its bid to cling on to control of the party last night as John McDonnell endorsed three of Jeremy Corbyn’s most loyal lieutenants as the “new generation” of potential leaders.

As the battle to succeed Mr Corbyn began in earnest, senior party insiders claimed that Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, was preparing to launch her candidacy.

Ms Long-Bailey is a close ally of the shadow chancellor and is expected to secure the endorsement of Len McCluskey and Unite, Labour’s biggest trade union backer.

Should she decide to run, she will be backed by Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, who is said to be preparing a bid for the deputy leadership role vacated by Tom Watson.

Last night, a friend of Mr Burgon told The Sunday Telegraph that he would back Ms Long-Bailey to make her Labour’s first female leader.

“If Becky was to stand Richard would back her,” they added.

Speaking to reporters yesterday morning, Mr McDonnell singled out the pair, along with Angela Rayner, as potential successors to Mr Corbyn.

“There’s a whole range of youngsters who have come through,” he said. “They are the new generation. You can see a coalition forming that I think can give us the future this country needs.”

Separately, allies of Mr Corbyn last night launched their first offensive against Labour moderates expected to challenge for the leadership, with Sir Keir Starmer, the current frontrunner, the focus of their attacks.

They included trade union figures, who claimed that the shadow Brexit secretary’s support for Remain had contributed to the scale of Labour’s capitulation in its Leave-voting heartlands.

Discussing the feeling among union leaders, one source said: “There are lots of people on the Left and in Unite who cautioned against becoming proRemain. They knew the dangers with the red wall.”

“It can’t be a southerner. They want someone who is working class, who speaks to them and who understands them.

“Keir Starmer went to university in Leeds, he will talk all of that up. But at the moment they want someone not from the South and not [a man].”

Echoing their comments, a shadow cabinet minister said: “I don’t see how the unions can get behind Keir. There are signs that the members understand that it is the Remainers that have done the damage to us.

“He is a plausible guy, highly intelligent, but he has not got the judgment, in my opinion. I don’t think Keir can win. He can get a nomination … but it can’t be a Londoner.”

It comes less than 24 hours after Mr McCluskey launched a scathing attack on Labour’s pro-EU frontbenchers, whom he claimed had “fatally undermined” Labour’s Brexit policy by repeatedly expressing their support for Remain.

Writing for Huffington Post, the news website, the Unite chief argued that Labour’s “slow-motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote movement” and others who had refused to accept the Brexit referendum results had “caused this defeat”.

Meanwhile, support for Angela Rayner among both pro-Corbyn MPs appeared to be growing last night, suggesting she could edge past Ms LongBailey as the “continuity” candidate.

While the shadow education secretary has not yet confirmed she is running, a union source last night claimed that she was likely to receive a major boost from the trade union Unison, her former employer.

“Becky is very strongly a creature of Unite, she came through the training programme, she is a dye-in-the-wool socialist,” they added.

“She’s incredibly bright and good on the details but she doesn’t have the charm that Angela has. Angela doesn’t have the intellectual weight, perhaps, but what she is good at is networking.

“She has links across the unions in a way that Becky probably doesn’t. That could prove to be a difference.”

‘There are lots on the Left and in Unite who cautioned against becoming pro-Remain. They knew the dangers with the red wall’