Corbyn says it is ‘a bit rich’ to blame him

JEREMY Corbyn has said it is a “bit rich” to blame him for Labour’s poor election performance, as four of Sir Keir Starmer’s predecessors weighed in on the party’s woes.

The former Labour leader said it was “a bit weak” to suggest he is responsible for the losses in last week’s by-election in Hartlepool and local elections across England.

Tony Blair said Sir Keir “lacks a compelling economic message”, as the former prime minister advised the current leader to debate cultural issues “urgently and openly” to prevent them being damagingly defined by the right and the “’woke’ left”.

Mr Blair’s successor in No 10 and at the head of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown, suggested the coronavirus pandemic had hindered Sir Keir’s ability to connect with the public, while Ed Miliband, who led Labour in opposition, said the party needs to be “bolder”.

Labour has been in turmoil since the by-election defeat in Hartlepool, and setbacks in council elections in England were followed by a botched reshuffle. The results were a major setback for Sir Keir as he tries to recover the party from its general election defeat under Mr Corbyn, which was its worst since 1935.

Mr Corbyn, now sitting as an independent MP, told ITV News: “I think it’s a bit rich to start blaming me for stuff that’s been done over the past year that I’ve had absolutely no part of whatsoever. I do think that dumping on somebody because they’re not there anymore is a bit weak.”

He attributed some of the losses to “disillusioned Labour voters” heading to the Green Party because they feel “the opposition has not been strong enough against the Government”. He added: “Do I take responsibility for it? No, because we had a set of popular policies in the last manifesto.”

Meanwhile, Mr Blair gave his opinion of the left’s dilemma, saying the “old-fashioned economic message” of high taxation and a large state is “not particularly attractive”.

Turning his attention to Sir Keir, Mr Blair said he is “struggling to break through with the public” as he described last week’s elections as “a major setback”. Mr Blair added: “The Labour Party won’t revive simply by a change of leader. It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction. Nothing less will do.

“At present, Labour expresses perfectly the progressive dilemma,” he said. “Corbyn was radical but not sensible. Keir seems sensible but not radical. He lacks a compelling economic message.”

Mr Brown cited the restrictions to tackle Covid-19 as having been a great hindrance to Sir Keir’s ability to communicate directly with the public. “He has got to be given time to fight the next election, and he will do so, in my view,” he told Times Radio. “I think the issue, however, is that he has never had a chance to get around the country.”

Mr Miliband, who Sir Keir restored to the front benches as shadow business secretary, said it is not time to “blow the final whistle” on Sir Keir’s leadership, arguing the leader believes the country needs a “big economic change” to make it less “unfair, unequal and unproductive”. But, speaking to BBC Radio 4, he added: “We should be bolder, of course we should be bolder.”