Corbyn vows Labour will be a voice for regions in Brexit
But lost seat raises fresh questions on leadership
JEREMY CORBYN has pledged to champion the voices of the British people and the regions throughout the Brexit process, as he faced calls to “think long and hard” about his position following Labour’s embarrassing defeat in the Copeland by-election.
Setting out his party’s wider vision for Brexit at a conference in London, the Labour leader blasted the Government’s failure to take the “anxieties and fears” felt by many regions seriously, and accused Theresa May of using the country as a “bargaining chip”.
But his message yesterday was marred by the loss of Labour’s long-held West Cumbrian seat of Copeland to the Conservatives – the first time an opposition party has lost a by-election to the governing party in more than 30 years. While many of Mr Corbyn’s usual critics were notably silent on the defeat – choosing instead to focus on the party’s victory over Ukip in Stoke – others warned of a “historic and catastrophic” defeat at the next general election if Mr Corbyn stays on.
Despite a hard-fought campaign, Labour’s Copeland candidate, Gill Troughton, lost to Tory contender Trudy Harrison by 11,601 votes to 13,748. The constituency has been a Labour stronghold since it was formed in 1983.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell made an early attempt to leap to Mr Corbyn’s defence, blaming the defeat on party divisions and recent interventions by Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson. However, the claims were quickly dismissed by the Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, who described the result as a “disaster” and a sign the party is “in trouble”.
“We are actually on course to an historic and catastrophic defeat and that will have very serious consequences for the communities that we represent,” the MP said.
“I think it’s incumbent upon us who have expressed our views about Jeremy Corbyn in the past... to say how as a party are we falling short, how can we actually meet the needs of the country.”
Unite leadership hopeful Gerard Coyne also lamented the loss, claiming that the party was at “a pretty low ebb” and must ask itself “serious questions” ahead of preparation for 2020 elections.
And Labour leader in the Lords Baroness Smith suggested the party leadership needed to think “long and hard” about why it lost, and not duck any “painful” conclusions. However, delivering his speech yesterday, Mr Corbyn robustly denied any suggestion that he “could be the problem”. The Islington MP expressed “disappointment” at the Copeland defeat, but maintained it was a case of the party failing to get its message across.
And he stressed that the party would now step up efforts to “reconnect with our voters and supporters”.
“Yes, I am disappointed by the result in Copeland and I pay tribute to our campaign there... [but] our party comes out of these elections utterly determined to get that message across,” he said.
“We are going to be out again tomorrow, and every other day, campaigning to get the message across of social justice in Britain.”
On Brexit, he acknowledged the difficulty many Remain supporters in the party will have in accepting the country’s decision to leave the EU.
But he stressed the party will “rise to the democratic challenge” to put forward a “progressive vision” for Brexit which reflect the needs and concerns of a “broad range of voices”.
He also argued the Government has “failed to take seriously the anxieties and fears” felt by many regions, particularly at the prospect of losing millions of pounds worth of EU funding.
“Labour will be a voice for those regions, and we have demanded a clear Government plan on the future of regional funding,” he said.
THERESA MAY branded the Conservatives’ shock by-election victory in Copeland as a “devastating blow” for Labour yesterday.
The jubilant Prime Minister insisted the winning of the seat from Labour, and her party almost taking second place in Stoke Central, showed the Conservatives were now the “party of working people”.
The Conservatives’ victory in Cumbria was the first time a governing party had taken a seat from the opposition since 1982 and the biggest vote swing to a party in Government since the 1966 Hull North by-election.
Tory activists hope to carry the momentum from the Copeland success into May’s local elections which including county council elections in North Yorkshire and the first metro-mayor elections in areas including Greater Manchester and Tees Valley.
Since entering Downing Street last year Mrs May has looked to reposition the Conservatives away from the metropolitanism of David Cameron and she appeared to present the Copeland by-election victory as a vindication of her approach.
In a speech to Conservative councillors yesterday, Mrs May said: “Let us not be in any doubt about what these results represent.
“Copeland is a seat that Labour describe as their ‘core vote country’.
“It has returned Labour MPs without exception since the 1930s. It is a seat they thought they would win this time. A seat where they expected to increase their majority.
“And it is true to say that the result is a devastating blow for them, and proof that Labour are out of touch with the concerns of ordinary working people.”
The Prime Minister claimed the Conservatives were the only party “that is listening and responding to the concerns of ordinary working people across Britain today”.
The Conservatives, Mrs May insisted, were the only party “that can truly call itself the party of working people. A party determined to build a country that works for everyone, and not just a privileged few”.
Looking ahead to the local elections, Mrs May compared the activities of Jeremy Corbynsupporting group Momentum to Militant group which disastrously ran Liverpool in the 1980s.
She said: “Labour’s councillors now dance to the tune of the militant unions and Momentum’s hard-left activists, facing threats of candidate de-selection if they don’t.
Last year, Labour’s deputy leader warned of entryism in Labour by the far-left. “This year, even the Stalinists in Momentum are complaining about being infiltrated by the Trotskyites.
“But for those of us who remember what Militant did to Liverpool, it doesn’t matter what term you use – we can’t allow Labour to get a foothold back in local government and let them do for local communities what they did to our country.”
The by-election triumph was achieved despite the Government facing growing criticism over the state of the NHS and the crisis in the care of the elderly.
Mrs May has come under pressure from Conservative-run councils complaining the funding they receive is not enough keep pace with rising demand for social care as the population ages.
Setting out the measures the Government has taken already on social care, the Prime Minister said that “more money is not the only answer” but that the Government also “recognise the need for far-reaching reform to encourage high standards across the whole country”.
Mrs May also used her speech to the Conservative Councillors’ Association conference to address concerns that moves to given councils more financial independence will be damaging for poorer areas.
“We will need to carefully consider the transition to self-sufficiency, and ensure fairness to all parts of the country – North and South, shire and metropolitan.
“And we will also recognise the need to tackle the disadvantages that rural areas have historically faced,” she said.
WHY do the House of Lords, House of Commons, and now your deputy business editor, Greg Wright, single out the issue of an early resolution (The Yorkshire Post, February 21) to the rights of EU nationals and their families to remain in the UK ahead of the negotiations for the UK to leave the EU?
There are apparently 3m of them in the UK. Yet we have around 2m of our citizens living in the EU. Mr Wright says that “Britons love their sense of fair play”. Yes we do, so it really annoys me when leaders and protesters talk constantly about EU citizens’ rights in the UK while ignoring our citizens’ rights in the EU.
From: Michael J Robinson, Berry Brow, Huddersfield.
EACH time I hear such worthies as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Yvette Cooper, Lord Dubs and Gary Lineker make references to a desire of helping 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children to settle in the UK, I can’t help wondering.
In the first place, child refugees in France and Belgium are surely already in a safe and civilised country. If they are in danger there of being at the mercy of criminal people traffickers, surely the French and Belgian authorities are perfectly capable of dealing with that if they have the will?
As for bringing thousands of unaccompanied children into the UK, don’t we hear daily that our public services are at breaking point? From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.
TONY Blair thinks Brexiteers are thick and stupid and do not understand what they voted for and calls for ‘remoaners’ to rise up against the democratic decision of leaving the EU.
Certainly the thousands of exLabour party voters know exactly what they voted for regarding Brexit.
Blair is far worse than President Trump, at least Trump is trying to do what the people of America voted him in to do. From: EG Moody, Scarborough.
I’D love to ask Tony Blair “If, as you claim, Brexit voters didn’t know what they were voting for, how much did the anti-Brexit voters know?”
From: Chris Gallacher, Chairman, Ukip Redcar.
THE Brexit debate in the House of Lords revealed the reason that it needs to be reformed. Filled with cronies and political appointees, why are there more peers than elected MPs?