Labour MPs vote to oust party leader Corbyn’s refusal to quit after massive vote of no confidence adds to turmoil

BRITISH Labour Party MPs voted massively against their leader yesterday amid political turmoil in Britain after a vote to leave the European Union, as candidates to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron vied for power behind the scenes.

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn lost a non-binding confidence motion, with 172 Labour MPs voting against him and 40 in favour out of a total of 229 Labour MPs in the House of Commons.

But the veteran socialist insisted he would not stand down.

“I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning,” he said.

“Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy.”

Five days after the shock referendum vote, the two parties that have dominated Westminster for nearly a century were in almost complete disarray.

Pro-EU Finance Minister George Osborne, long tipped to succeed Cameron, ruled himself out yesterday while British media reported that Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Crabb, a virtual unknown to the British public, would put his name forward.

Former London mayor and “Leave” figurehead Boris Johnson -- now a bogeyman for many in the “Remain” camp -- is tipped as one of the favourites.

The other is Interior Minister Theresa May who is reportedly seeking support for a rival bid that media tipped as the “Stop Boris” campaign.

The Conservatives have set tomorrow as a deadline for nominations and the party said the winner would be announced on September 9.

Cameron has said he would leave it to his successor to invoke Article 50 -- the formal procedure for exiting the European Union.

On the opposition side, more than half of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet -- the leadership of his party -- have now resigned in a coordinated series of resignations against the 67-year-old, who only became leader in September.

Corbyn, a veteran socialist and eurosceptic who voted against EU membership in a 1975 referendum, has come under heavy criticism from pro-EU MPs for his lukewarm campaigning in favour of Britain staying in.

Many experts have blamed the strong anti-EU vote in Labour heartlands in northern England on Corbyn.

But Corbyn has blamed Conservative austerity measures for creating disenchantment in working-class areas and said the media had not covered Labour’s referendum campaign, focusing instead on rifts within the ruling Conservatives.

The Conservatives are, meanwhile, scrambling to choose a successor to Cameron, who announced his resignation within hours of the Brexit result last Friday.

A new poll yesterday put May in the lead with 31%, against 24% for Johnson.

Nominations for the party leadership open today, and close tomorrow.

If more than two candidates stand, Tory MPs will vote next week to whittle down the field to two nominees, before the new leader is chosen through a postal ballot of about 150 000 party members.

Critics have questioned whether the “Leave” camp -and Johnson in particular -has any idea how to manage the unprecedented situation.

“He has still to offer anything like a concrete plan on how he would negotiate the post-Brexit future,” former BBC political editor Nick Robinson wrote.

“The fallout from the biggest exercise in popular democracy has already been dramatic. It has, though, only just begun,” he said. – AFP