Now Corbyn’s Labour is Nasty Party
LABOUR’S tolerance of anti-Semitism and members’ abusive behaviour has made it the new Nasty Party, Theresa May said yesterday.
The Prime Minister famously told the Conservative conference in 2002 that many saw the Tories as the Nasty Party due to their narrow social outlook.
But yesterday she said that the Conservatives had changed beyond recognition – while under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour had adopted the ‘politics of division’ and forgotten how to represent the views of working people. She added that the Opposition could no longer describe itself as the party of the NHS – and made a point of praising Clement Attlee, the post-war socialist PM who set it up.
Mrs May was Conservative Party chairman in 2002 when she told delegates they needed to modernise, saying: ‘Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally are our sympathies. You know what some people call us? The Nasty Party.’ Yesterday, in her first keynote speech as PM, she deployed almost exactly the same language to describe Labour. She said the party was ‘determined to ... embrace the politics of pointless protest that simply pulls people further apart’. She continued: ‘That’s what Labour stands for today. Fighting among themselves, abusing their own MPs, threatening to end their careers, tolerating anti-Semitism and supporting voices of hate. You know what some people call them? The Nasty Party.
‘And with Labour divided, divisive and out of touch, we have a responsibility to step up, represent and govern for the whole nation.’
Many Labour MPs – particularly women – have been subjected to online abuse from supporters of Mr Corbyn. Some have been threatened with deselection.
The party has also been accused of taking a soft line on anti-Semitism. An internal report on the problems, written by civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, was widely seen as a whitewash. Its author has since been elevated to the Lords by Mr Corbyn. Mrs May’s speech also staked the Tories’ claim as the party of the NHS, which she hailed as ‘one of the finest healthcare systems in the world’. She praised Mr Attlee as a man ‘with the vision to build a great national institution’.
However, she pointed out Labour had expanded the use of the private sector in the NHS faster than Tories, and was the only party ever to cut spending on the NHS, having done so in Wales. ‘Let’s have no more of Labour’s absurd belief that they have a monopoly on compassion,’ she said. ‘Let’s put an end to their sanctimonious pretence of moral superiority ... they have given up the right to call themselves the party of the NHS, the party of the workers, the party of public servants.’
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn spent yesterday shopping for jumpers on holiday in Northumberland with his wife Laura Alvarez.
His decision to take a trip while Mrs May outlined her vision for Britain’s future has drawn criticism from some supporters. He had said nothing about Tory policies all week, but last night accused the PM of ‘fanning the flames of xenophobia’.