THE LABOUR VETERANS WHO PLEAD: VOTE TORY!
Experts say Labour’s £400billion splurge could bankrupt Britain ++ New anti-Semitism storm engulfs party ++ And after deputy walks out, its own ex-MPs launch campaign... to back Boris!
TWO former Labour frontbenchers yesterday urged ‘patriotic’ voters to back Boris Johnson and save Britain from Jeremy Corbyn.
On a calamitous day for Labour, Ian Austin and John Woodcock said the party’s leader was ‘not fit to be prime minister’ – and must be stopped from reaching Downing Street at all costs.
The two men, who both served as advisers to Gordon Brown in government, savaged Mr Corbyn’s record on security, the economy and anti-Semitism – and even questioned his patriotism.
In an extraordinary intervention at the launch of the cross-party Mainstream campaign against extremism, both men said they would vote Conservative next month and urged others to do the same.
Former Labour shadow minister Tom Harris said he was also backing the Tories, and ex-Labour MP Michael McCann warned of the ‘racism and economic vandalism’ that Mr Corbyn would wreak on Britain if elected. It came on a tumultuous
day for Mr Corbyn that also saw economists savage his party’s £400 billion spending plans and The Jewish Chronicle publish a devastating front-page editorial about Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis. At least two Labour candidates also found themselves embroiled in controversy, with one forced to quit.
But it was the ‘devastating indictment’ of Mr Corbyn’s character by two of his former MPs that threatened to do the most damage to Labour’s election campaign. Mr Austin, a former Labour minister, said: ‘What Jeremy Corbyn has done to the Labour Party, I don’t want him to be able to do that to the country.
‘I don’t think he’s a patriot, I don’t think he loves this country. He always picks this country’s enemies – the IRA during the Troubles or describing Hamas and Hezbollah as friends, or parroting [Vladimir] Putin’s propaganda when the Russians sent hitmen to murder people on the streets of Britain.’
Mr Woodcock, who served as a shadow minister under Ed Miliband, said: ‘Jeremy is simply not fit to hold high office in this country. Everyone is going to have to make a choice... but for us, the choice to keep Jeremy Corbyn away from Downing Street to prevent him getting his hands on the levers of national security and defence has to be to vote Conservative in this election.’
Both men have quit the Labour Party since the 2017 election and have sat as independents in recent months. Neither is standing in next month’s election.
Writing in the Daily Mail today, Mr Austin says he felt a ‘ patriotic duty’ to warn the public about the threat Mr Corbyn and his team of hard-Left allies would pose if they ever got their hands on power. He also appeals to Nigel Farage to stand down his candidates to prevent splitting the vote and letting Mr Corbyn in by the back door in an alliance with the SNP. On a dramatic day:
Economists warned Labour could ‘bankrupt Britain’ with a new plan to increase borrowing by £55 billion a year;
Chancellor Sajid Javid pledged to slash taxes if the Tories win the election;
Labour’s Kate Ramsden quit as a candidate for Gordon, in Scotland, over a social media post in which she likened Israel to a ‘child abuser’;
Fellow Labour candidate Jane Aitchison was under pressure to quit after appearing to compare Tony Blair to Hitler;
Labour prepared to unveil plans that will allow millions of employees to set their own working hours – while it was claimed the party was also considering giving workers greater rights to determine their own wages;
A bloody battle was under way to succeed Tom Watson as Labour’s deputy leader, with Rebecca Long-Bailey, Laura Pidcock and Dawn Butler seeing it as a stepping stone to taking over from Mr Corbyn;
A Tory candidate was forced to step aside for saying women should ‘keep their knickers on’ to avoid being raped. Last night former Mr Harris revealed he was backing the Tories, saying: ‘Like Ian Austin, I will be far happier with a Boris Johnson government.’
And former East Kilbride MP Mr McCann told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Politicians I would have aligned myself with are all sitting in the corner hiding and hoping Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t notice them.
‘If these people contribute to him becoming prime minister then they are going to have to answer to the electorate for the racism and economic vandalism this mob are going to wreak on this country.’ The unprecedented intervention from the former Labour MPs came after the shock resignation of Mr Watson – regarded as the last senior moderate in the Shadow Cabinet. While he insisted his departure was ‘personal’, Mr Austin and Mr Woodcock made an explicit appeal to voters to back the Tories to keep Mr Corbyn out of office.
Shadow business secretary Miss Long-Bailey said it was ‘no secret’ that Mr Austin ‘doesn’t like Jeremy’. She added: ‘Voting for Boris Johnson if you are a Labour voter... is absolutely absurd.’
Chancellor Sajid Javid praised Mr Austin, adding: ‘Ian is Labour to his core, but knows that Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to lead.’
The attacks from Mr Austin and Mr Woodcock are doubly damaging as both are vacating marginal seats which are top Tory targets. Mr Austin’s Dudley North has a Labour majority of just 22 and is a heavily Leave- supporting area. Mr Woodcock had a majority of 209 in Barrow and Furness.
Mr Austin quit Labour in protest at Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle the party’s anti-Semitism crisis. Yesterday he suggested the Labour leader himself was guilty of prejudice against the Jewish community.
He said: ‘Do I think Jeremy Corbyn is personally antiSemitic? I can’t look into his heart... but I certainly think he has said and done things that are racist himself.’
Treasury chief secretary Rishi Sunak said Mr Austin’s comments were a ‘truly devastating indictment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership’.
‘ There are only two people who can be PM: Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson. And Corbyn is completely unfit to lead our country. I joined Labour as a teenager. In my 30s I was a government adviser. In my 40s I was an MP and a minister. So it’s come to something when I tell decent, patriotic Labour voters that they should vote ’ for Boris Johnson at this election. I can’t believe it... but that’s where we are
IAN AUSTIN YESTERDAY ‘Truly devastating indictment’