Corbyn will leave Labour ‘pure but impotent’ warns Brown
‘We’ll be just a protest party’
GORDON Brown last night warned that Jeremy Corbyn would leave Labour ‘pure but impotent’ as party leader.
The former prime minister said the Marxist throwback could reduce the party to one of ‘permanent protest’ if elected.
Voters would ‘walk away from us... for many years’ if Labour lurches to the Left and the move would hand the next election to the Conservatives, he told activists.
Mr Brown did not identify Mr Corbyn by name, but left no doubt that the other three leadership candidates are all preferable to the veteran Left-winger.
He savaged the North London MP’s stance on foreign affairs, which includes supporting Palestinian terrorist groups, and opposition to Brit-
‘Look at lessons from history’
ain’s membership of Nato.
It was suggested that many Corbyn supporters are more interested in protesting about injustice than tackling it. And he warned that Mr Corbyn’s vision of introducing a Sovietstyle command economy in Britain was ‘years out of date’.
Mr Brown acknowledged that Labour members were ‘heartbroken’ and ‘grieving’ in the wake of David Cameron’s election victory this year. But he pleaded with them not to abandon the political centre ground, saying Labour had a ‘moral duty’ to the poor to make itself electable.
Asking supporters to learn lessons from the party’s history, he warned: ‘We find that the grouping in the party that Labour electors want to give the most votes to is the grouping they themselves say is least likely to be able to take Labour into power.’
He added: ‘If our global alliances are going to be alliances with Hezbollah and Hamas and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, there is no chance of building a worldwide alliance that could deal with poverty and inequality and climate change and financial instability.’
Mr Brown, who refused to name his preferred candidate, is the latest Labour grandee to warn about the threat posed to Labour by Mr Corbyn, who has emerged as the surprise frontrunner to succeed Ed Miliband. His 50-minute speech was delivered in the symbolic Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank, scene of the victory party for New Labour’s 1997 landslide.
Tony Blair warned last week that Labour faced ‘annihilation’ at the next election if Mr Corbyn takes charge. But Mr Corbyn’s camp brushed aside the criticism last night. A spokesman said: ‘Gordon Brown has highlighted the need for a Labour Party that stands for hope, that is credible, radical and electable – on which basis the best candidate to vote for is Jeremy Corbyn.’
Clive Lewis, who is tipped for a senior role in Mr Corbyn’s team, questioned whether Mr Brown was ‘qualified to lecture on economic credibility’ despite serving for a decade as Chancellor.
Veteran MP Graham Allen said Mr Brown should ‘preface any foreign policy advice with his view of the Iraq war, the 1m dead and the release of the Isis virus.’
On Twitter, some Corbyn supporters even branded Mr Brown a Tory. Ballot papers in the leadership contest will start arriving today at the homes of the 610,000 party members, union affiliates and registered activists who have a vote in the contest.
A COMRES survey yesterday indicated Mr Corbyn is the leadership candidate most likely to damage the party’s chances at the next election.
Contender Andy Burnham yesterday indicated he would be willing to serve in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. Today the shadow health secretary will suggest that only the two male candidates have set out a ‘vision’ for the country.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper insisted she is the only one who can beat Mr Corbyn. Shadow health minister Liz Kendall, now a 100-1 outsider, vowed to fight to the end, but denied she and fellow Blairites would form a breakaway party if Mr Corbyn wins next month.