Corbyn leading Labour to abyss, says Mandelson

PETER Mandelson launched a savage attack on Jeremy Corbyn last night, accusing him of leading Labour ‘over the abyss’.

The former Business Secretary said the Labour leader did not understand that the party was a ‘broad church’ and that by trying to impose a ‘hard-Left blueprint’ he would make it unelectable.

Lord Mandelson said Mr Corbyn did not look like a ‘credible would-be prime minister’ and that an ‘emerging crisis’ is engulfing the party because he is marginalising MPs who do not follow his agenda.

In an article for The Guardian, he warns moderate MPs they are running out of time to save Labour from oblivion and calls for a modern equivalent of Neil Kinnock’s expulsion of Militant members in the 1980s.

Without a swift attempt to remove Mr Corbyn, moderate Labour MPs risk being ‘complicit in Labour’s probable disintegration’, he says, as he urges them to ‘fight for the party’s future’. Lord Mandelson accuses Mr Corbyn of using hard-Left Trotskyite groups to control the party and silence his opponents.

His comments come before a ‘revenge reshuffle’ next week when Mr Corbyn is expected to purge critics from the Shadow Cabinet. Shadow foreign secretary Hillary Benn is among those likely to face the sack.

Lord Mandelson writes: ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s actions suggest he does not understand or respect the fact that Labour is a broad church, and that seeking to impose a hard-Left blueprint on the party will end up disqualifying Labour from office.

‘It’s not just that his loyalty to farLeft ideology and organisation puts him outside the party’s historical mainstream – his devotion to the simple purity of opposition rather than coming to terms with the complex challenge of government means he does not look to ordinary voters like a credible would-be prime minister.’

He adds: ‘We have a leader who is revealing himself to be an intentionally divisive figure.’

Last night supporters of Mr Corbyn hit back. Labour MP Clive Lewis accused Lord Mandelson of being ‘bitter and shrill’ and ‘completely self-indulgent’.