Khan’s blast at leader
Mayor Khan tells Labour to focus on power 38 times in veiled blast at leader
LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan issued a stark warning to Jeremy Corbyn yesterday that he needs to make his party more electable.
In a 10-minute speech, Mr Khan stated the need for Labour to be ‘in power’ to achieve its aims no fewer than 38 times.
Meanwhile deputy leader Tom Watson last night cautioned Jeremy Corbyn against dragging the party to the far Left, saying it was time to stop ‘trashing’ Tony Blair.
In a stirring speech, Mr Watson also urged Mr Corbyn and the shadow chancellor John McDonnell to stop attacking business, saying: ‘Capitalism is not the enemy.’
Mr Corbyn looked on stony-faced as delegates at the party’s annual conference gave Mr Watson an impromptu standing ovation for praising New Labour’s record. The clash came just hours after Mr Khan’s warning. Aides later confirmed that Mr Corbyn and Mr Khan had not spoken since June. Opening his speech yesterday, Mr Khan said: ‘Labour. In. Power. Not just talking the talk but walking the walk too. It’s only when Labour is in power we get the chance to fix the problems we care most about.’
Mr Watson addressed Labour’s lack of unity head on as he gave a keynote speech to the party’s conference in Liverpool. He said: ‘We can’t afford to keep doing this and more importantly the country, the people we stand for, the millions the Tories leave behind every day, they can’t afford us to keep doing this.’
He then lavished praise on Khan, describing him as a ‘champion’. While Mr Watson stressed the need for the party to come together, he also used his speech to lay out the achievements of the Labour governments of Mr Blair and Mr Brown – two figures who are unpopular with some members of the party.
He told delegates to sustained applause that he could ‘go on all afternoon about what we achieved during 11 years of economic growth from a position of national prosperity’. He continued: ‘I don’t know why we have been focusing on what was wrong with the Blair and Brown governments for the last six years, but trashing our own record is not the way to enhance our brand. We won’t win elections like that and we need to win elections. Now is the time to be proud of our party.’
Mr Watson said Labour in recent years had sounded ‘like we were anti-business, anti-prosperity, antisuccess’. ‘We are not and we never have been,’ he said. ‘Capitalism, comrades, is not the enemy. Money is not the problem. Business isn’t bad and the real world is more complicated than that.’
Relations between Mr Corbyn and his deputy have been in the deep freeze since the summer, when Mr Watson called for him to quit and backed leadership rival Owen Smith. Mr Watson’s elected position means he cannot be sacked, but Mr Corbyn and his aides have discussed ways to sideline him, and have even considered mounting a challenge against him.
But Mr Corbyn yesterday lost a major power struggle within the party, as the conference voted to weaken his grip on the ruling National Executive Committee.
The decision enraged pro-Corbyn delegates, with activist Max Shanley accusing moderate MPs of trying to
‘We won’t win elections by trashing our record’
‘rig the debate’, and denouncing ‘parliamentarians who are not accountable to this movement’.
Labour sources said Mr Corbyn had also been forced to abandon a bid to force out the party’s general-secretary Iain McNicol, after GMB union boss Tim Roache told him ‘in no uncertain terms’ it was unacceptable. Meanwhile, Lord Mandelson said that he was ‘praying’ for an early general election – as the quickest way of ousting Mr Corbyn. Appearing at a Royal Television Society conference in London, the former business secretary was asked how likely it would be for Theresa May to call an early poll. He replied: ‘Bring it on so we can deal with the awful situation in the Labour Party earlier than 2020.’ Lord Mandelson, a close ally of Tony Blair and architect of New Labour, suggested he was hoping for an early defeat for Labour under its newly re-elected leader.
He did not mention Mr Corbyn by name, but on the question of whether there would be an early election, he said: ‘I get up every day and pray that will be the case.’