LABOUR MP: EVEN I CAN’T BACK CORBYN
He’s unfit to be prime minister says rebel – as leader faces biggest wipeout since Michael Foot in 1983
ONE of Jeremy Corbyn’s own MPs last night urged him to quit to avoid a Labour meltdown in the election, saying he could not support him entering No 10.
In an extraordinary outburst, John Woodcock, a moderate MP with a wafer-thin majority, said the hard-Left leader was not fit to be prime minister.
He told constituents: ‘There is still time for Jeremy to stand down rather than lead Labour to defeat.’
Mr Corbyn refused to say whether he would quit if Labour – trailing by more than 20 points in the polls – suffers a wipeout. Dozens of Labour’s 229 MPs are expected to lose their seats with the party forecast to end up with fewer than the 209 Michael Foot achieved in 1983.
Humiliation on such a scale would effectively shut Labour out of power for more than a decade. However, some Blairites see defeat as the only way to get rid of Mr Corbyn and elect a more voter-friendly leader.
Last night former business secretary Lord Mandelson said that Corbynites must ‘own’ the result and not blame it on those on the Right of the party.
And in a sign of unease on the Labour backbenches, Ilford South’s Mike Gapes said voting for the snap election in the Commons today would be like ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’.
Mr Woodcock, MP for Barrow and Furness, has a majority of just 795 over the Tories – which could be wiped out thanks to Mr Corbyn’s opposition to the nuclear industry. In February, neighbouring Copeland fell to the Tories in a by-election.
In a message to constituents yesterday, Mr Woodcock said: ‘I will not countenance ever voting to make Jeremy Corbyn Britain’s prime minister. I realise that Jeremy has been elected and then re-elected as the leader of my party. But my first duty is to you, my constituents.
‘Jeremy’s opposition to the Trident renewal programme is lifelong and is well-known, but more than that, I cannot countenance endorsing him for a role which I think even he – although he may say differently in front of the cameras – does not think he is fit to carry out.
‘Now my party, locally and nationally, will need to decide how to treat my desire for reselection in these circumstances.’
He added: ‘There is still, of course, time for Jeremy to stand down rather than lead Labour to defeat. But I promised when I first asked you to vote for me that I would put Furness first and that means in these circumstances doing what is right rather than what is easy.’
Another staunch critic of Mr Corbyn, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Tom Blenkinsop, announced he will not stand for re-election.
Caught on the hop by Mrs May’s announcement, Mr Corbyn would not be drawn on whether he would resign as Labour leader if the party loses seats.
‘We are campaigning to win this election, that’s the only question now,’ he told Sky News.
He said a fairer economy, the NHS and social justice for all would be at the centre of Labour’s campaign. He added he was ‘very confident’. Mr Corbyn was met with applause as he attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster last night. A senior aide said it was a ‘very positive’ meeting.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said there was a ‘great atmosphere’ while deputy leader Tom Watson described it as ‘very buoyant’.
Earlier Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda, said it was ‘extremely irresponsible’ of the Prime Minister to hold an election when the situation in Northern Ireland is volatile and the UK is part-way through Brexit negotiations.
Chris Matheson, MP for Chester – the most marginal Labour seat in the country – said he was thinking about voting against Mrs May’s motion to call an election as there was ‘no shame in calling it out as the Conservatives acting in their own self-interest’.
‘Still time for him to stand down’