Party MPs ridicule Corbyn for declaring: ‘We won the argument’
Jeremy Corbyn was ridiculed last night after he claimed Labour had ‘won the argument’, despite leading his party to its worst election defeat in more than 80 years.
He told supporters that ‘our time will come’ – even though 59 of his mPs lost their seats on Thursday night. The Labour leader’s closest ally, John mcDonnell, continued to blame Brexit and the media for his failure, as he sought to anoint a Corbynite successor. But the Shadow Chancellor did at least attempt to apologise for the party’s catastrophic election result, saying: ‘I own this disaster... if anyone’s to blame, it’s me, full stop.’ Last night Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, announced that a new party leader will be in place by the end of march. It is expected the leadership contest will begin on January 7. In an astonishing article, mr Corbyn said he regretted not winning a majority – but said he was proud of the campaign and the hard-Left manifesto. ‘I am proud that on austerity, on corporate power, on inequality and on the climate emergency we have won the arguments and rewritten the terms of political debate,’ he wrote in The Observer. ‘But I regret that we did not succeed in converting that into a parliamentary majority for change.’ The Labour leader acknowledged: ‘We have suffered a heavy defeat, and I take my responsibility for it.’ But he went on: ‘even though we lost seats heavily on Thursday, I believe the manifesto of 2019 and the movement behind it will be seen as
‘The most insulting response’ ‘No willingness to understand’
historically important – a real attempt at building a force powerful enough to transform society for the many, not the few. ‘For the first time in decades, many people have had hope for a better future.’ Labour mP and long-time backbench critic Wes Streeting tweeted: ‘“We won the argument” is the most insulting response to the worst election result since 1935 that any of us could imagine. Go. Now. every Tory policy over the next five years has been enabled by Corbynism.’ Colleague Karen Buck said: ‘We didn’t win the election. Which means we didn’t actually win the argument.’ In a video, mr Corbyn urged like-minded supporters to join Labour as he sought to cement the hold that his hard-Left wing of the party has on power. He said: ‘Although this wasn’t our moment, our time will come. To those who haven’t yet joined us, join the Labour party today. Be part of the resistance to Boris Johnson and the politics of fear.’ But Labour mP Harriet Harman said: ‘This shows no willingness to understand why Labour suffered this catastrophic defeat. Jeremy Corbyn should resign.’
mP Darren Jones said: ‘We failed our party, our people and our country. I want to talk about the future and we’d better get to it quickly.’
mr mcDonnell apologised for losing dozens of seats across the North of england and the midlands to the Tories. He told the BBC’s Andrew marr Show: ‘It’s on me, let’s take it on the chin, I own this disaster so I apologise to all those wonderful Labour mPs who have lost their seats and who worked so hard.’
But he also said he does ‘blame the media’ which he said had ‘demonised’ mr Corbyn ‘for four years solid, every day’ ahead of the dismal defeat. He added: ‘I apologise to all our campaigners. But most of all, I apologise to those people who desperately need a Labour government. And, yes, you know, if anyone’s to blame it is me, full stop.’
Asked whether the Labour leadership’s past support for Irish republicanism and Hamas could have been a factor in the defeat, he said: ‘It might have been.’
Asked what he took the blame for, mr mcDonnell said: ‘For not being able, first of all, I think, to articulate during the campaign how we could get through the Brexit dilemma that we’re on effectively.’ And he conceded that the hard-Left manifesto may have been ‘too fast, too big’.
mr mcDonnell appeared to anoint Labour business spokesman rebecca Long-Bailey as the Left’s candidate to lead the party, saying she had the ability to be ‘a brilliant leader’.