Corbyn happy party is going forward despite claims of ‘soft coup’

0 Jeremy Corbyn welcomes new MP for Stoke-on-trent Gareth Snell to Westminster Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is “very happy” and Labour is moving forward, as a key ally warned a “soft coup” was under way against his leadership of the party.

Shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell said elements within the party, in alliance with the “Murdoch media”, were intent on “destroying” Mr Corbyn and all he stood for.

Mr Corbyn insisted the party was moving forwards under his leadership and would “learn the lessons” of the historic by-election defeat in Copeland, which saw a Labour seat snatched by the Tories.

Labour’s Gareth Snell won the Stoke-on-trent Central byelection, seeing off the challenge of Ukip leader Paul Nuttall, but the party lost Copeland, an area it had held since 1935.

Welcoming Mr Snell to Westminster, Mr Corbyn said his victory showed the people of Stoke “rejecting the politics of fear and instead voting for the politics of hope”.

He added: “There was obviously disappointment in Copeland, we will learn the lessons from that disappointment and we will win Copeland back.”

Asked about Mr Mcdonnell’s warning of a coup, Mr Corbyn said: “I am very happy, we are going forward. Policies will be coming out, campaigns are going on.”

In an article posted on the Labour Briefing website, Mr Mcdonnell accused the “covert coup plotters” of doing all they could to undermine Mr Corbyn through “an exceptionally well resourced ‘dark arts’ operation of the old spin school”.

He said the plotters, who he did not name, were so determined to get rid of Mr Corbyn they were not only prepared to jeopardise their own seats, they were endangering the very existence of the party.

“We have to alert party members and supporters that the soft coup is under way,” he wrote.

“It’s planned, co-ordinated and fully resourced. It is being perpetrated by an alliance between elements in the Labour Party and the Murdoch media empire, both intent on destroying Jeremy Corbyn and all that he stands for.”

Mr Mcdonnell’s warning comes after Labour former cabinet minister Lord Mandelson disclosed last week he was working “every single day” to bring Mr Corbyn’s leadership to an end.

Mr Mcdonnell said, after last year’s failed coup attempt, the plotters realised a direct attack on Mr Corbyn was liable to provoke a backlash from grassroots party members, so they were now working behind the scenes to destabilise him.