‘Better than Blair? You’re delusional’
Corbyn aide even mocked by allies over ‘best Labour leader’ claim
JEREMY CORBYN’S office was branded ‘delusional’ last night after an aide suggested he was a better Opposition leader than Tony Blair.
Andrew Fisher, Mr Corbyn’s outspoken political adviser, hailed a string of ‘successes’ achieved by the Labour Party since the new leader took over in September.
And in a leaked email, he declared: ‘You’d be hard-pressed to name an Opposition that has achieved more in five years, let alone just six months.’
But the boast emerged after one Labour MP branded Mr Corbyn’s leadership a ‘f****** disaster’, and another said he might have to quit.
Last night, even some allies of Mr Corbyn reacted with disbelief to the aide’s claim.
One said: ‘I’m afraid this is delusional. We may not like Tony Blair but even ardent Corbynistas should think twice before ranking Jeremy above him as an Opposition leader – especially after only six months.’
In a pre-Easter message to Mr Corbyn’s staff, Mr Fisher – who once described Mr Blair as a ‘scumbag’ and dismissed Ed Miliband’s frontbench as ‘absolute s****’ – did not refer to previous Labour leaders by name.
But he backed up his boasts about the Corbyn-led party by highlighting polls showing Labour closing the gap with the Tories, as well as a string of successes and Government ‘U-turns’. These included scrapping the so-called ‘tampon tax’ on sanitary products, as well as the Tories’ decision to abandon £1billion-a-year of disability benefit cuts.
Mr Fisher’s message said: ‘Just last week, we forced the Govern- ment into an almost immediate U-turn that would have cut thousands of pounds in benefits from over half a million people.’
But even a Labour frontbencher sympathetic to Mr Corbyn dismissed that claim last night, saying it was former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith who forced that U-turn – ‘and he is hardly one of us’.
Blairite MPs also hit back, with one saying: ‘Tony Blair transformed the party’s image by dumping the Clause 4 commitment to state ownership and restoring our credibility for economic management.
‘What’s Corbyn achieved apart from making us a laughing stock and making David Cameron look good at Prime Minister’s Questions every week?’
Mr Fisher was suspended from the party last year for apparently backing a Class War candidate over Labour’s in the General Election. He was later reinstated.
Both Mr Fisher and the Labour leader’s office declined to comment last night.
‘He’s made us a laughing stock’