May would ‘wipe out’ Corbyn in snap poll – with 100-seat majority

LABOUR would be wiped out if Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected as leader because Theresa May would immediately call a snap General Election, a senior party figure warns today.

Michael Dugher MP, a political adviser to Gordon Brown when he ‘bottled’ calling an early Election as Prime Minister, predicts that Mrs May would win a 100-seat majority if she went to the country in the autumn.

‘Labour could be looking at decades in the political wilderness,’ the Barnsley East MP said.

‘I think she’ll be persuaded to seize the chance to go to the country sooner rather than later – maybe as early as October – if Jeremy Corbyn is still leader.

‘If that happens I fear we could see the Tories get a majority of 100 seats. Indeed, Labour could be looking at decades in the political wilderness’.

He added: ‘Some people say May is too cautious to call an election. But the riskier move would be not to call an election. May, like Brown, would be permanently branded both an “unelected” Prime Minister and a “bottler”.’

Mr Dugher’s intervention comes at the end of another turbulent week for the Opposition, with moderate MPs in despair at polls suggesting that Mr Corbyn is on course to defeat his rival Owen Smith in September’s contest.

With more than three-quarters of MPs opposed to their leader, the anti-Corbyn bloc predicts that many will simply give up on their political careers and resign their seats if he wins – triggering a spate of by-elections. In other developments:

A Mail on Sunday investigation discloses today that T-shirts being sold by the hard-Left Momentum group which props up his leadership are being made by workers in Bangladesh on just 30p an hour;

Mr Smith worked as a lobbyist for the drugs giant Pfizer when it launched legal action to keep the cost of life-saving drugs artificially high in the developing world;

The turmoil has been accompanied by complaints from critics of Mr Corbyn that they have been subjected to intimidation and abuse by the hard Left. A total of 44 women Labour MPs have signed a letter to Mr Corbyn complaining about his ‘inadequate’ response to the attacks.

‘Rape threats, death threats, smashed cars and bricks through windows are disgusting and totally unacceptable in any situation,’ they wrote.

Mr Corbyn yesterday urged his supporters to remain ‘disciplined’ during the contest.

Speaking at the launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester, Mr Corbyn said: ‘As I have made it clear many times before, I don’t do any personal abuse of anybody at any time.

‘None of that has any place in our party or our movement… where we have disagreement in our party we settle it through democratic means – no coups, no intimidation, no abuse.’