100,000 new members to oust Corbyn

JEREMY CORBYN’S critics plan to flood Labour with 100,000 new moderate members after privately admitting they will have to wait until 2017 to oust him as leader.

Leading centrist MPs now expect Mr Corbyn to stay in charge next year because the EU referendum will deflect attention from any failure at May’s local elec- tions. After a chaotic first three months in the job and a damaging split over Syria air strikes, there is an acceptance his leadership has stabilised for the near future.

Instead, likely leadership candidates are drawing up an 18month strategy to “fundamentally” re-energise their wing of the party so they are ready to win in 2017.

Re-shaping the leadership electorate, creating think tanks to boost policy-making and generating funds will be the priorities.

One former shadow cabinet member said: “He could be here for the long haul. It is up to our wing of the party to make sure we fight him every step of the way and keep spirits up.”

The strategy was revealed as Labour MPs take stock ahead of the final week of parliamentary business before Christmas, with Mr Corbyn nearing his 100th day in charge. Speaking anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph, many of the party’s leading moderate MPs admitted that hopes of a quick leadership change were fading.

There is a growing belief that May 2016, touted as the moment Mr Corbyn could fall after local polls, is too early to topple a leader who won almost 60 per cent of

votes in September. Heavy losses are still expected in the Scottish Parliament elections, where the SNP’s post independence referendum surge has yet to be felt, and at council seats contested for the first time since May 2012 when Labour enjoyed a boost after George Osborne’s “Omnishambles” Budget.

However, it is feared any election backlash will be stifled as attention turns to the EU referendum, which will dominate if the voting date is in late 2016. One Labour MP said: “Corbyn will survive 2016 because over the summer the press will be obsessed with the EU referendum. It is all about 2017.”

While there is no comprehensive plan to oust him, there is a growing determination the party must be reshaped to face any hard-Left candidate. There is fury at how Mr Corbyn “used” an expanded membership to strong-arm MPs into opposing air strikes on Syria.

“We are not winning the competition with the membership. He played us royally over Syria. We are feeling sore,” said one MP. Moderates are being urged to focus on ensuring like-minds are not driven away by Mr Corbyn’s leadership, alongside a recruitment drive in 2016. There is a hope more than 100,000 centrists can be signed up before a vote, with a possible late flurry in the campaign similar to Mr Corbyn’s surge over the summer. One MP said: “It is fundamentally about which candidate can excite and generate that support.”

Several meetings of Labour for the Common Good, the group briefly labelled “The Resistance”, were held quietly in recent months. Other moderate groups emerged including Labour Together, created by Ed Miliband’s former ally Jon Cruddas, and Labour Internationalists, which criticised Mr Corbyn’s foreign policy.

There is also a determination not to be outspent after the big unions backed Mr Corbyn. “[His] campaign was mega. This was no plucky, grass-roots anti-establishment campaign,” said an MP.

“Liz Kendall spent a few hundred thousand pounds, Corbyn spent millions. That cannot happen again.”