Corbyn alone ‘to blame for Labour’s civil war chaos’

JEREMY CORBYN must take the blame for the “incompetent” reshuffle that has ignited a civil war inside the Labour Party, a former shadow minister said last night.

Kevan Jones, who quit as a frontbench defence spokesman last week, said Mr Corbyn could not blame anyone other than himself and his closest aides for the crisis, as the row over the party’s policy on Trident nuclear weapons intensified.

He warned that plans to water down Labour’s support for Trident would take the party back to the Eighties, emboldening Vladimir Putin and putting Britain in greater danger. In an interview with The Sunday

Telegraph, Mr Jones said Labour had already lost voters’ confidence on the economy, and suggested Mr Corbyn may not survive as party leader to fight the 2020 election. “I don’t think the leadership can blame anybody else,” he said. “This one has been the responsibility of his own office.” In other developments: Ken Livingstone went to war with Labour’s sacked culture spokesman, Michael Dugher, whom he described as part of New Labour’s “brutal” spin machine, after Mr Dugher said the former mayor of London’s “far-Left, anti-war, former communist” allies had taken control of the party.

Conor McGinn, a Labour whip, took the extraordinary step of speaking out against Mr Corbyn’s sacking of Mr Dugher and the Europe spokesman Pat McFadden, whom he described as “authentic, working-class, traditional Labour voices”.

Alison McGovern, another moderate MP, resigned last night from a role leading a review of child poverty and low wages for the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. She chairs the Blairite think tank Progress, which Mr McDonnell last week described as “hard Right” and “conservative”, an outburst that she said had crossed the line.

Mr Corbyn appealed to his MPs to move on and focus on fighting the Conservatives, as one of his closest allies privately warned the leader’s critics to “step back from the precipice”.

In last week’s “revenge reshuffle” Mr Corbyn sought to stamp his authority on the front bench by removing critics. There is speculation that Mr Corbyn – a lifelong campaigner for nuclear disarmament – is preparing the way for Labour to adopt a policy of unilaterally scrapping Britain’s nuclear weapons.

He moved Maria Eagle from her post as shadow defence secretary and

‘What we have seen this week is nothing straighttalking or honest.’ ‘He was head of communications for Gordon Brown, so the centre of what many people regarded as a rather brutal regime.’

replaced her with Emily Thornberry, a well-known anti-Trident campaigner. A senior shadow cabinet ally of Mr Corbyn suggested he could reform internal rules so that Labour’s Left-wing grass-roots membership would have the final say over policies such as Trident. This would be likely to result in a new policy of opposition to Trident.

Dan Jarvis, a senior Labour MP seen as a potential future leader, suggested he would find it difficult to stand at the next election if the party policy was to oppose Trident.

Mr Livingstone yesterday stepped up his criticism of Nato, saying it was an unnecessary relic of the Cold War.

Mr Jones said: “Ken Livingstone hasn’t got a clue what he is talking about. He is clearly not aware of the massive investment that Putin is making in not only upgrading Russia’s nuclear capability, but actually expanding it. We have lost the voters’ confidence on the economy. We are now in danger of losing their confidence on defence and national security.”

Mr Jones added: “What we have seen this week is nothing straight-talking or honest. You have had his [Corbyn’s] own office spending the entire Christmas rubbishing colleagues and threatening reshuffles, and then we have had front-bench spokesmen going out and saying things that were just not true.”

Mr Dugher said: “This leadership team is dancing on the strings of Ken Livingstone, and nobody elected [him] to be leader of the Labour Party.”

Mr Livingstone hit back: “He was head of communications for Gordon Brown, so the centre of what many people regarded as a rather brutal regime, the way it treated other people.”

Kevan Jones on Jeremy Corbyn

Ken Livingstone on Michael Dugher ‘The truth is this leadership team is dancing on the strings of Ken Livingstone.’

Michael Dugher on Ken Livingstone