Corbyn ‘failed to heed’ warnings from senior MPs

Report shelved by Labour leadership

SENIOR LABOUR figures in Yorkshire have said they saw signs of the disastrous result the party faced in the North while knocking on doors, but warnings to Jeremy Corbyn went unheeded.

Dan Jarvis and Jon Trickett, who both retained their seats but on severely reduced majorities last week, have both said separately that they were aware the party was facing a thrashing at the polls in the North, and Mr Trickett even wrote a report on the reasons for Mr Corbyn.

He said there was “little excuse” for the Labour Party not understanding the problems as he had produced a report on the issues just months before the election.

Mr Trickett, Labour MP for Hemsworth, told The Guardian a document prepared by him and party chairman Ian Lavery which warned voters outside of London were turning away from Labour was “unwelcome and suppressed” by Mr Corbyn.

And he added: “I don’t think it was understood how significant the problems in the North were –

though there was little excuse for not understanding it.”

The document, called Northern Discomfort, was based on research in 50 northern seats.

It recommended scrapping the idea that traditionally safe seats did not need to be defended, plus the return of power to northern communities.

But Mr Trickett told The Guardian: “It went into the ether. It got lost and we couldn’t get it signed off. We formed the impression that it was unwelcome and suppressed.”

Meanwhile Mr Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central and Sheffield City Region Mayor, said Labour’s election manifesto was viewed as unrealistic by the electorate in its Yorkshire heartlands. Writing on the Labour List website, Mr Jarvis said Nigel Farage’s party came a “worryingly close second” and that he won due to the activists who “rolled up their sleeves and eked out the votes, house by house”.

He said: “On four occasions, I was confronted by constituents displaying such visceral anger that I was prepared for a physical altercation. I count myself fortunate that it never quite reached that point. They included an exminer who said Labour was no longer for the working class and a veteran who said our party’s frontbench supported terrorists.”

He said he had “countless conversations” with people concerned that a Labour “no longer spoke for them”.