Brexit to blame for Labour’s poll defeat, says report

LABOUR’S MEMBERSHIP surged to more than 580,000 after its General Election defeat, which the party’s official report has blamed on Brexit while largely absolving Jeremy Corbyn.

The post-mortem examination circulated to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) found it would be “unrealistic” not to say its policy to hold a fresh referendum played a “decisive” role.

Radicalism was largely ruled out as being at fault in the report by election co-ordinators Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery, but they did blame a glut of policies for confusing the public. While the MPs accepted there were “negative views” of the outgoing leader, there was little blame laid at any of his actions.

The increase in membership to what was described as the party’s largest number ever was revealed at an NEC meeting on Tuesday. Last summer the membership stood at 485,000.

A senior Labour source said: “The Labour Party was already by far the biggest party in Britain. It is now even bigger – as big as it has ever been.”

Meanwhile, Rebecca LongBailey has become the third contender to make it through to the final stage of the Labour leadership contest after being nominated by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

The Shadow Business Secretary’s name will appear on the ballot paper after securing the backing from a third trade union, joining Sir Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy in making it to the last round. Ms Long-Bailey thanked the unions and said she would “build an aspirational socialism”.