Labour Leader Corbyn Faces Revolt After Brexit Vote

Labour Leader Corbyn Faces Revolt After Brexit Vote

People inside the Labour Party have accused party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his office of hampering the party’s campaign to keep Britain in the European Union. From The London Times:

Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, said that it often felt as if figures in the leader’s office were “working against the rest of the party and had conflicting objectives”.

The broadside from Mr Johnson came as the Labour leader faced an avalanche of resignations from his shadow cabinet and frontbench team, with some of the most senior shadow ministers calling for him to quit.

Tom Watson, his deputy leader, added to the pressure by telling Mr Corbyn that he had lost the confidence of the parliamentary Labour Party and would face a leadership challenge if he did not step aside.

The members do not think he could win “the snap election that may be called as a result of the Brexit vote.”

The members of parliament have also decided “to move forward with a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.” The Guardian posted these tweets:

Key conclusion :There WILL be a vote on Margaret Hodge motion of no confidence, PLP decided.

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) June 27, 2016

Senior Labour MP tells me after PLP that "Jeremy just won't take responsibility. The people around him bear a heavy responsibility"

— Isabel Hardman (@IsabelHardman) June 27, 2016

"writing on the wall is 8 metres high" says one Labour MP about Corbyn. "Very depressing. A vacuum surrounded by an emptiness" #labour

— Vicki Young (@BBCVickiYoung) June 27, 2016

The Telegraph reported he “lost 20 of his 31 strong shadow cabinet.” Lisa Nandy and Owen Smith said they quit because Corbyn did not show any leadership to the Labour Party. They both want Watson to take Corbyn’s spot. Will Straw, the executive director of the Remain campaign, echoed their concerns:

“Rather than making a clear and passionate Labour case for EU membership, Corbyn took a week’s holiday in the middle of the campaign and removed pro-EU lines from his speeches,” Mr Straw said on Monday afternoon. “Rather than finding imaginative ways for Labour to present a united front and get its message across to wavering supporters, Corbyn vetoed a planned event featuring all Labour’s formers leaders.”

Sources said Corbyn will not go down without a fight by making public the secret vote to unseat him so people can see those trying to get rid of him. He released this statement:

“I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me – or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.

“Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.

“Over the next 24 hours I will reshape my shadow cabinet and announce a new leadership team to take forward Labour’s campaign for a fairer Britain – and to get the best deal with Europe for our people.”

Trouble brewed inside the Labour Party since Corbyn came into power, especially with anti-Semitic rhetoric. Corbyn suspended two members over anti-Semitic comments. Ilyas Aziz received a suspension after he compared “the actions of Israel against the Palestinians to those of the Nazis against the Jews.” They also suspended Salim Mulla after he said “Zionist Jews are a disgrace to humanity.”

Corbyn himself has connections to people outside of the party that hold anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views. Before he became leader, The Jewish Chronicle demanded Corbyn answer these questions about those connections:

1. Did you donate, as alleged by its founder, to Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR), a group that publishes open antisemitism, run by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen — an organisation so extreme that even the Palestine Solidarity Campaign refuses to associate with it?
2. Have you, as Mr Eisen claims, regularly attended DYR’s annual conference?
3. Why have you accepted an invitation to appear at a conference on August 22 alongside Carlos Latuff, the notorious anti-Semitic cartoonist?
4. Why did you write to the Church of England authorities to defend Rev Stephen Sizer, a vicar banned from social media because of his habit of posting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, telling them that Rev Sizer was “under attack” because he had “dared to speak out over Zionism”?
5. Why do you associate with Hamas and Hezbollah and refer to them as your “friends”?
6. Why have you failed to condemn the anti-Semitic posters and banners that dominate the annual Al-Quds Day rally, sponsored by the Stop The War Coalition, which you chair?
7. Why did you describe Raead Salah, a man convicted of the blood libel, as an ‘honoured citizen’?

Professor Jacobsen embedded a video of Corbyn commenting about his friends from Hamas and Hezbollah, but YouTube removed it.

*UPDATE*

The motion of no confidence against Jeremy Corbyn has passed, but the Labour Party leader refuses to resign:

The 172-40 vote, which is not binding, follows resignations from the shadow cabinet and calls on Mr Corbyn to quit.

Mr Corbyn said the ballot had “no constitutional legitimacy” and said he would not “betray” the members who voted for him by resigning.

The leader’s allies have told his critics to trigger a formal leadership contest if they want to challenge him.

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