Internal back-stabbing as part of a bid to replace Jeremy Corbyn with Hilary Benn will destroy Labour across the UK, the party’s leader has warned plotting MPs.
As rumours swirled round Westminster about Mr Benn taking the top job following his impassioned speech in favour of Syrian air strikes, opposing Mr Corbyn’s stance, the party’s leadership team slammed conspirators.
One senior source compared the whispering campaign to the briefing carried out against Johann Lamont by a number of now former MPs while she was Scottish Labour leader, which he said proved fatal to the party north of the border.
“Johann didn’t get everything right but she was never allowed the chance to make her case properly because every time she said anything our MPs would be on the phone to lobby journalists,” the insider said.
“It wasn’t the SNP who were being most critical of her – it was people within our own party. That was what killed us in Scotland as much as anything. If people look at the politicians behind the leader and think they don’t rate them they’re going to say: ‘They must be a dobber then.’
“Now all the same things are happening here. MPs are massaging their egos for 15 seconds in the sun to brief against Jeremy and the leadership. It has got to stop.”
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, an ally of Mr Corbyn, claimed Mr Benn’s speech “could have been the opening of a leadership campaign” as odds on him taking over tumbled from 25/1 a fortnight ago to 5/2 last night.
Former leadership contenders Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall praised the shadow Foreign Secretary’s contribution but other senior Labour MPs told The Courier those talking of a leadership bid were “trouble makers”.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell insisted Mr Benn would continue on the front bench, despite suggestions being floated that some of those who opposed Mr Corbyn would be demoted or dumped entirely in a reshuffle.
But he did take a swipe at his address, which prompted spontaneous applause in the Commons, comparing it to Tony Blair’s speech before the Iraq War.
He also talked up Mr Corbyn’s mandate and strength of position. Mr McDonnell said: “What Jeremy demonstrated yesterday is an overwhelming majority in every section of the party – amongst the members, on the National Executive Committee and amongst members of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the shadow cabinet – he had a majority in every part of the party. He leads the party.”