Friday, October 16, 2015
Accusations of incompetence and loss of control directed at Corbyn
Even I am getting tired of blogging about the dissatisfaction within the upper reaches of the Labour Party with their newly elected leader, however nobody in the news media seems to be writing about anything much else.
The latest outburst comes after the shenanigans of Wednesday night when the Labour leader allowed members of his ministerial team to defy him by avoiding a crucial Commons vote just hours after threatening them with the sack if they rebelled.
The Telegraph reports that senior members of Jeremy Corbyn's own team say he has "lost control" over his own party and it is only a matter of time before he suffers his first resignation from the shadow cabinet:
In a sign of Mr Corbyn's lack of authority it emerged that senior Labour MPs had been given permission to be absent and abstain from voting against Conservative proposals to run a budget surplus.
A total of 21 MPs directly defied Mr Corbyn, including former ministers Tristram Hunt, Liz Kendall and Chris Leslie. A further 16 were given permission to be absent, including four shadow ministers.
One of the shadow ministers given permission to miss said that Mr Corbyn's handling of the party has been "incompetent".
The shadow minister said: "He has got no control over his party but he doesn't seem to care. It is only a matter of time before there's a resignation, it's inevitable.
"It will not be a big thing that slips him up, he and his team are not thinking ahead of anything. This isn't just about politics, it's about his competence."
Mr Corbyn is expected to offer free votes on Trident and extending air strikes to Syria amid concerns that he will face a mass rebellion if he fails to do so.
The interesting thing about all this of course is that whilst Labour MPs squabble amongst themselves, Corbyn remains as popular as ever amongst his selectorate and is still seen by many young people in particular as a breath of fresh air.
Attempts within the Labour Party to undermine him just reinforce the impression of him as an anti-politics outsider taking on the establishment, even if that picture is far from the truth.
The latest outburst comes after the shenanigans of Wednesday night when the Labour leader allowed members of his ministerial team to defy him by avoiding a crucial Commons vote just hours after threatening them with the sack if they rebelled.
The Telegraph reports that senior members of Jeremy Corbyn's own team say he has "lost control" over his own party and it is only a matter of time before he suffers his first resignation from the shadow cabinet:
In a sign of Mr Corbyn's lack of authority it emerged that senior Labour MPs had been given permission to be absent and abstain from voting against Conservative proposals to run a budget surplus.
A total of 21 MPs directly defied Mr Corbyn, including former ministers Tristram Hunt, Liz Kendall and Chris Leslie. A further 16 were given permission to be absent, including four shadow ministers.
One of the shadow ministers given permission to miss said that Mr Corbyn's handling of the party has been "incompetent".
The shadow minister said: "He has got no control over his party but he doesn't seem to care. It is only a matter of time before there's a resignation, it's inevitable.
"It will not be a big thing that slips him up, he and his team are not thinking ahead of anything. This isn't just about politics, it's about his competence."
Mr Corbyn is expected to offer free votes on Trident and extending air strikes to Syria amid concerns that he will face a mass rebellion if he fails to do so.
The interesting thing about all this of course is that whilst Labour MPs squabble amongst themselves, Corbyn remains as popular as ever amongst his selectorate and is still seen by many young people in particular as a breath of fresh air.
Attempts within the Labour Party to undermine him just reinforce the impression of him as an anti-politics outsider taking on the establishment, even if that picture is far from the truth.
