Friday, November 06, 2015
More pressure on Corbyn?
I suppose Jeremy Corbyn will quickly get used to the continuous speculation about his future but, for journalists at least it never gets old.
Today's Independent reports that the new Labour leader could be hit by a wave of resignations by moderate frontbenchers in an attempt to destabilise his leadership and pave the way for a coup aimed at ousting him.
They say that some Labour frontbenchers who agreed to serve under Corbyn are determined to topple him well before the 2020 general election and have begun private talks about their tactics. One option is an orchestrated series of resignations if Labour does badly in Mr Corbyn’s first major electoral test, the contests next May for London Mayor; the Scottish Parliament; Welsh Assembly and local authorities.
This latest speculation has been prompted by the results of internal elections within the Parliamentary Labour Party in which so-called moderates seized control of the PLP’s 17 committees which shadow government departments. Eleven of the Chairs of these committees went to MPs who nominated the Blairite candidate Liz Kendall in this summer’s Labour leadership election.
In truth though it is the same-old, same-old. Whether these moderates have the guts to do more than brief journalists will have to be seenm, especially if Corbyn retains his popularity within his selectorate.
Today's Independent reports that the new Labour leader could be hit by a wave of resignations by moderate frontbenchers in an attempt to destabilise his leadership and pave the way for a coup aimed at ousting him.
They say that some Labour frontbenchers who agreed to serve under Corbyn are determined to topple him well before the 2020 general election and have begun private talks about their tactics. One option is an orchestrated series of resignations if Labour does badly in Mr Corbyn’s first major electoral test, the contests next May for London Mayor; the Scottish Parliament; Welsh Assembly and local authorities.
This latest speculation has been prompted by the results of internal elections within the Parliamentary Labour Party in which so-called moderates seized control of the PLP’s 17 committees which shadow government departments. Eleven of the Chairs of these committees went to MPs who nominated the Blairite candidate Liz Kendall in this summer’s Labour leadership election.
In truth though it is the same-old, same-old. Whether these moderates have the guts to do more than brief journalists will have to be seenm, especially if Corbyn retains his popularity within his selectorate.
