Money

Corbyn backs aides after criticism of Brexit stance


Jeremy Corbyn has responded to calls for a cull of his leadership team after Labour’s drubbing in the European Parliament elections by issuing a “staunch defence” of his closest aides.

Mr Corbyn’s move during a private meeting of the shadow cabinet on Tuesday — in the face of MPs’ mounting criticism of his top advisers — highlighted his resistance to any shift to make Labour an explicitly pro-Remain party, despite last month’s election result and overwhelming pro-EU sentiment among the party’s ranks.

“The idea that Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t do what he wants to do is just wrong,” one of his allies said of the Labour leader, a life-long Eurosceptic.

Senior figures such as former home secretary David Blunkett and pro-Corbyn economist Paul Mason have blamed last month’s humiliating performance on the party’s confused message on Brexit in general and a second referendum in particular.

They and many MPs blame Labour’s resistance to promising a new public vote on EU membership on top aides collectively known as the “four Ms”.

These are: Karie Murphy, Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff; Seumas Milne, his head of communications; Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the Union, Labour’s biggest single donor; and Andrew Murray, a former top Unite official who is now an adviser in Mr Corbyn’s office.

All four oppose a second referendum. Mr McCluskey considers that an attempt to overturn the 2016 EU referendum would be undemocratic and risk “tearing our society further apart”, while one shadow cabinet member quoted Ms Murphy as saying Labour would back a second such vote wholeheartedly “over my dead body”.

“He is being stifled by a trade union bureaucracy,” a normally loyal shadow minister said of Mr Corbyn. “It’s all about command and control from the centre.”

Another senior frontbencher complained of several occasions in which the shadow cabinet agreed a Brexit policy only for it to be undermined days later in briefings by Mr Corbyn’s aides, who can overshadow even the most senior Labour MPs.

This week, Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, who normally deputises when Mr Corbyn is away, was replaced at prime minister’s questions by Rebecca Long-Bailey, a more loyal “Corbynista” who is closer to the “four Ms”.

Some MPs saw that move as retribution for Ms Thornberry’s openly pro-EU comments.

Mr Blunkett described Labour as “imploding” because of “incompetence” at the top. Mr Mason said the officials who “designed this fiasco” — Labour scored just 14 per cent of the vote in the EU poll — should be removed from positions of influence.

But in Tuesday’s shadow cabinet meeting, Mr Corbyn “strongly condemned” attacks on his staff, according to one person present.

One Labour official said that the basic theory that Brexit policy was fashioned by “the court not the king” — by Mr Corbyn’s office rather than the leader himself — was fundamentally flawed. “It’s a way to criticise the leader without criticising him directly,” he said of the attacks on the “four Ms”.

Different shadow cabinet members have interpreted Mr Corbyn’s private comments on Brexit in contrasting ways.

“Often you’ll be sitting in shadow cabinet and people are arguing about one issue or another and it’s just not clear where Jeremy sits,” said one. “He hates confrontation. That allows everyone to project their own views on to him, because he is such a blank canvas.”

Another person suggested the leader had warmed towards a second referendum since Christmas because he is “getting it in the neck” from Labour voters in his Islington constituency, where the Lib Dems came first in May.

But Mr Corbyn remains sympathetic to the argument made by Ian Lavery, Labour’s chairman, who maintains that an openly Remain position would alienate Labour voters in the north.

During the European election campaign Mr Corbyn tried to skate over the fissures of the Brexit row, promising to work for both Leavers and Remainers and demanding either a general election or a second referendum to resolve the impasse. He has consistently made clear he prefers the first option.

In the immediate aftermath of last month’s vote, he modified his stance, calling for any Brexit deal — rather than just Theresa May’s unloved exit agreement — “has to be put to a public vote”

But, rather than backing Remain, he still wants to strike a softer Brexit deal than Mrs May, says that Labour does not want a “rerun of 2016”, and describes a second referendum as “a long way off”.

Some allies believe Mr Corbyn wants to keep Labour’s position vague because he does not have the stomach to choose between different supporters.

That is leading to anguish even among some normally supportive frontbenchers, not least because it goes against the grain of Mr Corbyn’s promise to let the party membership set policy.

Mr Corbyn has promised to listen to members — who some Labour officials have suggested could be balloted on future policy — but this has not yet translated into any firm action. “I think the can will be kicked down the road,” said one shadow cabinet member.

The battle is far from over. Mr Corbyn’s team rejects rumours that aides would like him to demote Europhile members of the shadow cabinet — for example Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit spokesman. “The membership are still loyal to Jeremy but they would go nuts if he tried something like that,” said one insider.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.