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Former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell has accused Jeremy Corbyn of being “asleep on the job” and said the Labour leader has “no strategy” to take on prime minister Boris Johnson.
Mr Campbell, who was director of communications during Tony Blair’s leadership, lashed out at Mr Corbyn this morning and claimed he was incapable as a party leader.
Taking aim at Mr Corbyn, he suggested he was “sleepwalking” as leader, while Mr Johnson was leading the UK into “a massive act of self-harm.”
Outlining the reasons why he is choosing to leave the party, Mr Campbell said he “couldn’t quite believe” he was in a position where he was having to give up on the Labour party.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “Years ago my partner Fiona left the party and she cited three reasons. One was the failure to lead on Brexit, one was the failure to tackle the hideous anti-Semitism and the third was the lack of a genuinely modern and forward-looking policy or agenda.
“I’ve just reached the point of deciding in myself that I no longer feel like this is the Labour party I have been dedicated to all my life. This is not the party of Clement Attlee, it’s not the Labour party of Harold Wilson, it is not the Labour party of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.”
Hitting out at Mr Corbyn, Mr Campbell said the Labour MP had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” every step of the way in terms of Brexit negotiations and argued he did not have a strong enough strategy to take on Mr Johnson.
He said: “Boris has no mandate for no-deal Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn has to ask himself is he capable of doing the job and rising to the challenge that he faces now. Look at what’s happened in the last few days now – where is the strategy?”
He added: “I think there are several people who would pursue a different politics and who would give genuine leadership to the country when it is crying out for it.
“I just think he’s reached the point where he’s incapable of it and we have to be honest about that. I don’t see that hard work being done.
“If we just carry on sleepwalking we are going to help the most right-wing, ill-qualified, ill-intentioned Prime Minister that this country has ever to had to inflict a massive, massive act of self-harm.”
Speaking in another interview with BBC Radio 4 today, Mr Campbell said he did not think his criticisms of Mr Corbyn were “personal”.
He said: “I think I’m saying what I think, it’s based on a lot of experience of campaigns and of politics, and reading it as I read it now, Labour is facing its own existential crisis… I think there is a danger that we’re going to be destroyed as a serious credible political force unless we face up to the reality of what’s going on.”
Asked if he would be joining the Lib Dems, Mr Campbell said: “No, I don’t feel I’m close to other parties, but I do think if we do get to a general election and the choice facing the country is Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn all sorts of things are going to happen because that is not a choice that this country finds remotely palatable.”
Mr Campbell said he wanted to support Labour, but added Mr Corbyn’s Labour Party had “been taken over by people who until recently were Communists, they were Stalinists and they still are in my view and I think it’s time to stop pretending all of us, members, MPs, let’s stop pretending that this is the Labour Party that we really believe in.”
On Mr Corbyn, he told Today: “He has not led on Brexit, the anti-Semitism issue, there has not been proper leadership, they kid themselves that there’s a policy agenda out there that the country is even aware of.”
On Mr Johnson, he added: “He’s now focusing on Jeremy Corybn and the weakness of his leadership as a way of trying to clear the decks towards a general election, blaming Europe, blaming the civil service, blaming Parliament for blocking him and he thinks, probably rightly, that the country’s decided they will not put Jeremy Corbyn into office and I think we have to face up to that truth.”
