JEREMY Corbyn was told to reshuffle his Shadow Cabinet or face an even bigger walkout in a blistering attack from his own Deputy.
In an astonishing blast, Tom Watson also said he would be working to develop his own policies with MPs that play to Labour’s “traditions”.
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He said: “I love this party. But sometimes I no longer recognise it.”
It came as party insiders credited the heavyweight with an intense lobbying effort that prevented an even bigger number from joining the seven ‘splitters’ yesterday.
Sources claimed that some had initially hoped 30 Labour MPs would resign yesterday.
In a YouTube post, Mr Watson said he believed the seven who left yesterday were wrong to leave.
But he urged the ‘hard left’ to reach out rather than “condemn”. And he demanded Mr Corbyn act to make Labour “kinder and gentler”.
He stormed: “I confess I feared this day would come.
SHUFFLE WARNING
“And now I fear, that unless we change, we may see more days like this.
“The frontbench needs once again to reflect the balance of opinion in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
“We need to broaden out so that all the members of our broad church feel welcome in our congregation.”
Mr Watson was elected as deputy leader with 50.7 per cent of the vote in 2015 – making the Black Country MP one of the few with a mandate to match leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The tirade came just days after Labour’s former vice chairman Michael Dugher revealed he was quitting the party after 28 years over Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis.
The former aide to Gordon Brown said the treatment of MPs such as Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth had “made me want to cry”.
A Labour spokesman declined to comment on Mr Watson, other than to point towards Mr Corbyn’s own statement yesterday morning.
PA:Press Association
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