The weekly meeting of Labour MPs descended into open warfare on Monday night as many attacked the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, criticising the party’s poor showing at last month’s European elections and its failure to stamp out anti-Semitism.
There have been tensions between Mr Corbyn and many of his own MPs ever since he became leader, most strikingly when they tried unsuccessfully to bring him down in a coup in the summer of 2016.
However, Monday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was the most openly hostile in the past three years, according to some of those in the room. It was the first time Mr Corbyn had addressed the PLP since his party crashed to just 14 per cent in last month’s European elections, losing half of its MEPs.
“Worst meeting ever, he’s an arse,” said one MP leaving the meeting. Another told the Financial Times that the atmosphere was “just vicious” while a third MP said the meeting was “the worst ever . . . devastating”.
From the corridor outside the meeting journalists could hear a series of MPs lining up to criticise the leadership.
Mr Corbyn had hoped to use his lengthy address to the PLP to criticise the Tory leadership contest, with its focus on tax cuts for the rich and a “race to the bottom” towards a no-deal Brexit.
But, instead, his appearance — the leader does not always attend the weekly PLP — was dominated by attacks from various MPs.
Marie Rimmer, a leftwing MP who has rarely criticised the leadership, told Mr Corbyn that “people are turning away from you” and said “it wasn’t easy” for her to vote Labour at the European elections.
Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, said many members were leaving because of the anti-Semitism row in the party. She was cheered by other MPs when she said that many people were disgusted at the treatment of Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary, after urging a tougher anti-Brexit policy on the night of the European elections.
Last week, Ms Thornberry was publicly demoted from her usual role as Mr Corbyn’s stand-in at weekly PMQs in what some colleagues saw as a “punishment beating” for her openly pro-EU stance.
Peter Kyle, a Brighton MP, asked his leader: “Jeremy, we need to know. Do you have a plan, a strategy to lead us out of the mire?”
MPs Wes Streeting and Ruth Smeeth both attacked Mr Corbyn over the fact that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun an investigation into allegations of institutional anti-Semitism in the party.
Mr Streeting asked the Labour leader why he had failed to even mention it in his opening speech to the PLP.
Many MPs are angry about the leadership’s lenient treatment of Lisa Forbes, who was elected as MP for Peterborough last week despite having “favourited” two anti-Semitic posts online. Ms Forbes apologised to the PLP meeting for one of her Facebook “likes”, referring to “Zionist slave masters”.
Ms Smeeth accused Mr Corbyn of allowing “institutional anti-Jewish racism on your watch”, finishing her oration with the cry: “Jeremy what are you doing?”
Mr Corbyn told the PLP not to attack Labour staff or shadow cabinet ministers. Some MPs saw that as a reference to weekend news stories about how Karie Murphy, his chief of staff, had allegedly dealt with two harassment allegations.
Meanwhile, when veteran MP Margaret Hodge criticised Ms Forbes’ selection as Peterborough candidate she was heckled by Karen Lee, a Corbynista loyalist.
And John Cryer, chair of the PLP, appeared to criticise the expulsion of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin-doctor, for voting Lib Dem last month, and suggested that the rules had been applied inconsistently.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the PLP was generally a “robust” meeting: “The PLP is very passionate about lots of issues, not just about Brexit . . . that’s what we would expect.”
