Politics

‘Toxic’ Corbyn leaves Labour in ‘DISASTER ZONE’ – ‘Corbynism must go’ for party to survive


Jeremy Corbyn led the Labour Party to their worst election performance in recent history, winning just 204 seats and handing the Conservative Party a huge and unexpected majority of 80. Labour’s “Red Wall” dramatically collapsed around them, with the Tories winning seats that had been held by the opposition party for more than 100 years. He, along with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, will resign from their positions over the coming weeks.

Following election defeat, Mr Corbyn admitted: “I’m sorry that we came up short and I take my responsibility for it.

“We will learn the lessons of this defeat, above all by listening to lifelong Labour voters who we’ve lost in working class communities.

“This party exists to represent them. We will earn their trust back.”

But critics have hit out the departing Labour leader, raging he has left the party in the “disaster zone” which they will not escape from for up to a decade unless they root out the hard-left from within.

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Jeremy Corbyn news: The departing Labour leader has been savaged by political critics (Image: GETTY)

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Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party endured a disastrous general election (Image: REUTERS)

Corbyn and McDonnell leave the Labour Party in a disaster zone. It has had an unelectable militant hard-left takeover, a loss of its traditional electoral base, and still suffers from a crisis of institutional anti-semitism

Matthew Lesh

Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, told Express.co.uk: “Corbyn and McDonnell leave the Labour Party in a disaster zone. It has had an unelectable militant hard-left takeover, a loss of its traditional electoral base, and still suffers from a crisis of institutional anti-semitism.

“They should be remembered for showing that a far-left, socialist Labour Party is simply unelectable. That antisemitism is unacceptable. That ignoring the democratic demands of the British is not appreciated by the electorate.

“Corbyn is the most extreme Labour leader in its history, and therefore its no surprise that he resulted in the worst election result in almost a century.

“Labour has a choice: do they want to be a party of government or a party of protest? They must reform and refocus on policies that actually help the poor rather than ideas that simply punish the rich for their success.

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The Labour leader apologised for Labour’s showing in last month’s general election (Image: GETTY)

“The hard-left takeover must be defeated if the party is to have any hope of being a viable opposition who can hold the Government to account.

Dr Steve McCabe, associate professor and senior fellow at the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, said Mr Corbyn will be remembered as a “failure” and a “divisive” figure.

He added based on the disastrous election result, Labour has gone backwards under Mr Corbyn’s leadership and warned “Corbynism must go” in order for the party to recover.

Dr McCabe said: “It’s hard to see how there is any great legacy as Corbynism, a reaction to Blairism, has now been so decisively rejected by voters. Suffering a net loss of 59 seats representing 7.8 percent is devastating.

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John McDonnell will also step down as Shadow Chancellor (Image: PA)

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A glum Jeremy Corbyn looks on in the House of Commons (Image: GETTY)

“Those who claimed that Blair took the party too far to the right should reflect that trying to take it to the left has not worked.

“Corbynism needs to go which will be relatively easy as far as the leadership is concerned but much less so as far as members are concerned. There are many tens of thousands of Momentum members.

“They show no willingness to cease their struggle and may, eventually, need to be expelled as occurred with Militant tendency under Neil Kinnock’s leadership.”

Tim Focas, director of financial services at Westminster think tank Parliament Street, warned Mr Corbyn has left Labour with an “electoral mountain to climb”, and has “warped the party back to the 1970s”.

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Labour won just 203 seats in the general election (Image: EXPRESS)

He told this website: “Corbyn’s unique ability to devise policies to the left of Michael Foot has left Labour with an electoral mountain to climb.

“The view that somehow the nation shifted left post May’s calamity campaign in 2017 has been proven demonstrably wrong.

“Instead of moving the Labour forward with progressive policies for the modern age, he has time warped the party back to the 70s.”

Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group think tank, said the impacts Mr Corbyn has had on Labour are “likely to last for years to come”.

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Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have admitted mistakes were made in Labour’s general election campaign (Image: GETTY)

He said: Corbyn is the most significant Labour leader since Blair. Unlike Miliband and Brown before him he radically changed the face of the Labour Party, and the effects are likely to last for years to come.

“I don’t believe Jeremy Corbyn ever wanted to be Prime Minister, not even when he was leader of the Labour Party. His mission was to turn the Labour Party back to its Marxist socialist routes, and on that point he has succeeded.

“The problem is that this country is still by majority populated by right thinking patriots who are wise to the evils of Marxism and reject it wholeheartedly.

“David Cameron and particularly Theresa May’s lack of leadership and weak brand of Conservatism is the only thing that made Corbyn look like a plausible contender, as soon as he faced what the public perceived as a genuinely conservative Brexiteer he was done for.”



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