Jeremy Corbyn was last night condemned as ‘not fit to govern’ following a devastating new exposé by one of Britain’s leading investigative authors.
Tom Bower has spent 18 months talking to those who know Corbyn best to create the most in-depth portrait ever compiled of the Labour leader, including shocking details about the anti-Semitism of his supporters and his duplicity over Brexit.
The damning profile comes amid increasing claims that despairing Labour MPs are poised to break away from Corbyn and form their own party.
Jeremy Corbyn was condemned as ‘not fit to govern’ following a devastating new exposé
In his new book, Dangerous Hero – serialised from today in The Mail on Sunday – Bower reveals that Corbyn:
- Was secretly ‘delighted’ by the Brexit result despite campaigning for Remain;
- ‘Inspired’ attacks on Jewish and moderate Labour MPs, and did nothing to protect them;
- Has such a chaotic professional and personal life that one close friend and adviser says: ‘He is not fit to be leader of the Labour Party or Prime Minister’;
- Followed Lenin and Trotsky’s blueprint to seize power, purge moderates and crush dissent while playing the ‘nice guy’ and letting Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to do the ‘scary’ work as key allies, including union backer Len McCluskey, drew up lists of opponents to be deselected;
- Employs staff in his office who are described as ‘lazy and p***ed on £100,000 a year’;
- Lacks the mental agility to chair all but the most basic political meetings;
- Harbours a lifelong jealousy of the rich and successful that started when he flunked his A-levels and dropped out of his polytechnic degree, although he claimed he left because of a row with a lecturer;
- Almost had his house repossessed after running up £30,000 in debts;
- Had a series of relationships with younger women after separating from wife Claudia, conducting them in the basement of their shared house while Claudia was living with their three sons – and a ‘toy boy’ – on the top floors;
- Believes that anyone who disagrees with uncontrolled immigration is ‘racist’ ;
- Has no interest in culture or in reading books;
- Abandoned his vegetarian principles when he was invited to eat meat with Cuban leader Fidel Castro;
- Was on the brink of retiring to Wiltshire to keep bees when he was persuaded to run for leader.
Last night, Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis reacted to the revelations by saying: ‘What Corbyn has done to his own party is shameful, what he would do to our country would be a tragedy. He is not fit to govern.’
Corbyn provoked further fury last night by snubbing a showdown with his MPs over anti-Semitism, due to be held at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow.
Corbyn, along with party general secretary Jennie Formby, have pleaded prior engagements despite the MPs warning that Labour risks being seen as ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’.
Corbyn provoked further fury last night by snubbing a showdown with his MPs over anti-Semitism, due to be held at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow
But last night a Labour source insisted that Corbyn ‘was never expected to be or scheduled to be at Monday’s meeting’.
As the anti-Semitism row rages, this newspaper has obtained shocking messages directed at Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger.
She was branded a ‘dirty little Zionist rat’ and taunted with vile abuse describing ‘all Jews’ as ‘c****’ by pro-Corbyn supporters on an official Facebook page for a local Liverpool Labour Party constituency.
In a statement issued in response to the attacks, Ms Berger said: ‘This is all-too typical of the malign culture now bearing down on many hard-working MPs.
Dangerous Hero, by investigative author Tom Bower
‘Nothing will deter me from exposing the truth about the anti-Semitism allowed to fester on Jeremy Corbyn’s watch.’
Bower’s investigation will further stoke the growing fury in the party over Mr Corbyn’s handling of the anti-Semitism scandal, his supporters’ hounding of moderate MPs and his deliberately incoherent stance on Brexit.
The author describes how Momentum, the Left-wing movement which backs Corbyn’s leadership, engaged in ‘permanent mobilisation’ to cement him in power.
A ‘loyalty list’ was compiled of Labour MPs, with every Jewish MP described as ‘hostile’ or ‘negative’, while Chuka Umunna, whose father was Nigerian, was described as not ‘politically black’.
When Mr McDonnell saw Mr Ummuna interviewed on television he seethed that he was not one of ‘our people’.
Unite leader Len McCluskey, a key Corbyn bankroller, also had a ‘little list’ in his inside pocket with ‘names of people I’d like to see go’.
Bower’s book will fan the growing anger in Labour over Corbyn’s Brexit policy by setting out how both Corbyn and McDonnell wanted to campaign for Britain to leave the EU – despite the vast majority of Labour MPs backing Remain – because he regarded the EU as a ‘capitalists’ club’ which would be a barrier to his project to ‘build socialism’. He also concluded that Brexit would destroy David Cameron’s Government and increase the chance of Labour getting into power.
Corbyn supporters aim vicious racist rants at Jewish Labour MP
Luciana Berger, who was threatened with motions of no confidence last week
Jeremy Corbyn supporters subjected a Jewish Labour MP to vicious racist attacks over claims she plans to join a breakaway political movement.
Luciana Berger, who was threatened with motions of no confidence last week by members of her Liverpool Wavertree party, was called a ‘dirty little Zionist rat’ and a ‘c***’ on a Facebook page of a local constituency party. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had sparked a backlash among supporters of the MP by suggesting she should have pledged loyalty to Labour and linking her to the alleged Labour ‘breakaway’ party.
In response to the reports that she might leave, one message read: ‘At f****** last the dirty little zionist RAT I f****** hate her. What’s the bets the day she leaves labour she’ll be a Tory by midnight’.
Activists had accused the Jewish MP of ‘undermining’ Mr Corbyn by criticising his stance on anti-Semitism and Brexit, but withdrew their motions of no confidence following an intervention from the Labour leadership.
Ms Berger was also taunted on pro-Corbyn websites suggesting falsely that she was an ‘agent of a foreign power’, an ‘Israel attack dog’ and ‘Tory scum’.
Corbyn only agreed to campaign to stay in the EU after protests from Remainers in his Shadow Cabinet, led by Hilary Benn. But his deliberate sabotage of his own campaign was highlighted when he decided to attend the British Kebab Awards rather than attend a major Remain rally, on the advice of his most senior adviser, Seumas Milne.
Bower writes that, on the night of the referendum, Corbyn ‘disappeared’, and the following morning was ‘seen laughing over breakfast with his team’. He says: ‘Although Milne and McDonnell admitted to voting Leave, Corbyn would deny that he had done so.’
Further evidence has also emerged about Corbyn’s real anti-EU views. Footage of him addressing the Durham Miners Gala in 2010, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, shows him condemning ‘the world’s bankers, International Monetary Fund, European Union’ for being ‘utterly united in what they want. Utterly united in deflation, suppressing the economy, and creating unemployment.’
The revelations come as at least six Labour MPs who object to Corbyn’s policy on Brexit are believed to be in talks about a breakaway movement.
Corbyn threw his party into turmoil last week by setting out a series of demands to Theresa May in return for Labour’s support for her Brexit deal, including membership of a customs union. The move enraged many of his pro-Remain MPs, including Mr Umunna, who called it ‘totally demoralising’ because it would kill off their plans for a second referendum.
Tory chairman Brandon Lewis added: ‘For decades Jeremy Corbyn peddled his blinkered world view and hard-Left ideology from the Commons backbenches – happier to sow dissent than heal division, to criticise than to seek consensus. He is not a backbench MP any more – he is a man who wants to be our Prime Minister but one who still refuses to accept the responsibilities that come with leadership.
‘He failed to face facts over the Salisbury poisoning, he has shamefully failed to root out racism in his own ranks and he has failed to set out a credible plan for Brexit.
‘He has stood by as the Labour Party, with its proud tradition of decency and patriotism, succumbed to the mentality of mob rule and has stayed silent while his own MPs are bullied and hounded online.’