Labour turned on itself in spectacular fashion today as furious MPs and those forced out in Thursday’s election humiliation demanded the party abandon Jeremy Corbyn and his hard Left views or risk years in the political wilderness.
They tore into Mr Corbyn after he led them to an embarrassing demolition by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in their northern heartlands as the so-called ‘Red Wall’ was knocked down.
Labour was reduced to a rump of just 203 MPs as it suffered its worst result since 1935, prompting Mr Corbyn to announce he would step down in the new year.
Even union kingpin Len McCluskey, a close confidante of the Labour leader who played a key role in its manifesto, tried to distance himself from the abject mess the party finds itself in this weekend.
It came as Mr Johnson prepared to visit some of the norther seats he took off Labour today during a victory tour.
Anna Turley, who lost her Redcar seat in Cleveland as it voted Tory for the first time ever, said that Mr Corbyn and his hard Left political views had proved poisonous on the doorstep in the working class, Leave-supporting area.
She said that the Labour leader’s politics was raised far more than Brexit during the campaign, saying: ‘People didn’t trust him to put our country first. They felt there was a sort of anti-western world view.’
And Dame Margaret Hodge, who retained her Barking seat in London, tore into Mr Corbyn, saying: ‘I have moved from a depression and sorrow (and) now moved to anger because it’s an election we should have won.
‘Our fudge on Brexit was an issue. It was Jeremy’s own leadership that I met time and time on the doorstep, it was the economics we offered, they liked ideas but didn’t believe it, they see us as a nasty party and that comes from anti-Semitism.’
But the moderate voices are set for a battle with Corbnistas in the party who want to install a new leader who will continue their socialist crusade.
Anna Turley castigated the opposition leader after lost her Redcar seat
Mr Corbyn last night dismissed calls to step down immediately after overseeing the most catastrophic Labour showing in a poll since 1935
Dame Margaret Hodge tore into Mr Corbyn, saying: ‘I have moved from a depression and sorrow now moved to anger because it’s an election we should have won.
Unite leader Mr McCluskey blamed Labour’s humiliating defeat at the ballot box on Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Metropolitan’ manifesto with its ‘incontinent mess’ of policies and a failure to respect the Brexit referendum.
This is despite being a member of the committee which signed it off.
The staunch Corbynite also rounded on moderate Remainer leadership contenders like Sir Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry last night, blaing them for the party’s ‘slow motion’ decision to back a second Brexit referendum.
Mr McCluskey, who heads the UK’s second biggest trade union, also blamed Corbyn’s failure to get to grips with anti-Semitism for their defeat in a blistering article published in the HuffPost.
‘Like most elections, this one was not won or lost during the campaign’, he wrote.
‘And it is Labour’s slow-motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote movement and others who have never accepted the democratic decision of June 2016 for a single moment which has caused this defeat.
‘As important as it is, too often, Labour addresses the metropolitan wing of its electoral coalition in terms of values – openness, tolerance, human rights – and the ‘traditional’ working-class wing simply in terms of a material offer, as if their constituencies did not have their own values of solidarity and community.’
But Ms Turle laid the blame squarely at the door of Mr Corbyn himself.
Redcar was one of a swathe of normally safe Red Wall Labour seats which fell across the North of England and the Midlands.
She lost despite a majority of almost 10,000 in 2017, handing Tory Jacob Young a majority of more than 3,500.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: ‘His history and his baggage around security and terrorism, whether that was exaggerated or not, the reality is that people didn’t believe he could be trusted with the (nation’s) security or had a world view that would put Britain first and that he could represent us on the global stage, with Trump and Putin at the G7 and he was someone that could lead this country.
Unite leader Len McCluskey, pictured walking out of Broadcasting House in June this year, has blamed Labour’s humiliating defeat on Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Metropolitan’ manifesto that failed to reach traditional voters
Labour’s red wall crumbled last night as the party haemorrhaged support in places seen as safe seats for decades. The map on the left, from 2017, shows a solid red block spreading from North Wales across the north of England and up to the north east. The map on the right, shows a bluer picture, with new Tory seats including Vale of Clwyd and Blyth Valley at either end.
‘That was a huge issue for people here.’
Ms Turley added: ‘For me, when you’re getting four doors in a row of lifelong Labour voters saying ”I’m sorry Anna, I’m a lifelong Labour voter, I like what you’ve done, but I just can’t vote for that man to be prime minister”, I’m afraid that’s a fundamental barrier that we just couldn’t get across.’
Ms Turley said that Mr Corbyn was ‘absolutely’ more of a reason than Brexit for her constituents voting for another party, adding: ‘In my constituency, even though it was a 67 per cent Leave constituency, it was four to one the leadership over Brexit.
‘I mean obviously the issues run deeper than that, the Labour Party is bigger than just one person, but the reality is there were issues around our perception around competence.’
Ms Turley added that while Labour’s manifesto had ‘a whole swathe of interesting things’, there were so many that ‘people were overwhelmed by them’ and ‘people just didn’t believe we were the party that could deliver on any of it’.
Mr Corbyn last night dismissed calls to step down immediately after overseeing the most catastrophic Labour showing in a poll since 1935.
Extraordinarily Mr Corbyn – who will have to face Boris Johnson in what promises to be an humiliating PMQs session next Wednesday – also rejected the idea his appalling personal ratings and extreme policies were to blame.
Labour’s tally of MPs was slashed by 59 to just 203 in a staggering night of political drama, putting them in a worse position than after Mr Corbyn’s left-wing hero Michael Foot was put to the sword by Margaret Thatcher in 1983.
Moderates warned the Tories could be in power for another 20 years unless Mr Corbyn and his supporters are evicted from power.
But left-wingers such as shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon yesterday showed every sign of doubling down on the extreme agenda they tried to sell to the public in the campaign.
And Mr Corbyn said he would remain leader until a contest to replace him is held in the ‘early part of next year’ – in an apparent sign that his clique wants to maintain control of the process.
But Dame Margaret attacked this idea on on BBC Breakfast, adding: ‘I don’t think you can have deep reflection we need to have under a leadership under a person who thinks he worked hard but that the media didn’t like him and the Brexit message was wrong.
‘We have to have a fresh team at the top to undertake really important review on how we reconnect and build trust with voters, that is who we are there to represent.’
Now for a 100-day whirlwind: Boris Johnson hits the ground running with a tour of the North TODAY, a reshuffle, a Queen’s Speech and, of course, Brexit
Boris Johnson will begin a whirlwind tour of the North today to hammer home his message that he will use his decisive victory to benefit the whole nation.
The Prime Minister will embark on a frantic 100-day schedule with a visit to the so-called Red Wall of formerly safe Labour seats now in Tory hands.
Aides said he could go to Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s former constituency, which was one of the shock wins of the night.
The result in the North East seat, in a region which has a long history of mining, was symbolic of Labour’s disastrous election performance.
The seat has been represented by Labour MPs continuously since 1935, and was held by Mr Blair during his landslide victory in 1997.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to embark on a frantic 100-day tour of the North today after winning the General Election
In a speech outside No10 yesterday, Mr Johnson urged voters on all sides to ‘find closure and to let the healing begin’.
He said he wanted to ‘unleash the potential of the whole country delivering opportunity across the entire nation’.
On Monday, he will be back in Westminster to implement a mini reshuffle to fill gaps created by the election.
The Government lost its culture secretary when Nicky Morgan decided not to fight the election, and has no Welsh secretary thanks to the departure of Alun Cairns on the campaign’s opening day.
Environment minister Zac Goldsmith also lost his seat in the election and will have to be replaced.
Mr Johnson is considering other changes to his Cabinet next week, although this is unlikely to include any big names.
Johnson (pictured during his first Cabinet meeting as Prime Minister today in Downing Street) will visit the so-called Red Wall of formerly safe Labour seats now in Tory hands
New MPs will arrive in the Commons on Tuesday for the first sitting day and it will take two days to swear them all in.
A slimmed-down Queen’s Speech is expected on Thursday, the centrepiece of which will be the EU Withdrawal Bill.
It will also contain legislation to ensure serious criminals serve longer behind bars, and laws to restrict the impact strikes can have on essential services.
Officials are also discussing moving quickly to decriminalise non-payment of the BBC licence fee. They believe such cases clog up the courts and should be dealt with by fines.
In addition, Mr Johnson wants to lock in funding for the NHS and education.
Also expected during his tour is a slimmed-down version of the Queen’s Speech on Thursday
On Thursday evening, Mr Johnson will unwind briefly at a Downing Street party for members of staff. But he will not be drinking, having given up alcohol for the election campaign, and insisting he won’t touch a drop until Britain has left the EU.
Before MPs go on their Christmas holidays, there will be a second reading of the Withdrawal Bill on Friday. Plans for a Saturday sitting have been scrapped.
The PM said there will then be a festive break from politics and talk about Brexit.
Then after the festive period, it will be full-steam ahead to deliver Brexit by January 31.
There will be a much larger reshuffle in February followed by a long-awaited budget in March setting out the financial priorities for the fiscal year.
A political map of the UK shows how the Conservative Party were able to win a majority of the seats across the country