Labour shadow ministers resigned ‘because they feared Jeremy Corbyn would win general election’

Last Updated: August 28, 2016By
Jeremy Corbyn: It seems senior Labour MPs believed Labour under his leadership could win a snap general election - so they did everything in their power to prevent it.

Jeremy Corbyn: It seems senior Labour MPs believed Labour under his leadership could win a snap general election – so they did everything in their power to prevent it.

If this is true, it means every Labour MP who said Jeremy Corbyn was unelectable was lying – and knew it.

Perhaps some of them would like to explain themselves?

Meanwhile, let’s all get ready to do a bit of deselecting, shall we?

Labour shadow cabinet ministers resigned en masse because they were afraid Jeremy Corbyn would win an election, it was claimed this morning.

Journalist-turned Labour activist Paul Mason said members of Mr Corbyn’s top team had co-ordinated the mass walkout because they feared it was their “last chance” to unseat him before a “winnable” general election.

He made the comments on the BBC’s Broadcasting House programme this morning, interviewed alongside Rhea Wolfson – a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).

Ms Wolfson, who was elected to the NEC this month with the backing of pro-Corbyn group Momentum, agreed that an early election was winnable if Labour can mobilise the huge increase in party membership to campaign on the doorstep.

The former economics editor for BBC Newsnight said: “I think Jeremy Corbyn will win. Or, let’s put it this way, he will be in a position to form a government.

“That, of course, is what the Labour rebels were worried about on the day after Brexit . Remember the sequence of this. It looked like there was going to be an early general election with the Tories in disarray.

“They texted each other saying ‘this is our last chance, otherwise the guy has the chance of leading the party into an election and that election is winnable”.

Source: Labour shadow ministers resigned ‘because they feared Jeremy Corbyn would win general election’ – Mirror Online

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21 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies August 28, 2016 at 4:55 pm - Reply

    they had their chances of that olive branch but the sack they need bye bye trouble is corbyns to much of a gentleman to do that mores the pity

    • Jackie Cairns August 29, 2016 at 11:42 am - Reply

      If he doesn’t We will.
      It was on a twitter page that Tom Watson was overheard saying that if they dont fix this. We are F—-ed

  2. Phil Woodford August 28, 2016 at 5:04 pm - Reply

    Mason is determined to shed any last remaining credibility he ever built up as a journalist. His comments are completely laughable.

    • Mike Sivier August 28, 2016 at 11:28 pm - Reply

      I think they carry the ring of truth.

    • anthonymatthewsart August 29, 2016 at 9:53 am - Reply

      By shedding credibility you mean he doesn’t toe the anti-Corbyn line, of course. For those of us who understand the desperate need for change Mason is extremely credible.

  3. Jenny Hambidge August 28, 2016 at 5:07 pm - Reply

    I still don’t get it. Why would labour not want to win an election?

    • Mike Sivier August 28, 2016 at 11:27 pm - Reply

      Because they don’t want anyone to think leftie ideas might be popular enough to win.

    • Ultraviolet August 29, 2016 at 7:34 am - Reply

      Tony Blair himself said it:

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tony-blair-says-he-wouldn-t-want-a-left-wing-labour-party-to-win-an-election-10406928.html

      “Let me make my position clear: I wouldn’t want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was the route to victory, I wouldn’t take it.”

      This is why we call them Red Tories. Actually, that term is probably inaccurate, because it assumes they have some sort of core belief. I am not sure they do have any core belief, beyond doing whatever will advance their careers the most and secure them the most lucrative directorships.

    • anthonymatthewsart August 29, 2016 at 9:58 am - Reply

      Probably because, as individuals in an individualistic society, they perceive authentic change as an automatic threat to their personal well being. They have thoroughly absorbed the neo-liberal ethos.

  4. Robert Jones August 28, 2016 at 5:31 pm - Reply

    I wish this didn’t have the ring of truth I fear it has.

  5. hayfords August 28, 2016 at 7:01 pm - Reply

    I read that article earlier. There is no accounting for strange views.

  6. casalealex August 28, 2016 at 7:36 pm - Reply

    So…these ‘MPs’ want to be just that, an MP! They don’t want to be in government for the sake of the people of the country – making their lives liveable with compassion etc. They don’t care if they are on the government benches or the opposition benches; just so long as they are in the HOC getting taxpayers money, with the many many extras, and ignoring the will of the people who have voted for them to be in their ill gained positions.
    I am ashamed to be British.

  7. John August 29, 2016 at 2:40 am - Reply

    I am not sure I wholly buy in to the Paul Mason thesis.
    A year ago, much in UK politics seemed fairly certain.
    Since then, a chain of events has knocked the Blairites and Brownites off-balance.
    Events since have kept them off-balance and they do not know what to do.
    By diluting the anti-Corbyn vote, the three prima donnas of Burnham, Cooper and Kendall made a Corbyn win possible.
    The apparent enormity of what they had done was visible on their faces when the result was announced.
    They were incapable of understanding where he came from ideologically.
    They have never stood with or sided with the Left in UK politics.
    The next unexpected event was the Leave outcome of the Brexit referendum.
    Next, Cameron unexpectedly announced his resignation.
    They thought there would be months before a new Tory Leader would be announced.
    Unexpectedly, Mrs May was crowned as Leader without any real election process.
    They may have thought they may lose their seats in an unexpected general election.
    Or that they would end up having to support a government led by Jeremy Corbyn.
    A government they would be incapable of understanding or serving in.
    There is also the outstanding potential by-elections for up to 30 Tory MPs.
    This could have thrown open UK politics to even more unexpected situations arising.
    All very uncertain – for them – to grasp and understand.
    No wonder they were so determined to unseat Corbyn and restore normal service.
    In a way, it is almost possible to understand their confusion and anxiety.
    Poor lambs!

  8. tom August 29, 2016 at 7:20 am - Reply

    Who says entering politic is not for money interest?
    Mr Corbyn is changing politic for better, that is disturbing for the 172 MPs who had not done a day of real work in their working life, found themselves swimming naked!
    Their last and only resort is to betray the values of the Labour party.
    One thing is sure their name is entered in history for treachery and dishonesty.

  9. Stephen August 29, 2016 at 8:07 am - Reply

    That doesn’t seem correct to me with not one shred of evidence that Jeremy Corbyn could lead Labour to victory.

    • Mike Sivier August 29, 2016 at 2:46 pm - Reply

      Is that apart from all the evidence so far, including the many Labour victories since his election last September?

      • Stephen August 30, 2016 at 8:19 am - Reply

        Mostly holds weren’t they. Have Labour won a single parliamentary seat from the Conservatives? To be honest I’m not sure. If so then well done.

        • Mike Sivier August 30, 2016 at 12:17 pm - Reply

          Yes, Labour won more than 20 seats, mostly from the Tories (if I recall correctly) in the 2015 general election – but these were countered by the loss of all but one seat in Scotland.
          That’s probably oversimplifying to a huge extent – there would have been losses in England and Wales as well, but the answer to your question is yes.

      • Stephen August 30, 2016 at 2:01 pm - Reply

        In 2015 Ed Miliband was leader of the Labour party not Jeremy Corbyn. Since Jeremy Corbyn became leader Labour has not one one single seat in a by-election from the Tories, as far as I know, which the party will have to do in the dozens if it wants to form a government.

        • Mike Sivier August 31, 2016 at 1:57 pm - Reply

          Hardly surprising as not a single Conservative-held Parliamentary seat has been contested in a by election.
          Apologies for misunderstanding you but you do yourself no favours by trying to fake the facts.
          If you want a clear Labour win from the Tories, look at the Mayor of London – who would not have had his victory without the votes of Mr Corbyn’s supporters.

  10. Jessie August 29, 2016 at 11:43 am - Reply

    Tony Blair said he’d rather Labour lose than they win with [moderate] socialist policies, and the coupists have done everything they could to prevent Labour being a real opposition party; trashing all of the big opportunities of these last weeks of really challenging the Tory government, and even at times aligning with them. This then seems easily believable. They do not serve the people, but the Corporacracy, our real rulers, thinking that they had got everything nicely stitched up, so that the were running the show whoever was in power.

    Therefore they will not stop doing everything they can to destroy Corbyn and his followers, Deselection and real centre-left candidates, chosen by the membership, would be a good start.

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