Another epic anti-Corbyn fail – over TTIP-related claims about the single market

Last Updated: September 7, 2016By
[Image: Matt Cardy / Getty Images.]

[Image: Matt Cardy / Getty Images.]

It seems Buzzfeed News – and any other organisation reporting this story – has fallen flat on its face while trying to run down Jeremy Corbyn.

The CEBR report quoted by Buzzfeed – and Tom Watson – relies on the ratification of the discredited (and now pretty much abandoned) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to support its claims.

Labour policy was – and is – to veto TTIP because it would lock privatisation into the National Health Service, harm workers’ rights and push down the quality of products made in the EU.

If Messrs Corbyn and McDonnell had supported Tom Watson’s briefing, the headlines would have been about them supporting TTIP “in an embarrassing U-turn”.

The important question – that goes unasked, of course – is why Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, was working to undermine the party with a briefing that flew in the face of established policy and supported a scheme that would harm people across the UK.

And Labour MPs have the nerve to say Mr Corbyn has been a liability!

Jeremy Corbyn refused to support a planned Labour press briefing on the benefits of staying in the single market during the referendum campaign, leaked emails seen by BuzzFeed News reveal.

On 14 June, nine days before the vote, Labour officials wanted to promote a speech the following day by deputy leader Tom Watson with research showing that staying in the single market could create 1.3 million jobs in Britain.

But in an email seen by BuzzFeed News, Corbyn’s head of policy intervened to make clear that both the leader and shadow chancellor John McDonnell “don’t politically support” the research and therefore opposed the briefing.

The figures Labour staff wanted to promote drew on research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

Source: Jeremy Corbyn Refused To Support A Pro–Single Market Story During The Referendum – BuzzFeed News

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4 Comments

  1. Maria carroll September 7, 2016 at 9:40 pm - Reply

    Spot on Why isn’t this being picked up. There was no way we could support that briefing. Secondly I would like to know how some keep saying Corbyn was dictatorial and harassed people tom Watson presented a position against labour policy yet no one murmed or complained? The silence on these fact checks is dismal.

  2. jeffrey davies September 8, 2016 at 5:26 am - Reply

    hmm why is Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, against corbyn he knows like the rest of the blairites greedie people the gravy train is over unless they can rid themselves of him

  3. Jess September 8, 2016 at 4:02 pm - Reply

    And who are the CEBR?

    Here’s a clue;

    “After setting up Cebr, he was our Chief Executive for 20 years, and Executive Chairman. Previously he was Chief Economic Adviser to the Confederation of British Industry and Chief Economist for IBM UK. ”
    https://www.cebr.com/about-cebr/meet-the-team/

  4. mohandeer September 8, 2016 at 7:50 pm - Reply

    Is Corbyn relying on the old adage of “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”?

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