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Updated 2.07pm
SIX LABOUR SHADOW cabinet ministers in the UK have now quit in a heave against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
The BBC reports the move by some of the party’s top players is a bid to force its leader to step down after the shock Brexit vote.
It emerged in the early hours of this morning that Corbyn had sacked a key member of his cabinet – shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, who was rallying party members to resign if the Labour leader refused to stand down.
A Labour spokesman said Corbyn had “lost confidence” in Benn, the BBC reported.
The resignation of the party’s health spokesperson Heidi Alexander followed. She said she was stepping down “with a heavy heart”.
The BBC reports Ian Murray, Gloria de Piero, Lillian Greenwood, Lucy Powell and Kerry McCarthy have now also resigned. Defence spokesperson Vernon Coaker said he is considering his position
The losing camp
Corbyn had joined Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to campaign for Britain to remain part of the European Union.
Cameron was the first casualty of the losing “Remain” camp, stepping down as leader on Friday morning after it emerged that Britain had voted 52% to 48% in favour of leaving the EU.
Two Labour lawmakers have tabled a vote of no confidence against the opposition leader yesterday, reflecting the anger felt by many MPs as the results of Britain’s vote to leave the EU began to sink in.
Corbyn has faced accusations that he lost the referendum by failing to rally his party’s core working-class voter base, more than a third (37%) of whom who defied their party leadership to back a Brexit in Thursday’s historic referendum.
‘We will never be forgiven’
“This is sad news indeed and I cannot understand how Jeremy thinks it will help his worsening position with the PLP,” Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods tweeted following the sacking of Benn, using the party’s official acronym.
“The Labour Shadow Cabinet must now act to save the Party and for the sake of the country. Otherwise we will never be forgiven,” tweeted fellow party lawmaker Ben Bradshaw.
Corbyn has dismissed the vote of no confidence, but the issue will likely dominate a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Monday.
Any challenger would need the support of 20 percent of the party’s 229 MPs and it would then be put to party members, who propelled the veteran socialist to power only last September.
- © AFP 2016 with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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Might want to add the word “sacked” into the first line of the opening paragraph. Otherwise it sounds like he had a good pride based Saturday evening.
No surprises here as half the cabinet didn’t want Corbyn to be leader of the Labour party in the first place, he was picked out of the hat by trade unions.
Chris Kirk, rubbish and spoken like a true red tory.
Corbyn’s candidacy was actually the unintended consequence of the Blairite Labour party’s efforts to lessen the influence of the unions on the party. 200, 000 new members joined the Labour party last year in order to vote for Corbyn. He has the support of the grass roots. The parliamentary labour party and most of the cabinet are of course neoliberals and enemies of the working class. It is to Corbyn’s credit that they hate him.
Corbyn has been something of a disaster of a leader for Labour. He’s on record as saying as he’s only 70 to 75% pro EU, and that really showed in the referendum campaign. Looks like traditional Labour voters voted en masse to leave the EU. From time to time, politics requires you to be decisive and I can’t help but think that if Corbyn had put a bit more effort in the campaign to passionately promote the remain argument that it may have helped to shape a different result. He failed completely in this regard and he should resign as Labour leader unquestionably because of this.
Yes Corbyn seemingly has the support of a whole wave of young people who are totally new to politics, but he hasn’t really done much of note in the near year of his leadership. Could anyone honestly say that if there was an election in the morning that Labour would beat the Tories? I doubt it would be much of a contest. Corbyn does the left wing rhetoric greatly but I don’t think he ever really wanted to be Labour leader or is truly comfortable with the responsibility of it all. Clealry lots of his Labour colleagues doubt that as well and this is the opportunity to oust him and attempt to rebuild the party
The Labour victories under Blair were a disaster for the working class. A much more important objective than winning the next GE is to build a party which represents the working class and not capitalism as the current Labour party does. If that means losing the next GE or splitting the Labour party then so be it.
Well said Wally. If they manage to oust Corbyn it’s the end of the Labour party. They suffered one of their worst electoral results under Miliband’s disastrous leadership because they failed to adequately distinguish themselves from the destructive policies of the Tories. Corbyn’s victory in September remains one of the most positive developments in UK politics for some time.
It would inevitably divide the party though as it’s still plagued by Blairites and careerists. To be honest, one of Corbyn’s failures was his reluctance to confront his problem head on from the beginning, it’s been festering for months and they’ve been waiting for the opportune moment to oust Corbyn, they were attempts to undermine his leadership during the Syria vote and then the manufactured anti-semitism scandal but they failed. I’m delighted Corbyn has finally taken decisive action and fired the devious and deplorable Hilary Benn, and hopefully this well lead to an exodus of anti-Corbyn MPs. Their attempts to exploit the Brexit results to mount a coup against Corbyn shows there is no bounds to their treachery.
Corbyn may be uncharismatic, he may even be unelectable but it’s vital that he can drag the Labour party further to the left. The long term gain of having a legitimate left-wing party is worth it, even if there’s a short term loss of a general election failure.
Really, Bob Mac, Labour membership has soared since he was elected. labour were practically wiped out in the last election because their core voter base felt the party was becoming more like the Tories. Secondly, 75% of those aged between 17 and 24 voted to remain, while 61% over 65 voted to leave. As per the older generation, who are racist xenophobes anyway only thought of themselves.
He has been fighting the blairites , some who were vocal and others who hid within the party . And are now using this awful decision by the British public, who were sold a lie. Like 350 million to the NHS, when in fact Boris and his mates want to privatise it.
I believe, this decision based on lies and led by right wing fascists needs to be reversed, by another referendum or it will condemn the poor of Britain to hell under Boris and his corporate mates.
Well said Wally and Monty…
This is great news, these Red Tory s cum bags should also leave the Labour party… don’t let the door bang your arse on the way out.
Corbyn is the best man for labour no doubt about that
Seamus, “…….racist xenophobes….”. Presumably that includes your parents and the parents of all your friends and relations? What a charming fellow you seem to be.
Apologies, I appear to mis-spelled ‘idiot’.
Blaming Corbyn for Brexit is total nonsense. many factors were involved and Corbyn is not one of them.
The agenda to see off Corbyn started long before tgecBrexut campaign.
Ha ha, country is sinking fast . Like your empire . Idiot . Bye bye Scotland, bye bye NHS . Companies leaving in droves . The older generation messing up again .
Benn is one of the best of them, great speech on Syria a few months ago when parliament were voting in air strikes. He could succeed Corbyn.
The strikes that to this day have only served to worsen the situation in Syria? Great speech but horrible outcome
Well done Corbyn. Benn is another of the red Tories that now dominate the Blairite Labour party. If Corbyn wants a true Labour party to represent the working class then a split is inevitable. P.S. Benn is a neoliberal warmonger and his father a great socialist would have turned in his grave at his son’s support of airstrikes on the beleaguered Syrian people.
Wally, when you”re a grown-up you’re allowed to have different opinions from you parents.
Wally how does it feel to be on the same page as Farage, Boris, Trump, Putin etc?
Why Jane? Did Putin want Mr. Benn sacked also? As a first step in reclaiming the Labour party for the British working class?
Neal, You can of course have different opinions from your parenw but it doesn’t make them right. Do you support the slaughter of more innocent Syrians to advance the West’s agenda in the region as Benn junior does?
Ah Wally does it not sit comfortably with you that you are in agreement with Farage and Trump?
Wally has a confused understanding of what he wants
Did Trump want Corbyn sacked too jane?? – or are you just spouting pure bullplop this morning?
His name isn’t Benn Junior, for a start, Wally.
Jane, I wasn’t aware that Farage and Boris now want to build a socialist Britain which protects the welfare of all of its people instead of obscenely enriching a small elite at the expense of the majority? This is indeed startling but welcome news if it’s true?
Wally. You are 100% correct on Hilliary Ben. However I expect the labour shadow cabinet will resign tomorrow. Corbyn is finished
Jane is talking sh!te… same as she/he does in every article…
They don’t wally, but one of the big aspects to Thursdays vote besides leaving Europe and a potential uk break up is England has moved far right, and the extreme elements of the tory party have now taken the leavers of power, England is now going far right, Johnston and Grove are the last people the working class need to be running Britain.
Ktsiwot, The Tories, Lib Dems, UKIP and most of the Labour party were enemies of the working class before Brexit and they remain so now. If the working class is to succeed in building a socialist Britain then it will have to fight it’s domestic capitalist and political establishment in order to do so. The Brexit vote has changed nothing in that regard.
falluga is being won back from Isis with help from American bombers. how can the left support radical Islam. beatse
Why doesn’t corbyn join the british communist party?
Wally you keep banging on about the working class but they are the very ones turning to UKIP. The anti immigration feeling is massive. England is heading towards nationalism not socialism.
Jane/wally
Britain is veering to the far right, anyone who cannot see this is deluded, the winners from Thursday were Johnson and grove and other far right elements in the Tory party which now have taken control of the government add in a huge rise for ukip. Labour are in all over the place with a leader who is an activist but does not have the control, and ability to lead or rejuvenate or lead the party. The Left in Britain is fu**ed. The working class are moving to the far right and for other countries read Trump, Wilders, Le Penn and a rising far right in Denmark, Germany, Norway. Hungary and Poland are ruled by a hard right. In all this the outside of Spain and maybe Greece the left is a mess. The so called working class is deserting the left for the hard right.
Hilary Benn could succeed Corbyn? Not according to Labour party members.
Corbyn would be the right PM to negotiate the UK’s exit if Corbyn were to be PM.
Johnson would be a disaster.
Don’tya just love all the UK political experts in Ireland…
English ones in Britain too …..What a mess !
Jake you mean people who follow the news?
Interesting times. The new conservative leader will likely want to draw a line under the Cameron government and, unlike Gordon Brown, hold another election soon after their appointment to give themselves their own mandate. Jeremy Corbyn is a decent man but he just can’t capture the middle ground needed for the party to do well in the next election. He also can’t appeal to party loyalty because he never was as an MP, and a divided party is historically a disaster in UK elections. Labour probably can’t win in any case as they can’t reclaim Scotland as people there are pretty irritated at Westminster at the moment and SNP are solid.
Representing no real alternative to the Tories is what lost Labour the last election. 23 million did not vote in the GE, more than the combined vote of Labour and the Tories. The working class have propelled Corbyn to his leadership position. His job is to build a party to represent that working class. And in order to do so a split in the Labour party is inevitable as it’s now dominated by thinly disguised neoliberal Blairites.
Just finished reading Anthony Beevor’s history of the Spanish Civil War again. What is clear is one of the factors that allowed Franco to win was the fact that different factions on the left hated one another almost as much as they hated Franco. You Wally are a prime example of this. In your mind it’s far better for the Labour Party to abandon the middle ground, never get elected and thus leave the Tories in permanent charge. The only ‘right’ you could ever accept is that of your own little world view. Everybody else is the enemy, fit for criticism and name calling.
25% of the electorate didn’t vote in the last weeks referendum either. Obviously because they were ‘disenfranchised’ in you world view.
Joe, If you think Hillary Benn or the other Blairites are on the Left then you need to keep reading. I would suggest some Marx to start with.
Point proven.
Or this Socialist party analysis of the Brexit result would be another good place to start reading:
Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
“The referendum result may well go down in history asthe pitchfork moment”, declared the Financial Times (FT), wailing the anger and despair of Britain’s elite at the decision by the majority of voters in Britain to leave the European Union.
For the capitalist class in Britain and across the EU as a whole, this is a major blow described by the FT as “the biggest setback in the EU’s history”.
For British capitalism in particular it is a terrible defeat. It could lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom if there is another vote for independence in Scotland, and also lead to the collapse of the Tory Party, once among the most successful capitalist parties on the planet.
It is also possible that the Labour Party could split in the aftermath of 23 June as the pro-business right plot to remove Jeremy Corbyn. Politics has been thrown into turmoil.
Many of the seventeen million people who voted for exit, however, will have woken up with a sense of elation that they had been able to express their rage at everything they have suffered as a result of big business making theworking class pay for the economic crisis in recent years: low pay, zero hour contracts, benefit cuts, the lack of affordable housing, and public services cut to the bone.
What is more, by doing so they have forced Cameron – the hated prime minister – to announce his resignation.
Not only in Britain but across Europe many workershave been inspired by this vote against the bosses’ EU. There is no doubt that many workers in Greece, whose living standards have been devastated at the hands of the institutions of the EU, will have been cheering at the result of the referendum…………………………………………….
The political situation would have been transformed if Jeremy Corbyn had stuck by his own historic position of opposition to the EU because, as he said at the time of the Maastricht Treaty: “It takes away from national parliaments the power to set economic policy and hands it over to an unelected set of bankers.”
A campaign explaining how nationalisation of the railways or the steel industry are illegal under EU law, and standing in solidarity with workers in Greece, Ireland and the rest of the EU, could have increased the majority for exit and forced not just Cameron’s resignation but an immediate general election, with the coming to power of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government being posed”
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/23102/24-06-2016/tories-out-general-election-now
Read Yanis Varoufakis in yesterday’s Guardian and in his recent discussion interview in Liberty Hall.
The danger now facing Europe is the rise of the far right. The danger is that the far right will exploit the anger and bitterness of those who have suffered most deprivation and disadvantage from the period of recession and followed by prolonged austerity.
The problem is that neoliberal capitalism has been supported and even adopted by the UK Labour Party and the Irish Labour Party. The disadvantaged and the damaged feel betrayed by the left. So they move to the far right. Some of the middle class are showing a like tendency.
It is critically important that the strands of the left start to cohere and to unify. Internecine conflict within the left will deprive voters of a choice between the left and the right. Instead voter choice will reduce to a choice between right of centre and very far right.
We ignore or minimise the rise of the far right at our peril. Let us not forget that outlier events can become part of the mainstream. We have seen one Labout MP killed by a far right activist, perhaps an unstable individual, but even so extreme events can point to the future.
My worry, increased by Brexit, is that we are seeing a resurgent far right. The fact that Farage and UKIP could put up the infamous immigration posters and suffer no back lash, the nature of the jingoistic, national chauvinism and hate speech is a real concern.
The left needs to be pragmatic, brave, expedient and to show solidarity or we will surrender to the control by the far right and by the right.
Micheal…we don’t have a real Labour Party to vote for in the Republic.
Sadly, true.
Corbyn was a non entity in the Brexit referendum, he must shoulder a large part of the blame for the loss. He must go.
Corbyn is delighted with the outcome of the referendum. They should be glad he didn’t campaign outright for leaving.
The Tories have 80% of the blame, but when the margin was so small, Corbyn definitely has a share too.
If you were pro-remain, but had helped put Corbyn head of the party, you might be regretting that decision now.
Blaming Corbyn for the significant failure of the EU, for the position adopted by large sections of the media, for the influential campaign by UKIP, appealing to prejudice, the bad mishandling of the Remain campaign by Cameron, the recession and the prolonged period of austerity, the policy of Balir in allowing in the migration wave of Eastern Europens too quickly, the emotional rhetoric of Boris Johnson and his misinformation is unfairly misdirected. Cirbyn could not have prevented the inevitable. The wonder is that it was only a 4% margin.
Corbyn could not have prevented Brexit once it was put to a Referendum. I visited 2 places in England 5 weeks before the Referendum. Listening to ordinary people, it was obvious that they majority, even those on the Remain side, had lost trust and confidence in the EU administration. There was no love of the European vision. The Banking crisis and its mishandling left a bad legacy. I heard from a few people that if the EU was willing to screw over Ireland, Greece and Cyprus what would it do to the UK if it got the chance? The treatment of small nations scared the Brits. They see the EU as a threat and not as a good thing.
The seeds of Brexit were planted in the establishment of the euro and the failure to control the supply of credit.
Benn is a war monger and a traitor. No loss. Corbyn will run again and win again if challenged.
Corbyn has to go.
Labour’s heartland lost the Remain campaign.
Corbyn would be the right PM to negotiate exit if he was PM.
Corbyn is a true socialist Labour leader. If some in his cabinet don’t like that then F@#k off and join the Torries.
Exactly Brian, spot on.
Shadow Health Secretary just resigned a short while ago. Exoect more.
*expect*. Sorry
expect more tories to resign from labour, wrong party just like labour in Ireland, are full of s”te talkers who should just come clean and join ff/fg/tories
Corbyns leadership (or lack thereof) is an embarrassment. In my view he is as culpable as Cameron in the Brexit vote. Such capable MP’s as Caroline Flint, Chris Leslie
, Liz Kendal being wasted on backbenches while this moron brings Labour to new depths. Let a no confidence motion proceed ASAP and let him be gone within the next fortnight
The reason why Brexit passed was a combination of immigration worry and the sense of the disadvantaged in the British electorate that the EU is reponsible for the recession, austerity, job insecurity and a severely reduced standard of living.
No political leader could compensate for the powerful emotional rhetoric of the Brexiteers who successfully scapegoated the EU for all of the UK’s domestic problems, including uncontrolled Eastern European immigration.
The other factor was the large number of those over 55 who hankered back to more “English times”.
Expecting one political leader, Corbyn, in opposition, to surmount all of the momentum towards Brexit is to expect Corbyn to be a political superman. The real world does not function like that.
On a separate issue the political knives were out for Corbyn before the pro Brexit outcome was known.
Micheal, lot of sense in that post. If, as you suggest, the EU were scapegoated, (held responsible is nearer the truth), then the upper echelon of that organisation must look to themselves when apportioning blame. Their continued threats were not even worthy of the school playground bully.
I agree that the EU was culpable and I consider that the EU needs to take a very hard and self critical look at itself.
The EU badly miscalculated. Senior EU officials in the Commission and most of those in the EU Parliament did not think that Brexit would happen.
When the smoke clears, the EU will either reform itself or it will eventually break up.
The flaws in the euro, the Troika and the EU superbody of politicians which mishandled the Banking crisis, the CJEU with its anti labour jurisprudence and the arrogance and complacency of the EU played their role.
Despite the major flaws in the EU , it was better to have it and better for the UK to be a member.
The EU can thank itself for Brexit, it fueled the Brexit side and the media did not help.
Blaming Corbyn is silly and facile.
This is the problem. The left wanted remain. The hard left like the hard right wanted leave. corbyn being hard left in his heart wanted leave. can the centre hold?
when the original child catcher mandelson attcks his leader you know there is a stab in the back coming, maybe labour under corbyn are too labour like, should be more like the tories!!!!
Labour move to the left under Corbyn, Tories move right under probably Johnstown. Thing is the hard left will never vote Tories and the hard right will never vote labour.
Which ever party moves back to the middle first will win the next uk election
Troublesome, Blairites, get rid of them. The partys membership has soared since he took over. I
Why? Is it because they were happy for the EU to make the tough decisions and they now realize they ain’t capable themselves?
He’s now had 9 resignations and a sacking. He’s a dead man walking and deserves everything he gets. Those predisposed to extreme positions, whether they’re on the right or left are of no use to a society that has to facilitate all hues and creeds.
Well done Corbyn…Get rid of them before they dump you! Now go jump in the Dead Sea yourself.
Idiot is back.
Put your pus up on your avatar MacCoward.
No more than the self righteous twit deserves.
Here come the right wing labour party
It is unfortunate that the brit labour party is filled with upper middle class, and in Benn’s case, upper class wannabe tories with little real interest in the impact their, and their tory cousins policies visit upon ordinary working class, and unable to get work class people in britain, Corbyn was elected to represent the traditional views of working class persons in britain.
Predictions appear to ne there will ne a pusch, it will be put to the party again and, hopefully, Corbyn/McDonnell will win, again and this will then reduce the number of their fascist members whom might coalesce with remain type tories to form a new(ish) pro eu, Fianna Fail style party, full of spun tripe.
Great news. Get rid of all those Blairites.
I get it now. Labour thought is was OK to have a populist non serious leader when there was no chance of an election in the near future. Now with the Brexit result, they want to change tactics and replace him with a more credible canidate/leader for the highly probable election in the next year or two. His role was only filling space to gain pupularity for the party.
Blairites = Tories # timetogohome
There should be no “shadow cabinet” anyway.
have your say