JEREMY Corbyn is a “throwback” to the 1980s, who will get nowhere near power, David Cameron has told business chiefs as a poll showed just one in six people believed the new Labour leader could become prime minister.
Addressing captains of industry in London, the PM suggested, that with the Islington North MP in charge of Labour, the old battles between Left and Right, which characterised the Thatcher era, would have to be fought all over again.
Speaking at an event using the Rugby World Cup championship to boost international trade ties, Mr Cameron pointed out how, since the 1980s, there had been a consensus between Labour and the Conservatives that “we don't have excessive rates of taxation, we don't hand the running of the economy over to trade unions, we are not going to nationalise big industries”.
He added: “Frankly, it is a throwback that we now have a Labour leader who believes in these things. But the British people have moved a long way from that; no one wants to go back to those ideas.”
Earlier, a YouGov poll showed the majority of people, 61 per cent, as well as 41 per cent of those who voted Labour at the General Election, believed Mr Corbyn could not become prime minister.
It also showed just one in six people or 17 per cent thought he could enter No 10 while just one in three Labour supporters or 35 per cent felt he could.
At Westminster, Mr Corbyn, who party sources now say could now travel to Scotland next week, unveiled some new members of his frontbench team, persuading Pat McFadden to stay on as Shadow Europe Minister, and appointing Emily Thornberry - sacked in November 2014 for sneering at a family home draped with England flags - as Shadow Employment Minister.
In a separate development, the prospect of Labour defections was raised by Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader.
He revealed that since last Saturday’s leadership election result, he had been contacted by a number of Labour figures – via text and telephone - distraught by Mr Corbyn’s win.
Noting how he felt he was acting as an “agony aunt” to Labour figures, he said they were “people who have been members of the(Labour) party for as long as I’ve been a member of mine, who feel that they don’t recognise their party anymore and feel deeply distressed”.
When asked if they included Labour frontbenchers, the Cumbrian MP said: “I couldn’t possibly comment. The bottom line is...people in the Labour Party need to understand they can have conversations with me, which may or may not be conclusive, which will remain totally between me and them.”
Ahead of this weekend’s start to the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Farron claimed Labour’s lurch to the Left was a “quite staggering opportunity” for his party to occupy the centre ground as a “moderate, progressive, responsible” alternative to the Tories in England and the SNP in Scotland.
Other developments included:
*Mr Corbyn gave his clearest signal yet on Europe that "we should remain in the EU but we too want to see reform";
*after a week of media disorganisation, the Labour leader appointed a new spin doctor, Kevin Slocombe, a former communications chief with the CWU communications and postal union;
*Labour donor Assem Allam said he would support Labour MPs, who wanted to break away from the party and
*Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, running for his party’s candidacy for the London Mayor, said Mr Corbyn could become PM if the Conservatives elected a "useless" leader to replace Mr Cameron.
Elsewhere, Jack Straw, the former Foreign Secretary, warned that there was an “onus” on the new party leader and John McDonnell, his Shadow Chancellor, to move towards the centre of the party.
He played down the prospect of Labour MPs defecting to other parties, suggesting the experience of the SDP in the 1980s made that "very unlikely". But he cautioned the Corbyn leadership could have a "Lazarus effect" on the Lib Dems.
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