A defiant Jeremy Corbyn has insisted Labour will not lose seats in this week’s local elections in England despite experts suggesting it could face losing around 300 and he accused the media of being “obsessed” with his leadership as senior backbencher Dame Margaret Hodge is touted as a possible stalking horse challenger.
Speaking in London this morning the Labour leader stressed that the row over anti-Semitism in his party was “being dealt with" by the independent investigation led by former Liberty chief Shami Chakrabarti.
Mr Corbyn repeatedly refused to answer when asked several times at a campaign poster launch in London’s Elephant and Castle whether or not he thought the row, sparked by online comments from Bradford MP Naz Shah, was an attempt to destabilise his leadership.
And the 66-year-old politician made clear he would carry on if there were a challenge to his control of the party after the May 5 elections in Scotland, England, Wales and London amid increasing reports some Labour MPs are ready to mobilise against him.
Dame Margaret is said to be considering a request from parliamentary colleagues to stand against Mr Corbyn to trigger a leadership contest.
Those involved in the potential challenge are believed to be close to signing up the 50 fellow Labour MPs needed. Much could rest on how well or badly Labour does on Thursday.
Thursday’s raft of polls will provide the first electoral test for the party leader.
Labour sources have suggested bad results in Scotland have been “factored in”; the party could lose its working majority in the Welsh Assembly and, despite the leader’s confidence, election experts believe the official Opposition could lose anywhere between 200 and 300 council seats in England. The only silver lining could come in the form of a Labour victory in the London mayoral race for Sadiq Khan.
Last week, Mr Corbyn cancelled a planned campaign visit to Wales at the request of Welsh Labour as the anti-Semitism row broke. Earlier this week, Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, admitted her party’s campaign in Scotland had been damaged by the anti-Semitism row. The Labour leader was in Edinburgh three weeks ago and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, was in Glasgow at the weekend.
The party leader told reporters at the poster launch: "It is time, quite honestly, that many in the golden circle of the media Establishment actually got out a bit and listened to what people are saying.
"Many in the media are obsessed with this rather than what they should be obsessed with, which is the devastating crisis of inequality in our society."
He went on: "I don't know who these Labour MPs are but I would advise every member of the party, including our MPs, (to) get out there on the doorstep and campaign; we have two days to go."
The party’s election poster read: "Elections are about taking sides. Labour is on yours."
Mr Corbyn added: "We are not going to lose seats, we are looking to gain seats where we can."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel