DIANE Abbott has suggested the Left is now in complete control of the Labour Party, saying that "no one can now remember that they supported Tony Blair".
The Shadow Home Secretary, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, claimed the former Prime Minister’s repeated attacks on her colleague had only served to shore him up.
And in an interview with Prospect magazine, she argued that Labour might have been in power by now if the party leader's centrist critics had not attacked his leadership in the run-up to the June 2017 General Election.
Ms Abbott’s remarks come just days after her fellow London MP tightened his grip on Labour after left-wingers, including Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum, took all three seats on the party’s ruling National Executive Committee. They also follow the recent victory of pro-Corbyn left-winger Richard Leonard in the battle for the leadership of Scottish Labour.
Suggesting that Mr Blair’s supporters in the party had been cowed by the rise of the Left, the Shadow Secretary of State said: “Even Blairites don’t call themselves Blairites. It’s one of those things. No one can now remember that they supported Tony Blair.”
In 2005, Mr Blair made political history by winning a third consecutive general election.
Ms Abbott went on: “During the leadership election, every time he[Mr Blair] went on television slagging off Jeremy we were all going: ‘Yes please, do it some more.’ There was a spike in our support when Blair said: ‘On no account can you vote for this man.’”
The Hackney North MP accused Labour colleagues of "abusing" Mr Corbyn during the first 18 months of his leadership.
“Now we made up the ground over the course of the General Election but if the PLP had not been so hostile, who’s to say whether we might not have won that election?” she noted.
It was claimed during the Prospect interview, Ms Abbott appeared confused about Labour’s policy on remaining in the EU’s customs union after Brexit.
She said; “We’re certainly going to stay in the single market and customs union during the transition and I believe what we’re saying is that we’re going to be staying in the customs union after that.”
Ms Abbot turned to an adviser, asking “I think that’s what they’re saying, isn’t it?” before eventually replying that “nothing’s off the table”.
Official party policy is that while Labour wants to remain in the European single market and customs union during the two-year transition period, it will leave them after 2021. Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, has said Labour’s policy is “staying in a customs union and a single market variant, which means full participation of the single market”.
Ms Abbott also once again left the door open to Labour, at some point, supporting another EU referendum, stressing how it was “not currently” party policy to have another vote.
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