The Barnsley Central MP, an ex-soldier who has been tipped as a future leader, said he would feel “deeply uncomfortable” fighting on such a platform.
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The former soldier, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told The Guardian he would be “deeply uncomfortable” standing on a manifesto committing to unilateral nuclear disarmament – of which Mr Corbyn is a known advocate -and that the “catastrophic” policy would lose them the election. We have had a long discussion about how we approach foreign policy issues. “I understand one of my brothers says I am a very bad journalist”, he said.
“Now that those in the leadership have had time to find their feet, allies and enemies, I think they could manage at least 50/50 across all of the positions in the party. I need some space for them, my wife and our youngest child right now, and I wouldn’t have it as leader”.
The intervention comes after a tumultuous week for Labour in which Jeremy Corbyn shifted pro-Trident Maria Eagle from shadow defence secretary and replaced her with Emily Thornberry, who supports his call for Britain to disarm unilaterally.
Meanwhile Dan Jarvis, a prominent centrist MP, said last night that he may not stand as a Labour candidate again if the party drops its support for Trident.
He said: “If you look at the people around Jeremy, a lot of them have been in the employment of Livingstone”.
The BBC has defended its handling of Stephen Doughty’s resignation on air on Wednesday after it was accused of orchestrating the event to inflict “maximum damage” on the Labour leader.
The former lawyer was forced to resign from Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet in November 2014 for tweeting a picture of a white van parked outside a house with England flags.
The Labour leadership has said it is an outdated view to see those four roles as the most important over portfolios such as health and education.
“Within the hour we heard that Laura had sealed the deal, ” Alexander wrote, adding, “we knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact”.
“Your letter suggests that our decision to interview Mr Doughty in the run-up to Prime Minister’s Questions was created to “promote a particular political narrative”.
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Speaking on his LBC radio show, Mr Livingstone said only three of about 25 staff in Mr Corbyn’s office had worked for him.
