Mr Corbyn has said he wants to give Labour activists a “big say” in whether the party continues to back the renewal of the UK’s nuclear weapons system amid complaints that he is seeking to bypass MPs to switch stance.
Advertisement
The Wirral South MP has written a hard-hitting blog post explaining her decision to quit over comments made by shadow chancellor John McDonnell about the pressure group Progress, which she chairs.
“We will see when we get there, because I don’t think we will get there”.
Mr Corbyn is facing further internal problems with two members of his shadow cabinet hinting they will quit if the party changes its policy to scrapping Trident.
Ms McKinnell had been appointed to the shadow attorney general role following Mr Corbyn’s shock election as leader in September, a decision she claimed “genuinely surprised” her.
Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, and Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the shadow justice secretary, both renewed their support for Trident on Sunday.
“We have got to have, I think, a very adult argument in the Labour party about this – not in public I hope, not in the way in which we have occasionally argued publicly recently”.
He said: “Let’s see what happens in relation to that but I am clear that I support Trident remaining”.
Last week, Mr Corbyn sacked shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden and shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher following their criticism of his leadership.
What it is also true, but less often acknowledged, is that British voters like leadership and in this regard Mr Corbyn is in danger of experiencing the worst of all worlds.
“But I am prepared to have a discussion about the capabilities we might need”.
Asked about Ms McKinnell’s resignation, the spokesman said the Labour leader would “thank her for her service”.
Falconer, who once shared a flat with Tony Blair and was one of his closest allies in office, is one of a number of former ministers who are not natural Corbyn supporters who sit in the shadow cabinet.
Ms McGovern told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme that she was due to meet the shadow chancellor for a second time about her involvement with the review when “all the while he’d gone to the TV studio to call the organisation that I am chair of hard-right conservative”.
“My only concern at the moment is to make sure we put forward a policy platform for the 2016 Scottish elections that is radical, bold and is positive, to take the fight to the current Scottish government and to try and win as many seats as possible at the Scottish parliamentary elections while also holding this terrible Conservative government at Westminster to account”.
Advertisement
“There is a process and there are rules and if anybody thinks that unions like the GMB are going to go quietly into the night while tens of thousands of our members’ jobs are literally swaneed away by rhetoric then they have got another shock coming”.
