Britain’s opposition Labour Party is set for a bitter battle over its future after leader Jeremy Corbyn said he expected to be on the ballot automatically for a leadership contest and would fight any attempt to prevent him entering the race.
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Ms Eagle, 55, said: “The Labour Party needs to be saved – I’m stepping up to the plate to say it’s about time that we did this so we can make the Labour Party relevant again and so we can contend for government”.
The Conservative’s 150,000 members will vote by September 9 on which of two candidates, interior minister Theresa May or junior energy minister Andrea Leadsom, should replace him as party leader and prime minister.
“Jeremy was elected as leader through a democratic process by the membership of the Labour Party and as such the PLP should stand behind Jeremy and further fight the Tory austerity measures”.
Which is true, but he has since lost the trust of 80 percent of his lawmakers.
TUC leader Frances O’Grady insisted that “now is the time when all working people must stand together” following the European Union referendum that has seen a “radical racist right” emerge.
The left-wing singer songwriter Billy Bragg grimly compared the current events with a 1988 Labour plot – involving a backbencher named Jeremy Corbyn – to unseat then-leader Neil Kinnock. “I’m the right person to lead the party into that general election”.
If Corbyn remains on the ballot, he will probably win, plunging the party into a crisis that could see most of its MPs splitting off into a separate group, possibly leading to a permanent tear in the party.
Mr Corbyn insisted: “The rules in my view are absolutely clear”.
I don’t think we have ever had that many entryists, even back in the old heydays of the militants.
The motion, moved by party member and Unite regional political officer Ian Woodland, called on the CLP to “re-affirm its support” for Mr Corbyn, and called on the leader’s opponents in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to stop its “divisive and distracting” challenge and “focus instead on dealing with the aftermath of the EU Referendum result”.
He said he would be prepared to mount a legal challenge if he was left off the leadership slate. Jeremy Corbyn suggests that if there were to be a contest he should be on the ballot automatically.
Kierran Horsfield got a tattoo of the Labour leader’s face below his right shoulder in November 2015, when Mr Corbyn was riding on the crest of popular grassroots support that saw him elected party leader with nearly 60% of the vote. “When he’s on that ballot paper he will win”. She says that he should secure the support of 51 MPs before running, which he now does not have.
Labour former acting leader Harriet Harman said Mr Corbyn “has to have the continued support” of MPs and can not say “I’ve got the right to carry on come what may”.
He also hit out at Mr Watson for announcing the end of talks without informing union leaders first.
“There will be no split”, she added.
“He’s not a bad man”. It gives you the privilege of having the chance to try and lead the party.
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Abbott said it would be “a travesty in terms of natural justice and fairness” if the party tried to keep Corbyn off the ballot.
