Christians on the Left has said that the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, coupled with the party’s failure to convince voters to Remain in the European Union and divisions over Jeremy Corbyn’s position as leader are making it a very hard few months for the party.
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Mr Corbyn has said he will fight any exclusion from the ballot paper, but the anti-Corbyn camp are weighing up legal options if he is allowed to stand.
However, Corbyn has hinted that he will challenge any decision to deny him a place on the ballot.
But his opponents say the document’s wording means Corbyn will also require the support of MPs and MEPs to stand – which, given his loss of the no confidence vote last month by Labour MPs, means he is unlikely to be on the ballot.
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Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee is due to decide this week whether the party leader must be re-nominated by MPs in order to run in the event of a challenge to his leadership.
The 55-year-old, who has been the MP for Wallasey since 1992, went on: “I would not do this if I did not think I could be a good prime minister for Britain”. “It’s quite clear to me from the rules that the section on any nominations refers to challengers”, Christine Shawcroft, a member of the NEC, said on Monday.
The main argument put forward is that the Labour Party is not ready to win the next elections under Corbyn’s leadership.
One of them, Angela Eagle, has said she will formally launch a bid on Monday to replace Corbyn as party leader, saying he has failed to lead Labour parliamentarians as an organised and effective force to hold the government to account. There is likely to be a significant battle, however, if Corbyn is not on the ballot paper.
He added: “The idea that Jeremy Corbyn is driving a wedge in the Labour party, with the majority of support of the membership, is outrageous”.
‘In such turbulent times, we need a leader who can unite rather than divide the Labour Party’.
“And it’s long overdue for Labour, the party of Equality, to have its first woman leader”.
Eagle, who has been considering a leadership bid since resigning as shadow business secretary in late June, said the party needed to move beyond the factionalism and divisions of the Corbyn era.
It had had left the United Kingdom “divided between young and old, between city and town, and between nation and nation”, she said.
“I think she’s the Empire Strikes Back candidate – she voted for Iraq, she voted for tuition fees”.
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However Mr Corbyn has said he would be prepared to mount a legal challenge against Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), the Party’s governing body, if he is forced secure the backing of MPs.
