LONDON – Britain’s Labour Party faces deadlock in a power struggle between the party’s centrist MPs and its leftist leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as ballots closed on Wednesday in a leadership challenge against him.
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Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Wansbeck and Labour’s Shadow Minister for Trade Unions & Civil Society, said: “Jeremy can’t really do any more than he’s doing in terms of holding the olive branch out to people who perhaps haven’t been supportive in the past”.
Meanwhile, Corbyn has insisted his leadership style is unlikely to change should he beat challenger Owen Smith and be named the victor of the contest for the top job on Saturday.
Mr Corbyn’s first wife, Jane Chapman, revealed she voted for Mr Smith in the leadership contest.
Corbyn says he’ll try to unite the party if, as expected, he is re-elected.
“That is only half the story”.
“Because providing the abuse is being tackled, and it is really important that does happen and that people who have been extremely abusive are not members of the party, provided that issue is dealt with, we have to move on”.
Miliband is particularly critical of Corbyn’s “egregious” stance on foreign policy.
‘Nationalisation cannot be the answer to everything; anti-austerity speeches cannot explain everything; corporate taxation cannot pay for everything.
“It doesn’t add up”.
“Like past year, people have come together because they want to see Labour rebuild and transform Britain”.
Miliband said it was “disastrous” that people were labelled “closet Tories” or “Tory Lite” if they disagreed with Corbyn.
In a New Statesman article, Mr Miliband, who lost to his brother Ed in 2010, said Labour was now a “secondary influence” on national decision making.
He and challenger Mr Smith have been on the campaign trail for weeks, with the result set to be announced on Saturday ahead of the party’s conference in Liverpool.
He spent much of the last full day of campaigning locked in a national executive committee (NEC) meeting, which failed to reach consensus on how to appoint the party’s shadow cabinet after nearly nine hours of talks.
Mr Corbyn confirmed he is to hold discussions with MPs and others in the next few days on a new relationship with the Parliamentary Labour Party.
“Unless we have a radical, credible opposition to the Tories then we won’t be able to stop them – now or at the next election”.
Murray, MP for Edinburgh South, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “I think Jeremy has to make sure he does wipe the slate clean if that is his intention”.
Rival Mr Smith, former shadow work and pensions spokesman, has ruled out taking a place in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet if he stays on as leader.
Jeremy Corbyn has already pledged to “reach out” to Labour MPs if he is re-elected as leader.
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In a vote that was passed by 16 to 14, they said those individuals would be frontbenchers, which one insider said was “controversial” because that could tip the finely balanced make-up of the executive away from Corbyn supporters.
