Ms Abbott, who staged a less successful left-wing run for the Labour leadership in 2010, also said those drawing attention to the leadership favourite’s links with “less than savoury” figures were “plucking incidents out of a very long career”.
Advertisement
Murdoch has previously argued the left-winger was “very likely” to win the leadership contest ahead of Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
Those in Labour attacking Corbyn claim that getting Labour elected is the only way for ordinary people to win change.
Previous leader Ed Miliband’s efforts to pull Labour to the left ended in an electoral rout this May.
“The Labour Party needs to choose someone with exciting ideas for the future, who can articulate them passionately, link them to people’s lives and lead us to win the next general election”, she said. ‘The fear would be: can party politics ever impact the will of the people?’ So we can’t go around promising free university, re-nationalising utilities and expect to have credibility on the economy. “I want to capture that and would involve Jeremy in my team from the outset”. Unless a hero emerges from Labour, it looks as if the only person who can remove Jeremy Corbyn is the man himself.
The ballot will close on September 10, with the result due to be announced on September 12. “We lost votes to the Conservatives”.
‘We have been supported by the Labour Party to become Labour members of Parliament.
With Labour “in danger once again of becoming the natural party of opposition” or even becoming “irrelevant”, he was not the leader to turn things around, it said, suggesting that he “neither wanted nor expected” to be leader.
Mr Corbyn defended his own rebellions, saying they had been “principled”.
Earlier, Mr Corbyn was forced to admit associating with Lebanese extremist Dyab Abou Jahjah but insisted he had no recollection of their meetings.
Although not mentioning the MP by name, Mr Brown said: “I have to say that if our global alliances are going to be alliances with Hezbollah and Hamas and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation, there is absolutely no chance of building a world-wide alliance that can deal with poverty and inequality and climate change and financial instability, and we’ve got to face up to that fact”.
Mr Burnham answered questions from members on a range of issues from his policy on Palestine to his vision for the NHS – but the ensuing battle with Mr Corbyn was the topic most regularly raised.
Advertisement
Brand noted that Corbyn’s views on the condemnation of the Iraq War, challenging sexism, building more housing and capping rent in London, and re-nationalising energy and rail companies are much better for Britain.
