British finance minister George Osborne dared “moderate” lawmakers from the main opposition party on Wednesday to vote with the government on financial policy, hoping to exploit divisions over its new far-left leader.
Advertisement
Mr Cameron has repeatedly stated that he will only seek Commons approval for airstrikes in Syria if he believes he can secure a “consensus” in the House, though ministers have indicated that this may not necessarily require the support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn if enough Labour MPs are willing to back military action.
He previously suggested Labour would support the Government’s proposals.
Ms Eagle said the review of Labour’s nuclear weapons policy ordered by the party’s leader would examine the issue with a “completely open mind”.
The negative headlines continued when shadow global development secretary and firm Jeremy Corbyn ally Diane Abbott MP was questioned about the U-turn on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning – after nobody from the shadow chancellor’s office was made available for interview.
McDonnell, making his first appearance on the frontbench after 20 years in parliament, startled MPs by admitting he was embarrassed that he had reversed his two-week-old plan to tell Labour MPs to vote for Osborne’s charter for budget responsibility.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell admitted a Labour row over his U-turn on the vote is “embarrassing”.
Labour sources told the newspaper that between 50 and 100 of the party’s MPs could support military action if it was geared towards protecting civilians in Syria – rather than merely attacking IS bases.
Before the vote those Labour MPs who said they would abstain, notably Mike Gapes and Jamie Reed, were abused on Twitter, with accusations they were playing the Tory game and warnings they would find their local parties “pressing the deselect button”. “We say it is better to let people earn more and then take less from them in taxes”.
It is the tone and content of last night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party and what it foreshadows.
The previous shadow Chancellor, Chris Leslie, said he was “very clear we should not turn our face against a surplus”. In June, 77 economists, including leading academics from Britain and overseas, signed a letter which dismissed the fiscal charter as “nothing more than an attempt to outmanoeuvre his opponents” and having no basis in economics.
When challenged to show loyalty to Corbyn, the Ilford South MP responded: ‘I will show loyalty in the same way as he was loyal to Kinnock, Smith, Blair, Brown, Beckett, Miliband and Harman. Ok?’
In a New Statesman interview she insisted there should be a debate about Trident within Labour, which the review would allow. It’s about control of the Labour Party. He appointed McDonnell as the shadow chancellor on September 13.
“Just imagine if a political party here in government had a few kind of militia or paramilitary organisation was out doing these things in the streets”.
He said: “The Labour party can only bring about change by being in Government”.
Advertisement
Jeremy Corbyn is set to criticise China’s human rights record when he attends a Buckingham Palace banquet for the Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.
