Two political parties have been split asunder by the pro-Brexit vote. But it is Labour’s rebellion against Jeremy Corbyn that dominates the news agenda.
Most of Monday’s national newspaper front pages featured the drama around the imploding opposition party, viewing it in terms of the leader’s struggle to maintain his position.
“Corbyn faces leadership ultimatum” (Times); “Corbyn’s battle to remain” (Mirror); “Corbyn defiant as shadow cabinet disintegrates over Brexit strategy” (Guardian); “Jeremy Corbyn faces worst Labour crisis since 1935 (Independent); and “Corbyn rocked by cabinet walk-out” (i).
The Telegraph saw it more as an anti-referendum conspiracy than an internal party tussle: “Labour coup to block Brexit”. And the Mail widened that conspiracy to embrace “bitter losers” from all the parties, “Now plot to block Brexit”.
Fearing the possible success of such a plot, the Express showed its eagerness to secure freedom from the European Union as soon as possible, “Dash to seal Brexit deal”.
In a uniquely funereal front page, the Financial Times wrote of “political turmoil and isolation” as the UK confronts a “new reality”.
Metro dared to try a little humour, running a night-time photograph of the palace of Westminster with the headline, “The lights are on but nobody’s home”.
Only the Sun preferred to give major billing to the Conservatives’ own civil war: “Boris backer: Gove leads push for BoJo as PM”.
While Boris Johnson is deciding when to announce his candidature for the Tory leadership, Corbyn must decide whether he should announce his departure.
“Should he stay or should he go?” asked the Mirror, recognising that Labour “couldn’t carry on as it was” with “the chasm between Corbyn and his MPs.”
It argued that a challenge would have erupted at some point and it is “much better this explosive issue is faced sooner rather than later.” Tacitly, the Mirror favoured Corbyn standing down. It said: “We’re sick of the Tories appearing to supply both government and opposition.”
The Guardian regarded the parliamentary putsch against Corbyn as “shoddy... opportunism pure and simple” because he did not ask for the referendum “and it seems perverse to blame him for David Cameron’s loss.”
Labour MPs would do well to ask themselves whether “a smooth-talking Europhile would have done more harm or good in Newport and Barnsley” in the referendum vote.
But it accepted that Corbyn did not look like a prime minister. He “needs to look into his soul and ask himself if he really wants to be PM, and get out of the way if not.”
Meanwhile, Labour MPs have to recognise that if they make the wrong call it could ruinous for the party.
The Independent thought it “urgent” for Labour to find “fresh leadership.” Corbyn should “consider his position. If he doesn’t, he may leave Labour split, as well as defeated and irrelevant, with yet more unknowable consequences for our democracy.”
Unsurprisingly, the Conservative-supporting press was convinced that Corbyn should go, with the Times devoting its leading article to Labour’s crisis.
Corbyn had “shown himself devoid of leadership qualities” by fumbling set-piece occasions, floating half-baked ideas and alienating voters in Labour’s heartlands.
He was “an incompetent bungler” who had “earned neither the loyalty nor even the respect of Labour MPs”. Then the paper opened both barrels:
“When presented with opportunities to embarrass the government, as on the issue of Panama tax havens, Mr Corbyn’s incoherent and prolix Commons performances have provoked the despair of his colleagues.
When tested on tougher terrain, Mr Corbyn is intellectually and rhetorically hopeless. No one knows how many voters he sent to the Brexit camp by casually remarking that within the EU there was no upper limit to inward migration.”
Labour should pass a vote of no confidence in Corbyn, said the Times. Should Cameron’s successor call a snap general election, it is essential that Labour deposes Corbyn to provide a proper opposition.
The Mail ran a spread, “The day Labour imploded”. Its editorial, which scorned the entire “political class”, accused shadow cabinet members of rebelling against Corbyn “not because the result proved he’s so hugely out of touch with his heartlands... but on the grounds he didn’t campaign hard enough against Labour’s traditional supporters.”
The Sun, while urging Labour MPs to “go for Jexit”, was much more interested in the fate of the Tory party leadership. Its political columnist, Trevor Kavanagh, wondered if the Eurosceptic Corbyn was a secret Tory agent, having secured a referendum results he had long sought.
He wrote: “Labour is dying on its feet, punished by the working-class voters it betrayed for the past 20 years by the party’s snooty, metropolitan elite.”
The Telegraph’s Rosa Prince forecast that Corbyn, would cling to the leadership. Holed up in his bunker, she argued, his acolytes will urge him to ignore the pleas to stand aside for the good of party and country... “And he will modestly agree.”
Zoe Williams, in the Guardian, did not think Corbyn was responsible for leave winning the EU referendum, but that was beside the point about his future. She wrote:
“Corbyn has been a one-man Occupy movement, squatting in the office of Labour leader on behalf of the people (of whom I was one) who felt that the party’s high command was lifeless and intellectually spent. The point has been made, and the apparatus now has to be put to better use.”
In other words, it is time for a new Labour leader able to offer what Williams called “an altogether different quality of argument.”
The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire was not so sure. “I’m no Corbynista”, he wrote, adding that he was “deeply critical of the chaos and incompetence around him.”
But he had “no sympathy for a something-must-be-done mob who shout for a new leader without naming him or her.”
And he concluded: “Corbyn’s critics ignore how in four by-elections under him, the party’s vote was up in three - Oldham(+7.3%), Sheffield Brightside(+5.9%) and Tooting (+8.7%). Imagine how much better Labour might do if they united.”
