A former senior member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team has told members of the Labour leader’s own constituency party that Labour is heading for a defeat similar to its catastrophically heavy 1931 loss if Corbyn remains at the helm.
Neale Coleman, who is now working as an adviser to Corbyn’s challenger, Owen Smith, was speaking at a meeting of the Islington North constituency Labour party, where members voted to nominate Corbyn as their choice in the Labour leadership contest by a margin of 266 votes to 100.
While the nomination is purely symbolic and has no direct impact on the leadership election, the meeting at a church hall in the Labour leader’s constituency heard passionate speeches for both candidates.
Coleman, who resigned earlier this year as Corbyn’s head of policy and rebuttal amid reports of divisions within the leader’s office, said he had been delighted to vote for him last year.
However, he said experience had taught him that Corbyn was not the right person to lead the party, and Labour faced defeat on the same level as 1931 if he remained in charge. The election in that year resulted in a landslide victory for a Tory-led coalition while the Labour party took only 52 seats, 225 fewer than in 1929.
Coleman urged members to watch a fly-on-the-wall documentary by Vice that gave an insight into the workings of the Labour leader’s office and which was seized on by critics.
However, there were also passionate appeals for members to support Corbyn, with local members citing his strengths as a local campaigning MP.
Others highlighted Smith’s past as a lobbyist in the pharmaceuticals industry and criticised members of the parliamentary Labour party, claiming that “neoliberalism” was at the heart of the New Labour project.
One man said the choice in the leadership contest was between principles and commitment on the one hand and insincerity and opportunism on the other.
The meeting heard suggestions that Corbyn had not been fully engaged in the campaign to secure a remain vote in the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. A woman who said she had been an organiser for the Stronger In campaign in Islington said it had been “nearly impossible” to get Corbyn involved.
There were shouts of “rubbish” from others as it was claimed that the Labour leader had been “absent without leave” during the referendum campaign. Corbyn’s team have repeatedly insisted that the Labour leader campaigned hard for the remain side.
Corbyn subsequently tweeted a picture of himself celebrating with members of the CLP at a nearby pub, adding that he was looking forward to working with its members in the years ahead.
Proud to be nominated by my own CLP with a turnout of 370. Looking forward to working with them all in years ahead. pic.twitter.com/0nTx7OkdjT
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) August 10, 2016
