This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/28/jeremy-corbyn-loses-labour-mps-confidence-vote

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Jeremy Corbyn suffers heavy loss in Labour MPs confidence vote Labour MPs prepare for leadership contest after Corbyn loses confidence vote
(about 3 hours later)
The Labour party is on track for a bruising leadership contest after Jeremy Corbyn was overwhelmingly defeated in a confidence vote. Labour MPs are preparing to launch a bruising a leadership contest that will aim to topple leader Jeremy Corbyn after he reacted to an overwhelming vote of no confidence by declaring he had no intention to resign.
A total of 172 MPs said they had no confidence in Corbyn while 40 voted for him. Four ballot papers were spoilt and another 13 MPs did not vote. Politicians want Angela Eagle, who has stepped down as shadow business secretary, or Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, to agree about which of them will trigger the challenge if their leader continues to hold on in the face of massive hostility.
But Corbyn issued a defiant statement in response, saying he would not betray those who voted for him by resigning. “I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy,” he said. MPs backing Eagle were on Tuesday night collecting names of colleagues who were prepared to nominate her in order to start a contest, but Watson supporters were calling for calm, insisting that Corbyn could yet stand down.
“We are a democratic party, with a clear constitution. Our people need Labour party members, trade unionists and MPs to unite behind my leadership at a critical time for our country.” The Labour leader has so far held on despite a dramatic and destabilising coup attempt, started at the weekend, which has now seen two-thirds of his shadow cabinet step down, as well as 28 shadow ministers and 11 private parliamentary secretaries.
But the result is likely to lead to a direct challenge to Corbyn. Supporters of a leadership election would need to collect the signatures of 51 Labour MPs and MEPs to trigger a vote. More than three-quarters of Labour MPs – 172 – voted to show that they had no confidence in his leadership, while 40 voted for him. Corbyn responded by issuing a warning that he had the support of Labour members, and that he was going nowhere.
Related: Brexit live: Jeremy Corbyn loses no confidence motionRelated: Brexit live: Jeremy Corbyn loses no confidence motion
Angela Eagle, who stepped down as shadow business secretary in an attempted coup that has seriously destabilised the party’s Westminster operation, is thought to be the most likely contender to take on her leader. “I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy,” he said.
But the deputy leader, Tom Watson, and Yvette Cooper are also being talked about as possible alternatives. “We are a democratic party, with a clear constitution. Our people need Labour party members, trade unionists and MPs to unite behind my leadership at a critical time for our country.”
The party is preparing itself for a legal battle over whether Corbyn is automatically placed back on the ballot for the contest, or whether he will have to collect nominations. There are at least two sets of legal advice on the issue, with differing conclusions. His allies said the only way to take Corbyn on would be for another MP to collect the 51 nominations of MPs and MEPs needed to start a contest, warning that he would stand and that they believed he would win.
Corbyn’s team say it is beyond question that he would run again. “The people who elect the leader of the Labour party are the members of the Labour party and Jeremy has made that crystal clear. He’s not going to concede to a corridor coup or backroom deal which tries to flush him out,” a Labour spokesman said on Monday night. “He was elected by an overwhelming majority of the Labour party. He is not going to betray those people and stand down because of pressure.” The standoff marks the start of a potentially bitter battle for the heart of the Labour party that will pitch MPs and local government leaders against pro-Corbyn members and trade unionists.
Corbyn faced a tough encounter on Monday with his party’s MPs, who repeatedly told him to resign during a tense meeting of the PLP, while a growing crowd of Corbyn supporters gathered in a rally in Parliament Square. David Ward said John Smith, the previous leader for whom he was chief of staff, had told him that any leader would have to resign after a vote of no confidence. “You cannot survive,” he said, arguing that it was the only mechanism in the party to force a leader out.
Corbyn’s support among members is the reason that Labour MPs, desperate to oust him, want just one candidate to stand against him. People who were being talked about as potential contenders, including Dan Jarvis and Lisa Nandy, have now ruled themselves out of the contest.
Eagle and Watson are now seen as the only two realistic possibilities.
Jess Phillips MP echoed the view of dozens of her colleagues that the pair had to make a decision about who would run. “The party has to agree on one person. Just like Jeremy, people in the PLP should put aside any personal ambition and instead agree on one candidate who can save the party for the sake of the country,” she said.
The former shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, who was one of the first major resignations, urged Corbyn to give up: “This is a very clear result and if Jeremy is to show any leadership quality at all he must now reflect and respond to this overwhelming and unprecedented indication from the parliamentary labour party which includes all wings and all groupings.”
Sources suggested that while Eagle’s team had been busily collecting names, Watson’s preferred action was to hold tight and wait for Corbyn to step down voluntarily after experiencing the reality of running an opposition with such a thin frontbench.
Although the Labour leader has replaced most shadow cabinet positions, it will struggle to fill many of the vacancies, while he will have to face a parliamentary committee on Wednesday to discuss the confidence vote.
On Tuesday night he emailed members of his party’s national policy forum to cancel a meeting in Nottingham this weekend, arguing that the result of the EU referendum meant it would be undemocratic to discuss policy options. He promised to put the party on a “war footing” in case of an early general election after the Tory leadership contest is decided in September.
The prospect of an election is what has triggered the action against Corbyn and comes as a leaked poll commissioned by the party revealed that over one in four (27%) of Labour voters was less likely to vote for the party following the referendum campaign in which 214 Labour MPs called on people to vote to remain in the EU. The YouGov survey said 11% were more likely to back Labour.
Corbyn is determined to keep going because of a philosophical belief that it is Labour members that should control the party and not its MPs. On Monday he weathered an explosive meeting of the PLP in which he was repeatedly begged to resign, and told by his former Scottish secretary to “call off the dogs” after pro-Corbyn supporters began protesting outside his constituency office.
The Labour leader left the meeting and then headed into Parliament Square to address thousands of supporters, organised by the grassroots movement Momentum, in a move that infuriated MPs.
Related: Labour has split before – can its big heart withstand the current ruptions? | Martin KettleRelated: Labour has split before – can its big heart withstand the current ruptions? | Martin Kettle
MPs were furious that the party leader left the meeting and went to address the crowd defiantly. One told the Guardian that the move had increased the scale of the no-confidence vote, which was followed by further resignations, including that of shadow communities minister Liz McInnes, who had spoken up for Corbyn in the meeting.
One Labour MP said after Tuesday’s vote that it looked like Corbyn would struggle to get the support he needs for the nomination. “It is clear his behaviour last night in whipping up a rally of largely non-Labour members and his refusal to accept any blame for the referendum defeat turned off a number of colleagues from the left who were considering abstaining or voting for him,” the MP said. “It is clear his behaviour last night in whipping up a rally of largely non-Labour members and his refusal to accept any blame for the referendum defeat turned off a number of colleagues from the left who were considering abstaining or voting for him,” said the politician, who also argued that there was deep anger about the perception that Corbyn had not tried hard enough to mobilise Labour voters during the referendum campaign.
“MPs have been inundated all day with emails from Corbyn supporters who have lost confidence in him and that has shifted the mood well beyond the usual suspects.” Corbyn’s team strongly deny that charge, pointing to several speeches and regular media appearances.
But those close to the leader said the crowd outside parliament on Monday night were Labour supporters and argued that MPs were out of touch with ordinary party members. MPs have argued that Corbyn would struggle to secure enough nominations, but the leader’s advisers believe that he would be automatically placed on the ballot. Legal advice leaked to the Guardian does conclude that he would be able to run again without any set number of MPs backing him, but sources say that the party’s national executive committee has commissioned a separate piece of work that has the opposite finding.
On Tuesday Cooper had warned that Corbyn had no alternative plan for the country’s post-Brexit future, in a speech in which she said she would not rule out standing for the Labour leadership should the position fall vacant.
She said time was running out for progressive opposition figures to begin setting out their stall for what a departed UK should look like.
The former shadow home secretary, who lost to Corbyn when she ran for the leadership last year, said a leader “who cannot even fill a shadow frontbench” was not the person who should be at the table representing the party while the Conservatives shaped a new deal with Europe.
“There is a political vacuum just when political leadership is needed most,” Cooper said in her speech at the Centre for European Reform. “We are here without a plan because politics has failed. No alternative government. No alternative plan.”
Meanwhile Andy Slaughter stepped down as a shadow minister after declining the offer of a role in the shadow cabinet. The loss of the London MP was seen as bruising for Corbyn, given his leftwing credentials, but the leader’s supporters point out that he did not back their man last year.
Diane Abbott, the new shadow health secretary, said the no-confidence vote had no status under the party rulebook. “It has no meaning,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “MPs don’t choose the leader of the Labour party, the party does.”