British referendum on membership of the EU,
and in 2015 he criticised the EU’s treatment
of Greece during their financial crisis. There
was no question that his support for the
Remain campaign appeared to be
unenthusiastic. The situation within the party
was worsened by a series of resignations in
his Shadow Cabinet, which were triggered by
the firing of Hilary Benn, former Shadow
Foreign Secretary, on 26th June, after he
expressed concern about Corbyn’s leadership
following the referendum result (NB the
referendum took place on 23rd June). Over
the subsequent three days there were 21
resignations from the Shadow Cabinet, with
all of these MPs suggesting that to some
extent concerns over the result of the recent
referendum were responsible for such. The
compounding of these situations led to a vote
of no confidence by the parliamentary party
being held against Corbyn during this same
week, which he lost 172:40. There was overall
44 resignations within the Labour party
during this period. While there was increasing
pressure on him to resign, he was reluctant to
do so because he was/is the democratically
elected leader. Pressure mounted throughout
July and both Owen Smith and Angela Eagle
announced their candidacy for leader. Eagle
soon after resigned, pledging her support for
Smith. The results were announced on 24th
September, Corbyn had retained his
leadership with a majority of 61.8%.
This division over Britain’s relationship
with Europe does not bode well for the future
of Labour, because in 1980 the ‘gang of three’
(later four): Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers,
David Owen and Roy Jenkins, broke away
from the Labour party to form the Social
Democrats, who went on to form an alliance
with the Liberal party and become the Liberal
Democrats. This new party was modelled
upon the politics of Europe, and rejected the
Euroscepticism that was then so prominent in
the Labour party. Although this divide is
apparent on both sides of the House, as to
what ‘Brexit’ is supposed to mean for the
country. Moreover, the crisis has continued
into the new year, with Labour having
performed poorly in the series of by-elections
that resulted from this series of resignations.
The Labour party remains in turmoil, with
no evident conclusion that will satisfy all
factions of the party. After all, there are a
series of important arguments in support of
Jeremy Corbyn remaining leader. Most
significantly, he has been elected leader more
than once by the members of the Labour
party, rejecting his leadership in a sense
undermines the wishes of the people.
Moreover, since he became leader, as of June
2016, membership of the Labour party has
risen from 201,239 to 503,143, re-enforcing
his support from the public. Increasing the
support base is extremely important for the
party, which at the next election (assuming
this is in 2020), will not have held power for
10 years - the Labour party cannot afford to
lose supporters. In other words, there are two
opposing schools of thought surrounding
Jeremy Corbyn: those who see him as
unelectable as a potential Prime Minister, or
those who see him as a beacon of hope,
attempting to bring compassion back into
politics, amid the increasingly right-wing state
of global affairs. I personally believe in what
he stands for, such as increasing funding and
support for abortion clinics and vulnerable
mothers, removing Trident, reducing the
influence of the monarchy, and re-
nationalising a larger proportion of British
industry; however, I recognise that he is not a
strong leader, and without the support of his
MPs or the general public (not just Labour
supporters), he is not going to be the figure
who will stimulate these changes. Therefore, I
do see the only solution to this crisis being
Corbyn resigning. I would hope that any
successor would enact these changes to some
degree, because Labour party members have
indicated that they are in favour of these.
Additionally, it is important to emphasise
that the perceived lack of leadership over the
European referendum is not the sole reason
for discontent with Corbyn. There is also
dissent over what appears to be his
continuing failure to deal with allegations of
anti-semitism within the party. He has also
failed to capitalise on a period of weakness
for the Conservative and bring them to
account, which is the prime purpose of the
opposition, particularly in a time when Britain
faces such an abundance of issues,
particularly the severe lack of funding for the
National Health Service and care of the
community.
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