Corbyn supporters have besieged Labour MPs in Parliament, with an ongoing protest in Parliament Square attempting to save Jez. Speaking at the event was a particularly fuming Paul Mason, formerly of Channel 4 News:
“We need 100 potential new MPs from all these young people, all these women, all these members of ethnic minority groups, disabled people, gay people. Get some people in there who suffer the hardships of working class life, not the hardship of having your career blighted by not being able to do your job properly.”
Save Jeremy – get down to Parliament Square now!
Blair tells Bloomberg:
“I’m accused of being a war criminal for removing Saddam Hussein — who by the way was a war criminal — and yet Jeremy is seen as a progressive icon as we stand by and watch the people of Syria barrel-bombed, beaten and starved into submission and do nothing…
There’s a guy whose face is on the placard. That’s me: Hate that guy. You’re the person in power taking difficult decisions. Jeremy is the guy with the placard, he’s the guy holding it. One’s the politics of power and the other’s the politics of protest.”
Sure Corbynistas will take this with their usual charm and good grace.
Corbyn has always had a popularity problem within Labour. He was less popular than both Gordon and Red Ed when he took over in September, and scored an identical net dislike for both himself and his party as Tony Blair was quitting in 2007. Things may have got a little better…
According to Ipsos Mori, just 22% think Corbyn is ready to be PM – one point higher than Ed in 2015 – while 65% think he is not ready. While this figure would be crushing to any other candidate, for a beleaguered Labour Party this figure might show some hope. The figure ties with Ed Miliband’s second best ever score (his best being 63% thinking he was not ready). When asked whether Labour were ready to form the next government, Corbyn’s Labour trumped the former leader’s last score in November 2014, with a whopping 27% saying they were ready (and just 63% saying they weren’t). Of course, for context David Cameron’s lowest score in 2008 was 43% believing he wasn’t ready to be PM (43% also agreed he was ready), while at the same time 45% agreed the Conservative’s were ready to form a government. Corbyn is more divisive than Ed, but not more popular. Join the Tories if you want to vote for the next PM in their leadership contest…
In another bizarre intervention Ken Livingstone has predicted on Putin’s Russia Today that John McDonnell will succeed Jeremy Corbyn should the Labour leader have a stroke or get “pushed under a bus driven by Boris Johnson”. Well at least it won’t be a bendy bus…
Coincidently Guido has £1,000 riding on McDonnell being next Labour leader. No rush…
Hard right elements are now on the fringes of the Labour Party (the very place he used to be) agrees John McDonnellhttps://t.co/QcAeYKbek8
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) January 6, 2016
Kevan Jones was never in Progress…
John McDonnell has today claimed that Jeremy Corbyn is an ‘Arsène Wenger of politics’. He made the remarks to Piers Morgan whilst being questioned on the Labour leader’s handling of his shadow cabinet reshuffle on ITV:
John McDonnell:He’s re-dictating the terms of what leadership is all about.
Piers Morgan:What is it about?
JMD: It’s about bringing people in, building a team, being a good manager. And that’s what he’s developing. He’s an Arsène Wenger of politics
Guido is sure Corbyn is over the moon to be compared to his team’s long-standing manager. In fairness, there are some striking similarities between the pair. Both play in red, both are getting on a bit, and neither stands a chance of winning anything any time soon. One thing’s for sure, he is not the special one…
