JEREMY Corbyn’s leadership is worth as much as 20 points in the opinion polls and replacing him would plunge Labour into single digits, Diane Abbott has insisted.
The Shadow Home Secretary and a key ally of the Labour leader praised his commitment to peace, equality and investment-led growth as well as his opposition to war, racism and austerity, which, she claimed, had “set him apart from the well-trodden political failures of the past”.
Writing on the LabourList website, the London MP hailed Mr Corbyn’s “brave and correct stance” in opposing Donald Trump’s retaliatory strike on the Syrian regime and his decision “not to endorse another US-led war”.
Ms Abbott described as “completely untrue” the assertion of the Conservatives and the Tory-supporting Press that Labour’s difficulties in the polls were all attributable to the leader and that if only it had a new one, then they would be resolved.
“We can go further,” she insisted. “Compared to all his critics, Jeremy Corbyn is worth about 18 to 20 percentage points to Labour’s vote. Without him and led by any one of his vocal critics, we could easily be languishing in single digits in polls.”
Recent polls have given Theresa May’s Tories an 18 or 19-point lead over Labour.
The Shadow Secretary of State urged people to look to the continent where the Dutch Labour Party had polled less than six per cent in recent elections and that the official French socialist candidate in the presidential race was polling below 10 per cent.
She noted how in both cases, the left wing parties had opposed austerity and then implemented it and then to try to shore up their electoral bases, they turned to anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric and policies.
“No doubt there are somewhere Dutch and French versions of Peter Mandelson saying that these policies were necessary or they were popular or they showed firm leadership. They were none of the above. They were indefensible and they proved electorally disastrous. Yet these are precisely the policies that Corbyn’s critics would have him adopt and would implement themselves if they managed to oust him. They would prove equally disastrous,” insisted Ms Abbott.
She pointed out that while there were genuine difficulties for a Labour leader in a time of Brexit, there were also very serious difficulties ahead for the Tory Government.
She referred to the complexities of getting a Brexit deal with no trade talks before it is agreed, continued jurisdiction from the European Court of Justice, the prospect of no deep cut in immigration levels, an economy forecast to slow and stagnant wages as well as the NHS, social care and schools all in crisis due to Tory cuts.
“The Government’s solution is yet more austerity. They won’t be leading us to sunlit uplands. In a politically volatile era, disillusion with the Government could quickly set in.”
Ms Abbott added: “In those circumstances it is vital that Labour is in a position to capitalise. That means a clear alternative to the Tories in every key area of policy. Jeremy Corbyn remains our best hope of delivering that.”
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