JEREMY Corbyn has insisted there is no culture of widespread bullying within Labour as Ian Austin became the ninth disillusioned MP to resign this week, claiming the party leader was “not fit to be Prime Minister”.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Corbyn brushed aside claims made by the Labour defectors to The Independent Group of MPs that he oversaw a culture of “bullying, bigotry and intimidation”.
He declared: "There is no place for harshness, bullying or anything else in the party. I don't believe that it exists on a wide scale. Where there is bad behaviour, we deal with it. Where there is a problem, we deal with it."
The Labour leader rejected the claim from his deputy, Tom Watson, that bullying was an issue in the party, stressing: "I will be speaking to Tom Watson in the very near future to talk to him about that. He has made a comment. It is his comment, not mine. Of course, I disagree with him."
Mr Watson, who recently said at times he "no longer recognises" the party he was elected deputy leader of in 2015, expressed "deep sadness" at Mr Austin’s decision to leave.
"I didn't want him to go, not just because he is a friend but because Labour needs people of his experience, calibre and passion if we are to win," said the fellow Midlands MP.
He added: "There is no point in denying that his departure is a serious blow to my party. His resignation ends a week of turmoil in British politics that we all must reflect on," he added.
Mr Austin, who has represented Dudley since 2005 and was a Local Government Minister under Gordon Brown, announced his resignation on Friday morning, saying he had become “ashamed” of Labour and insisted Mr Corbyn was “not fit to lead the Labour Party and certainly not fit to be Prime Minister".
He blamed the Labour leader for "creating a culture of extremism and intolerance" and accused him of failing to tackle anti-Semitism, turning the party into a "narrow sect" run by the hard Left.
The backbencher explained: "I grew up listening to my dad, who was a refugee from the Holocaust, teaching me about the evils of hatred and prejudice.
"One of the main reasons I joined the Labour Party as a teenager here in Dudley more than 35 years ago was to fight racism and I could never have believed I would be leaving the Labour Party because of racism too."
Mr Austin said that under Mr Corbyn had “completely changed what was a mainstream party into a completely different party with very different values”.
He added: "The hard Left is now in charge of the party; they're going to get rid of lots of decent mainstream MPs and I just can't see how it can return to the mainstream party that won elections and changed the country for the better."
Labour responded by calling for Mr Austin to quit as an MP and contest a by-election.
"We regret that Ian Austin has left the Labour Party,” said a party spokesman.
"He was elected as a Labour MP and so the democratic thing is to resign his seat and let the people of Dudley decide who should represent them," he added.
But the backbencher made clear he would not be resigning his seat – which he won with a wafer-thin 22 majority over the Tories – nor would he be joining the likes of Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie in The Independent Group, who offered him their support.
TIG is seen largely as an anti-Brexit coalition; Mr Austin’s constituency voted heavily to leave the EU.
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