The Eagle has hovered but not yet landed. Yesterday evening Angela Eagle’s team briefed that she would launch her leadership challenge at 3pm today. A senior MP told me: “the overwhelming view of the PLP is that she is the one to unite Labour.” But by this lunchtime it had become clear that Eagle wouldn’t declare today.
The delay is partly due to the hope that Jeremy Corbyn may yet be persuaded to resign. Four members of his shadow cabinet – Clive Lewis, Rachel Maskell, Cat Smith and Andy McDonald – were said by sources to want the Labour leader to stand down. When they denied that this was the case, I was told: “Then they’re lying to their colleagues”. There is also increasing speculation that Corbyn has come close to departing. “JC was five minutes away from resigning yesterday,” an insider said. “But Seumas [Milne] torpedoed the discussions he was having with Tom Watson.”
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