Yvette Cooper has denied reports of discussing “secret plots” with Peter Mandelson to convince rivals in the upcoming Labour leadership contest to withdraw, in a desperate attempt to oust veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn from succeeding the previous party leader, Ed Miliband. According to the Daily Telegraph, Peter Mandelson pleaded with the 3 remaining candidates to pull out in order to annul the contest, and as a result prevent the Corbyn victory. Mandelson allegedly said, “This is a disgrace, let’s get this thing pulled.” However the futility of his attempts were made clear once it was acknowledged by officials that dropping out of the contest would result in automatic success for Corbyn.
Allegations of the coup arose after the 50 minute long speech given by former Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, where he implicitly warned against choosing Corbyn as the new leader of the Labour party. He criticized Corbyn’s friendly relationship with representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah as damaging to international relations, arguing that it would be impossible to build a “worldwide alliance that could deal with poverty and inequality and climate change and financial instability.” When questioned, the former leader refused to comment on whom he’d vote for.
In response to Brown’s speech, a spokesperson for Corbyn’s campaign stated it “highlighted the need for a Labour party that stands for hope, that is credible, radical and electable – on which basis, the best candidate to vote for is Jeremy Corbyn”.
As of now, opinion polls suggest that Corbyn appears to be the most likely victor in the leadership contest.
Liz Kendall has also supposedly urged Cooper to stand down from the competition in order to allow Andy Burnham, who is apparently the most likely candidate to beat Corbyn, a chance to prevail. However this too was refused by Yvette on the basis that it “would not be right for two women to give up, leaving a field of two men.”
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