For the first time this year, Jeremy Corbyn attended tonight’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting (having angered colleagues by missing last week’s). But in the view of MPs, the wait was not worth it. “If I gave a report like that to my Constituency Labour Party meeting, members would be justified in deselecting me,” a shadow minister told me. A former shadow cabinet member was even blunter: “Bloody terrible. Same message, worse strategy”. Another commented: “Expectations were rock-bottom – and he fell below them”.
Corbyn began his 10-minute address by noting that party membership had “doubled since the general election” and had risen by “five times” in some CLPs. He went on to praise Labour’s House of Lords team for their role in defeating the government’s tax credit cuts last October (receiving a smattering of applause) and promised to maintain his approach to PMQs (“a matter of much debate among the media”), remarking that “the idea that the public’s questions are being put to an obdurate and remote government on their behalf” had a great deal of “resonance and support”.
He added that Labour had done “as much as we can on the steel industry and will continue to do so” and that he raised the issue several times “with the Chinese”. Corbyn also noted that he had attended most meetings of backbench parliamentary committees (where “frank and robust discussion” was had) and, inspired by Harold Wilson’s memoirs, had introduced an “open-door policy” for backbenchers on Wednesday afternoons (“absolutely fascinating and really great discussion”).
He pointed to a recent Ipsos MORI poll, showing Labour had narrowed the Tories’ lead to six points (39-33), and a YouGov survey putting the gap at seven (37-30). He added that local by-election results (though “not necessarily” a reliable national indicator) also demonstrated progress against the Conservatives and Ukip.
The Commons division bell spared Corbyn from questions (colleagues would likely have challenged his weekend appearance at a CND rally) as MPs went to vote. Rather than returning to the meeting, Corbyn left to film an apperance on ITV’s The Agenda (Labour sources said he would be back next week). In response, a large group of Labour MPs walked out early.
Corbyn ally Jon Trickett, the shadow communities secretary, who is co-ordinating the party’s local election campaign, also gave a presentation, which prompted what a spokesman described as “open and frank” discussion. Jenny Chapman MP told Trickett: “I’ll do whatever it takes to win but this strategy just isn’t good enough.” Former shadow defence minister Kevan Jones said: “That’s not a presentation for winning”. Graham Jones MP asked “Why aren’t we targeting any Tory councils?” One former shadow cabinet minister described the strategy as “Tories are bad and Labour is good”.
At the start of the meeting, general secretary Iain McNicol announced that Baroness Royall’s investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism among Young Labour members had been widened to also include claims of intimidation and candidate misconduct in last weekend’s NEC election.
Now listen to George Eaton and Stephen Bush discuss the latest from Westminster, on the New Statesman Podcast:
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