Is sorry the hardest word for Jeremy Corbyn? The Labour leader has written to his party’s parliamentary candidates in the wake of last week’s election defeat – but those who want an apology will be disappointed.
In a round-robin email sent to those who stood for Labour on 12 December – 60 of whom lost their seats – Corbyn said he took full responsibility for the party’s electoral humbling but went on to praise its manifesto and campaign.
Jeremy Corbyn has written to Labour’s losing candidates pic.twitter.com/EdVu54p9kb
— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) December 20, 2019
The letter is unlikely to quell the anger of many of its recipients or, indeed, surviving MPs. Several losing candidates have complained that they had heard nothing from Labour HQ in the wake of their defeats. With Corbyn’s impersonal pro forma coming a week after polling day – and failing to apologise explicitly – this is not the message they had wanted. It does not even address the candidates by name.
Though Corbyn has promised to write to each candidate personally, that will come as too little too late. Other parties, meanwhile, have taken the opposite approach: losing Liberal Democrats have already had personal signed letters from Sal Brinton, the party’s president.
[See also: Will Jeremy Corbyn agree to step aside in Islington North?]
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