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So the Labour Party held the no confidence vote in Jeremy Corbyn today. 172 MPs voted to say they had no confidence in their leader and 40 voted to support him. This means the coup has successfully deepened and widened and what started in the Blairite camps has spread through the centre and soft left MPs who had previously sided with Jezza. This all means that a leadership election is inevitable – the *crucial* question in the short term is whether Corbyn is automatically placed on any new ballot (the opposition argue that this is not the case. If it isn’t then he’s unlikely to get the numbers needed to put him there. He’ll go and so will tens of thousands of new members). If he is automatically on the ballot however, then there’s nothing to suggest that he still doesn’t enjoy overwhelming support from the membership and won’t be returned as leader. Even so, the scale of opposition (81%) makes the smooth running of the party impossible; this is obviously no small problem. More importantly, Corbyn’s wider popularity is still untested (sort of - he has consistently abysmal approval ratings but defied expectations in local elections twice this year - if he hadn’t then this coup would have happened a lot earlier). This is a *real* problem although I feel slightly dirty to admit it as the plotters are using it as the pretext for their coup. It is a real problem though because there is likely to be a snap general election before Christmas designed to give Cameron’s successor the mandate they’ll obviously need considering the UK is currently an anarchy with nobody leading government or the opposition. So another consequence of Brexit is that Corbynism is likely to be given its ultimate test way before anybody envisaged. I’m afraid I don’t believe Corbyn can win a GE (I’d obviously love him too but that’s not the point). I’ll continue to support him and go to any more demo’s as needed but I think the smart move would be to try and reunite Labour by offering Jeremy to step down but only if he’s replaced with McDonnell - preferably uncontested - but even if not, McDonnell would receive the same thumping mandate as Corbyn. This is unlikely to appease the rebels however, as McDonnell is Corbyn’s closest ally and from precisely the same political mould. My reason for suggesting it is simply that I think McDonnell is genuinely electable and the media would have little time to compile/ compose the sort of character assassination against him as they already have Corbyn. Corbyn has just refused to resign (which is the response everybody expected). Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Gary MacLennan _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
