Jeremy Corbyn has told his critics in the parliamentary Labour Party that it is their "duty and responsibility" to support him if he sees off a leadership challenge from former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith.
Although the Labour leader said he would offer “a hand of friendship” to his MPs, 80 per cent of whom oppose him, he raised the prospect that they could be deselected before the next general election.
The Conservative government is planning constituency boundary changes and Mr Corbyn said that the changes could come into effect before the next general election, which is due in 2020.
“In that case, there will be a full selection process with every constituency. But the sitting MP will have an opportunity to put their name forward. So there will be a full and open selection process for every constituency Labour
Party throughout the whole of the UK,” he said at the formal launch of his leadership campaign in London yesterday.
Mr Corbyn’s critics fear that, the longer he remains leader, the more influence his supporters will gain in the Labour Party organisation and local branches. The party’s MPs are generally more conservative than its broader membership, which has grown to half a million since Mr Corbyn became leader last year.
Mr Corbyn said he would use the leadership campaign to propose Labour policies to address five injustices in contemporary Britain.
“The injustices that scar society today are not those of 1945 – want, squalor, idleness, disease and ignorance – and they have changed since I first entered parliament in 1983. Today what is holding people back above all are inequality, neglect, insecurity, prejudice and discrimination,” he said.
Mr Corbyn defended his record as leader, noting that Labour had won all its byelections since he took over, as well as mayoral contests in London and three other cities. He dismissed polls showing Labour trailing far behind the Conservatives, predicting that they would change after the leadership election was over. “It is the duty and the responsibility of every Labour MP to get behind the party at that point and put it against the Tories for the different, fairer, kinder Britain that we can build together. And I appeal to them to work together,” he said. Mr Smith accused Mr Corbyn of threatening MPs with the sack by raising the prospect of deselection, claiming that the Labour leader was bent on controlling the party.
“It’s not much of an employer that says, you know, work for me and work harder or I’m going to sack you all – which is effectively what he’s doing today,” he told the BBC.
“I don’t think he feels he can bring the party back together, that’s why he’s talking about re-selections because I think he is reconciled. I think he is fatalistic about the prospect of the party splitting apart and being destroyed. He just wants to control the Labour Party.”
Former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle, who withdrew from the leadership contest in favour of Mr Smith, has been advised by police to stop holding open constituency surgeries because of fears for her personal safety. The warning from Merseyside Police came after a man was arrested for threatening to kill Ms Eagle and her local party was suspended amid allegations of bullying.
Labour’s membership has more than doubled from about 200,000 to nearly 500,000 since last year, with a huge influx of members who signed up in support of Mr Corbyn. About 184,000 people signed up over two days this week to become “registered supporters” – at the cost of £25 each – in order to vote in the leadership contest.
