LABOUR SPLIT: Party crisis deepens as poll numbers plunge behind the Tories
A NEW poll has put the Labour Party 17 points behind Tories as the civil war between its factions deepened with MPs returning to Westminster.
The Labour Party's civil war is taking a toll on the party's poll figures
The ICM poll has suggested that Theresa May would win a 125 seat majority after her party showed its second highest lead over Labour in recent history on 43 per cent to 26.
The findings appeared to be a backlash against the splits in Labour and Leftwing policies including a commitment to continuing uncontrolled immigration into the UK.
It came as the party’s beleaguered far Left leader Jeremy Corbyn sent an email to MPs begging for unity as he struggled to get a front beach team together.
Corbyn's re-election as party leader was marred by no resolution to the internal conflict
His latest intervention followed evidence of further divisions with shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott describing free movement as a “worker’s right”.
Her intervention appeared to be a slap down for shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Kier Starmer, a leading moderate, who insisted over the weekend that immigration needs to come down.
On the back of his victory over Welsh MP Owen Smith, Mr Corbyn has made a desperate plea to win back the support of Labour MPs as he tries to put together a shadow ministerial team.
Mr Corbyn's calls for unity in the party seem so far ineffective
He wrote: "I hope as Parliament comes back, we can all pledge to work together and to move forward as the united team our party has every right to expect, and that our country so desperately needs."
I hope as Parliament comes back, we can all pledge to work together and to move forward
But despite his desperate appeal moderate MPs - 80 per cent of whom backed a vote of no confidence in him in July - he was rocked by the resignation of two party whips Conor McGinn and Holly Lynch in protest over the sacking of Dame Rosie Winterton.
And moderate MPs were further incensed by Mr Corbyn’s group of hard Left backers Momentum celebrating its first birthday with new evidence of how far it has taken over Labour.
Labour is like having herpes (27Sept16) (1).mp4
Shami Chakrabarti descirbed the situation in the party as a 'war zone'
The extreme socialist group which has infiltrated Labour boasted in a press release that it now has 20,000 full members, 170,000 registered supporters and 150 local groups across the country.
Meanwhile the factions tearing Labour apart have publicly clashed in the cabinet.
Sir Kier, who returned to the shadow cabinet to front the Brexit brief, said that immigration “should be reduced” despite his leader saying free borders should remain.
Moderate Labour MP's are being put under pressure by the growing Momentum movement of socialists
The former barrister insisted the party should also be “open” to supporting controls on EU freedom of movement rules as part of Brexit.
But Ms Abbott immediately contradicted his claim saying “you cannot pluck figures out of thin air”.
And she went further in an article for the far Left newspaper the Morning Star where she insisted that free movement needs to remain.
Diane Abbott attacked Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the NHS
She used the article to attack Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans to train more UK doctors and make the NHS less reliant on foreigners being brought in to fill skills gaps.
Ms Abbott, who is one of Mr Corbyn’s closest allies, wrote: “We need freedom of movement for doctors and other health professionals for the continued existence of the NHS.
“The demagogic campaign against foreigners that was first championed by Ukip and is now mainstream Tory policy obscures a key point. Freedom of movement is a worker’s right.”