Corbyn's dire leadership brutally torn to shreds as ex-Labour MP lists FIVE key problems
JEREMY CORBYN has been savaged by a former MP who has highlighted how the outgoing Labour leader has destroyed the party.
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Mr Corbyn is now in the last days of his leadership of the party after the voting ballot closed today. The leadership contest was triggered soon after the party suffered its worst election defeat since 1935. In 2019, the party lost a host of strongholds in the north and Midlands with seats such as Sedgefield.
Sedgefield had been a Labour seat since 1935 but turned blue in the last election and in light of that, former MP Phil Wilson has highlighted five points where Mr Corbyn allowed the Tory party to storm to victory.
Writing in the New Statesman, Mr Wilson insisted the outgoing Labour leader failed to extinguish certain accusations and associations levelled against him.
Mr Wilson said: “The lesson is: if you believe the press is not your natural ally, don’t make it easy for them.
“If you don’t want the press to write you are a terrorist sympathiser, don’t lay a wreath at the grave of a terrorist.
“If you don’t want the press to write you are a friend of Hamas or Hezbollah, don’t call them your friends.
“If you don’t want the press to write you associate with the IRA, don’t associate with the IRA.
“If you don’t want the press to doubt your patriotism, don’t give Russia the benefit of the doubt over the Salisbury poisonings or take money from Iranian state media.
“If you want the press to highlight your aversion to anti-Semitism, don’t share a platform with known anti-Semites and defend anti-Semitic murals.”
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Mr Corbyn, however, has in the past expressed his regret for using the term “friends” in reference to delegates from Hamas.
In reference to accusation over his support for the IRA, Mr Corbyn also insisted he didn’t and doesn’t stand with the group.
He told Andrew Neil in 2017: “I didn’t support the IRA. I don’t support the IRA.
“What I want everywhere is a peace process.
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“What I want everywhere is decency and human rights.”
Amid allegations of Anti-Semitism within the party, several MPs such as Mike Gapes and Ian Austin resigned.
To try and address the accusations, Mr Corbyn launched an inquiry into Anti-Semitism and any forms of racism within Labour.
Chaired by Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti, the report concluded the party was not overrun by racism but had certain “toxic” elements.
Last year, the party also approached Lord Falconer of Thoroton to chair a review into the party.
The new leader of the party will be announced on Saturday with many tipping Shadow Brexit Secretary, Sir Keir Starmer to take over.
If he does take leadership of the party, The Sunday Times reported he will purge the party.
In order to shift the party back towards the centre, it is thought he will remove Mr Corbyn’s allies from party headquarters and within the party itself.