JEREMY Corbyn has called on Angela Eagle to “think again” as the rebel Labour MP prepared to launch her bid to replace him as leader – a move that could plunge the party into an unprecedented civil war.
Eagle insisted her challenge for the Labour leadership, which will be formally set out today, would “heal the party” as she suggested Corbyn was not suited for the position.
The former shadow business secretary said the Labour leader was “hiding behind a closed door” over calls for him to step down and questioned his ability to win electoral support.
Corbyn said he was “disappointed” but stated he would fight the challenge, which is expected to attract widespread support from Labour MPs who have spent much of the the last fortnight seeking to oust him.
The party leader urged Eagle, who was the most senior member of his shadow cabinet to quit in a spate of resignations in protest at his leadership, to “think for a moment” about her actions.
Corbyn, who was overwhelmingly elected by Labour’s rank-and-file members and registered supporters last September, said he had “reached out in a way no other leader has” in an attempt to unite all parts of the party.
He also made an eleventh-hour plea to Eagle, who unsuccessfully stood to be the party’s deputy leader last year, to abandon her challenge.
Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Corbyn said he expected to be on the ballot paper as the incumbent leader – an assertion disputed by his opponents who claim he would need to be nominated by 51 Labour MPs.
“I’m expecting to be on the ballot paper because the rules of the party indicate that the existing leader, if challenged, should be on the ballot paper anyway,” he said.
Responding to Eagle’s decision to launch a challenge, he said: “I’m disappointed, but obviously she is free to do that if she wishes to.
“We have worked together in the past nine months in the shadow cabinet and this is an opportunity when we could be putting enormous pressure on this Tory government.”
He added: “This is the opportunity for the party to unite against what the Tories are doing, to put forward an agenda which is different to the austerity agenda being put forward by the Tories and actually gain a lot of ground.”
However, Eagle said she would go ahead with the leadership challenge, claiming that Corbyn had ignored appeals from senior Labour figures to quit due to his lack of support among MPs.
Speaking to ITV’s Peston on Sunday, Eagle said: “I don’t think he’s been able to communicate with the electorate and he’s now lost the confidence of the parliamentary [Labour] party.
“Tom Watson, our deputy leader who’s got his own mandate; Rosie Winterton, the chief whip; John Cryer, who’s chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party and a friend of Jeremy’s, have all been trying to get him to recognise that he cannot continue in the job because he’s lost confidence of the PLP.
“He’s hiding behind a closed door, denying that this is a fact. That’s not leadership.”
Eagle would not say whether she thought Corbyn should automatically be in the contest, saying that was up to Labour’s ruling National Executive, which will decide this week whether the incumbent leader must seek MPs’ nominations to run again.
In a further attack on Corbyn’s leadership, Eagle, a minister in the last Labour government under
Gordon Brown, went on to claim he had presided over poor election results in May.
She also suggested he was partly to blame for the Brexit vote, against which Labour rebels have said he failed to properly campaign in the run-up to the vote on June 23.
Eagle told BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “I think we need someone who can heal the party.”
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