DOWNING Street has indicated there could be an inquiry into anonymous civil service warnings that Jeremy Corbyn is too mentally and physically frail to become prime minister.
Over the weekend, The Times reported officials saying the Labour leader needed to be “propped up” by his advisers.
The Mail on Sunday even claimed Corbyn had suffered a minor stroke about three months ago.
“There is a real worry that the Labour leader isn’t up to the job physically or mentally but is being propped up by those around him. There’s growing concern that he’s too frail and is losing his memory. He’s not in charge of his own party,” one claimed.
READ MORE: Call for probe into claim Jeremy Corbyn is too frail to lead
Another asked: “When does someone say [he] is too ill to carry on as leader of the Labour Party let alone prime minister? There must be senior people in the party who know that he is not functioning on all cylinders.”
On Sunday, in a letter to Mark Sedwill, the head of the civil service, Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Jon Trickett said the “unconstitutional political intervention” from the supposedly neutral mandarins had “disturbing implications for our democratic system”.
Asked about the issue, May’s spokesman said: “Impartiality is one of the fundamental values of the civil service, and underpins its ability to effectively serve the government of the day.
“It would clearly be inappropriate and unacceptable for comments of this sort to have been made or briefed to the press. The Cabinet Secretary will be writing to the leader of the opposition shortly.”
Asked if this meant there would be an inquiry, he added: “I don’t think you’d expect me to divulge the contents of that letter in advance of it being sent.” Any news on an inquiry would come “shortly”, he said.
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Trickett raised the issues in the Commons yesterday, asking for a minister to make a statement.
He said Corbyn’s fitness was “legendary” and called for the Government to “root out any miscreant who has behaved in this way”.
Responding, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said ministers had “complete confidence in the fairness and the independence of the civil service and they have said they will respond, and I frankly question the good judgement of the shadow minister for bringing it up at this stage before they’ve had the chance to do so.”
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