Peter Hoskin

McDonnell: Brown’s leading Labour to extinction

The Labour MP John McDonnell has written a piece for Comment is Free.  I’d recommend you read it – it’s one of the most significant displays of Brown-bashing so far.

Like Matt, McDonnell argues that Brown’s uncontested ascension to the party leadership has harmed both his premiership and the Labour party as a whole.  But twelve words in the article will get – and deserve? – all of the attention.  Here they are:

“Brown is relentlessly leading the Labour party to the edge of extinction…”

Of course, Brown and McDonnell are hardly the strongest of allies.  And McDonnell isn’t a front-bencher.  But this is still astonishing dissent, wherever it comes from in Labour. 

If you recall, Daniel Finkelstein recently identified a couple of anonymous quotes from Labour MPs as a sign of “meltdown” in the party.  Well here’s another Labour MP speaking out – only this time it’s not anonymous, it’s for the website of a national newspaper, and it’s even harsher in tone than what came before it.  No.10 will be far from amused. 

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