Jeremy Corbyn has called reports of his departure ‘fake news’. This despite the Labour leader having a net approval rating of minus 40 per cent and polling suggesting that only 15 per cent of voters think Corbyn stands any chance at all of triumphing in 2020. It seems that, at any cost, the Labour leader is determined to stumble on.
Yesterday, he announced a reshuffle – shaking up the cast of nobodies in his shadow cabinet. Whatever Corbyn does, though, if he stays put it’s clear that these next few years are going to be a ‘miserable experience’ for him, says the Daily Telegraph. It’s inevitable that whether the Labour leader has a date in mind for when he would go, the question about his future is going to continually pop up. Usually, the Commons is something of a ‘shop window’ for party leaders to flaunt their qualities in front of the electorate. In Corbyn’s case, ‘there appear to be few buyers’, says the Telegraph. By contrast, Theresa May is riding high – the PM has skilfully negotiated the hurdles put in front of her so far, while the Article 50 vote – in which only one Tory MP, Ken Clarke, rebelled – showed the discipline on the Government benches. For Labour, though, the vote was an indication of the disarray rife among the party. 50 Labour MPs went against the three line whip and the party’s ‘parlous state’ can be summed up by speculation that Clive Lewis – who has been an MP only since 2015 – is being talked up as a leadership candidate. Talk of Corbyn’s replacement is too far down the line for the time being though, according to the Telegraph. The far left want him to stay in place because they are ‘unlikely to get another shot at the top job if he steps down’. So, for now, Corbyn – and Labour must continue in their woeful position: ‘going nowhere, in every sense.’.
The FT says it’s time for Corbyn to step up and make the most of his position as leader or lose it. ‘The zombified inertness’ of the Labour party was made clear during the Article 50 debate for the paper, which says Corbyn’s silence left May able to ‘do Brexit as she pleases’. It goes without saying that the opposition party is in a tricky position, says the FT: Labour needs to keep Remain supporters on board without alienating Brexit backers. But a ‘meek acceptance’ of what the Government is up to isn’t tolerable. Whatever Corbyn says about his depature, it seems the Labour leader isn’t happy and is undoubtedly biding his time, the FT says. Some say Corbyn is waiting for Labour rule changes — which would make the process of succession to a left-wing candidate easier – to be implemented before he hangs up his flat cap. If so, the FT says Corbyn is putting ‘internal party interests before those of the country’.
Meanwhile, the Government’s decision to end the so-called ’Dubs’ arrangement for transferring child refugees to Britain is also a talking point in the morning editorials. Theresa May is ‘fixated by outsiders’ says the Guardian, and the Government’s claim that keeping the scheme open encourages people traffickers is disgraceful: ‘It implies that cutting off the “pull” represented by miserly offers of sanctuary to the few can mitigate the “push” of a bloody civil war in Syria,’ the paper argues. Instead, for the PM, this is about ‘escaping wrathful tabloid headlines’. It’s also obvious, says the Guardian, how the PM views the subject of refugees: as a ‘political’ problem, rather than a ‘moral or legal duty’ to do good. It’s time for Theresa May to change tack, says the Guardian: the numbers involved in the scheme are ‘tiny’ and the sake of Britain’s reputation as a ‘country that still knows some solidarity with victims of war and terror’ is at stake.
But the Sun disagrees, saying it’s clear that the Government is doing something to help out refugees. After all, what about the ‘billions in aid’ given to refugees from Syria? Or the fact that the UK is taking in 20,000 migrants by 2020? It’s also true, though, that welcoming those from overseas comes at a price: ‘Councils have to house, clothe and feed displaced kids at considerable expense’. And if those same councils are saying there is no more room, what then? Maybe it’s time, the Sun suggests, for those who are criticising the Government, including ‘sanctimonious MPs’ like Diane Abbott to remember that public money ‘doesn’t grow on trees’.
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