Labour leader fights on as party demands Copeland explanation

Disgruntled MPs and peers have contacted PLP chairman John Cryer to request the Labour leader’s presence so Mr Corbyn, and his election co-ordinators, can explain why they lost the safe seat of Copeland for the first time in 80 years. Though he does not attend every such meeting, sources say it will be “cowardly” if he does not in these circumstances.

Backbenchers also want to question Labour’s newly-appointed campaign chief Ian Lavery after he suggested Mr Corbyn’s leadership was not a factor on the doorsteps.

Mr Corbyn’s many critics were maintaining a low-profile over the weekend – several former shadow ministers have told The Yorkshire Post that they don’t want their disquiet to be portrayed by the leadership as acts of disloyalty.

This follows another torrid weekend for the Opposition leader in which Mr Corbyn’s valedictory speech to Labour activists in Scotland was eclipsed by the political paralysis gripping the party after Copeland marked the first occasion, since 1982, that a governing party had won a by-election from its chief opponents.

Former foreign secretary David Miliband, who grew up in Leeds, said Labour was now further from power than any time in the last 50 years while deputy leader Tom Watson maintained that now was not the time for a third leadership contest in two years.

A damning opinion poll revealed that more than one-third of Labour members wanted Mr Corbyn to quit while one in six believe the party does not have policies that can win the next election.

This verdict came after Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney Chancellor, was mocked for blaming Storm Doris, and Labour voters not owning cars, for losing Copeland to a Tory party still resurgent under Theresa May.

She also criticised BBC broadcaster Andrew Marr for having Labour grandee Peter Mandelson as a guest on his Sunday morning politics programme in the week of the by-elections in Copeland and Stoke Central where Labour survived after Ukip’s threat due to growing misgivings over its own leader Paul Nuttall.

Barnsley MP and former shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher was among those to ridcule Baroness Chakrabarti, tweeting: “Pearls of wisdom from the never-having-stood-for-election, joined-ten-minutes-ago wing of the Labour Party: Labour voters “don’t have cars”.”

Former Copeland MP Jamie Reed, who quit his seat to work for the Sellafield nculear plant, added: “She’s an unstoppable vote-harvesting-election-winning machine. Or the epitome of what Labour voters just rejected. I wonder which one?”

A senior Yorkshire MP told this newspaper that Labour should be setting the economic parameters for next week’s Budget. “We’re not even on the field of play,” they lamented.

There were empty seats in the Perth conference hall where Mr Corbyn rallied supporters ahead of May’s local elections which is the next barometer of his leadership – Labour could lose control of its totemic council of Glasgow, which it has controlled since 1980, to the Scottish Nationalists.

“The Tories claim they want to take back powers from Brussels and the SNP want to take back power from Westminster,” Mr Corbyn said. “But neither of them wants to take economic power back from multi-nationals and big business. We can and will fix this rigged economy and make Britain a fairer, more just and equal place.”