Now UK’s opposition leader may be victim of Brexit
Will Labour’s Corbyn be next after David Cameron?
44 MPs have quit senior party jobs
THE post-Brexit political chaos in Britain yeserday descended into farce after the Labour Party appeared to split down the middle over the EU referendum result.
Forty-four Labour MPs quit their jobs as official party spokesmen in an effort to topple party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who stands accused of failing to push for a Remain vote among his party’s core supporters.
Critics mockingly questioned whether he would find enough Labour MPs in the party to fill the vacancies.
However Mr Corbyn, who has vowed he will not resign under any circumstances, then shocked his MPs by accusing them of ‘factional’ infighting as he faced an extraordinary 44 resignations.
The beleaguered Labour leader was met with a stony silence as he rose to reply to British PM David Cameron’s Commons statement on the shock Brexit result of the EU referendum this afternoon.
And the dozens of MPs who until yesterday made up the shadow cabinet and front bench shook their heads as Mr Corbyn launched a defiant attack on them for trying to remove him from office.
However a large and noisy protest in Mr Corbyn’s defence gathered in Parliament Square last night as left-wing activists slammed attempt by MPs to remove the Labour leader.
Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, earlier made a tearful appeal to Mr Corbyn to accept the reality of his situation and stand aside for the good of the party while Tom Watson, the deputy leader, has told the leader he is sure to face a leadership challenge after losing MPs’ confidence.
So far, 20 members of the full shadow cabinet have now resigned, with two peers effectively going on strike in support. They have been joined by 22 more junior spokesmen who also quit.
But a defiant Labour leader has vowed to fight on and sources in Mr Corbyn’s team yesterday told the Mail more new appointments would be made later.
Mr Corbyn’s team insisted it had no interest in ‘corridor coups and backroom deals’ and said there would be some ‘surprising names’ as the new team emerged – insisting they would be able to staff an entire shadow cabinet.
The revolt has been under way against Mr Corbyn since he fired shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn in the early hours of Sunday. He faced the start of formal noconfidence proceedings at a Labour Parliamentary Party meeting last night.
At 3.30pm yesterday he faced Mr Cameron in the House of Commons for a major statement on the political crisis engulfing Britain after Thursday’s Brexit vote.
But responding to jeers from his own side, Mr Corbyn said: ‘Our country is divided and the country will thank neither the benches in front of me, nor those behind, for indulging in internal factioning, manoeuvring at this time.’
Mr Corbyn was flanked by a notably sparse front bench, including a stony-faced Mr Watson, as he delivered the warning to his MPs.
A senior Labour source told the Mail earlier that Mr Watson told the Labour leader he had ‘lost the confidence of the parliamentary party’ and that it looked like he would ‘probably’ face a leadership challenge.
The resignation of Ms Eagle was seen as one of the biggest blows to Mr Corbyn so far. In her resignation letter, she said: ‘We need a leader who can heal the deep divisions in our country, stand up for our communities, and ultimately to keep our United Kingdom.
‘I have come to the conclusion you are not the right person to lead the party we both love.’
In a tearful interview with BBC Radio 4, Ms Eagle added Mr Corbyn was an ‘honourable and decent man’ who should ‘leave with dignity’.
Shadow secretary of state for energy Lisa Nandy and shadow secretary of state for pensions Owen Smith announced their resignation together.
In a statement, they said: ‘Labour has descended into infighting instead of looking outwards to the country.
‘Following the referendum result we believe we in Labour have a unique responsibility to show collective leadership to help bring the country through these difficult times. It has become increasingly apparent in the last 48 hours that this is not a realistic prospect in the current circumstances.’
Despite the departures, Mr Corbyn insisted he would fight for his job and contest any leadership challenge as he announced a raft of new appointments.
Late on Sunday, a defiant Mr Corbyn told his Labour critics to put up or shut up.
Mr Corbyn said: ‘I was elected by hundreds of thousands of Labour Party members with an overwhelming mandate for a different kind of politics. I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me.
‘Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.’
Mr Corbyn succeeded Ed Miliband as party leader last year. He was elected under new party rules which partly devolved power from the trade unions and parliamentary party to the party membership.