Labour moderates turn fire on ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate

Rebecca Long Bailey, who has yet to declare for the leadership but is already regarded as the the favourite, was accused of being too close to those who let Labour to its worst defeat since 1935.

Former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley said that if the shadow Business Secretary was elected by the membership, moderate MPs should defy her through “an outright refusal to accept the imposition of a leader who does not command their confidence”.

It also emerged that Scotland’s sole surviving Labour MP, Ian Murray, is “seriously” considering running as the UK party’s deputy leader, the role last held by Tom Watson.

Mr Murray, a pungent critic of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, held onto his Edinburgh South seat with a majority of more than 11,000 while his six Scottish colleagues all lost to the SNP.

Mr Corbyn pointedly passed over Mr Murray when he named Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd as his new shadow Scottish Secretary last week.

A party source told the Herald Mr Murray was now in discussion with unions about a bid for the deputy’s job.

“Ian has been approached by members and MPs from right across the UK about standing. Everyone feels the party can learn from him given the way he has won in Edinburgh south against all the odds.”

Moderate MSP Jackie Bailie is also understood to be considering a tilt at the deputy leadership of the Scottish Labour party following the previous post-holder, Lesley Laird, losing her Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath seat in the general election.

A win for Ms Baillie would a challenge to the authority of Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, who sacked her last year for allegedly briefing against him.

Writing in the Observer, Mr Hattersley said Labour appeared to be “preparing for its next defeat” with the installation of Ms Long Bailey, a protegee of shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

He said: “Despite the obvious truth that Jeremy Corbyn must take the blame for the worst result in almost 100 years, Rebecca Long Bailey, his anointed successor, is the favourite to succeed him as party leader. Her election would be the public statement that Corbyn has gone but Corbynism lives on.

“Labour supporters, who want to win the next election, should not despair. The party’s future success, perhaps even its survival, depends on the genuine democratic socialists in the parliamentary party seizing control of the political agenda. The elevation of Long Bailey would [be] an early opportunity to demonstrate that they mean business.

“The cause would be best served by an outright refusal to accept the imposition of a leader who does not command their confidence. A formal protest with a recorded vote would be almost as effective. Emboldened, they must then insist that the shadow cabinet is, once again, elected – giving its members an independent authority that they would not possess as the leader’s nominees. They would be free to challenge the strategy and tactics of both the leader and the advisers who, with Corbyn, must take some of the blame for the bloodbath of ‘black Thursday’ and are, even now, arranging to remain surrogate leaders in the new regime.”

He said Momentum, the movement behind Mr Corbyn, had taken over the party more comprehensively and more effectively than Militant ever managed in the 1980s.

“Compared with Momentum, the Militant tendency – which attempted to subvert Labour in the 1980s – was a ragbag of second-rate conspirators who took corrupt control of Liverpool but were only an irritant in other parts of the country,” he said.

There was also briefing against Ms Long Bailey, dubbed the ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate in other newspapers.

The Sunday Times said the Salford MP had been accused of embellishing her political credentials by claiming to have been scarred by deindustrialisation under Margaret Thatcher.

Her election leaflets said: “They say your experiences shape who you are and mine certainly have. My dad, Jimmy, worked on the Salford docks and I grew up watching him worrying when round after round of redundancies were inflicted on the docks.”

However Ms Long Bailey, 40, was aged three when the docks closed in 1982, making it improbable she was following socio-economic developments at the time.

Her spokesman did not deny she had misled voters, saying: “Rebecca, like many others in the north, saw first-hand the devastation created by Thatcher’s brutal economic regime.”

The paper also reported Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum, was informally advising Ms Long Bailey’s campaign.

He was excoriated on TV on election night, when former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson told him he wanted him and his “cult” out the party.

On Saturday, the Times also reported Ms Long Bailey was being helped by a self-declared Stalinist, Alex Halligan.

Mr Halligan was photographed wearing a “Good night Trotskyite” badge at the Durham Miners’ Gala two years ago, showing a picture of a many being threatened with an ice pick, a reference to Stalin ordering the murder of his exiled critic Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940.

Labour’s 550,000 members are due to start selecting a new leader next month, with a bitter 12-week contest in prospect.

So far only shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and shadow treasury Clive Lewis have formally declared.

However shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer is expected to declare in the New Year, with MPs Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and David Lammy also considering standing.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed it was looking into “possible expense claims irregularities” involving former Labour minister Geoffrey Robinson, who stood down as MP for Coventry North West after 43 years at the election. It followed a referral by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Robinson had employed a friend as a member of staff until shortly before her death aged 90, including after he gained power of attorney over her affairs as she was too trail to look after herself.