JEREMY Corbyn’s advisors are “advising the wrong thing”, the party’s Ian Murray has said.
In a direct criticism of Corbyn’s closest aides, Murray told the BBC that there are serious questions over the party’s handling of Brexit and said the Labour leader is being given the wrong directions by his team.
Murray said: “They are advising the wrong thing.”
The Labour vote collapsed at the recent European Parliament elections, with even David Martin, the UK’s longest-serving EU politician, losing his seat.
Scotland sent no Labour politicians to Brussels this time, with the party losing 10 MEPs overall and recording just 14% of the UK’s vote share.
That was still better than the Tories, who lost 15 MEPs and dropped to 9%.
Martin was amongst those to criticise Corbyn’s handling of the Brexit issue after the results were announced, saying: “I thought our message was poor, we didn’t really communicate our position and some people might say that is because we don’t have one.
“In fairness to Corbyn, I think he genuinely thinks he has to deliver on the result of the national referendum but on the other hand he has seen over the last few years how damaging Brexit is going to be to the country.
“He is trying to ride two horses and it has, of course, proved impossible.”
Appearing on BBC Sunday Politics Scotland yesterday, Murray said the party’s position remains “confusing”, stating: “Most of the shadow cabinet have been trying to change the position now for several weeks, if not months.
“Party members and supporters want it to change so you have to ask yourself the question, ‘what is preventing that change from happening?’”
He went on: “All the statistics show that at the European elections the Labour Party lost four times as many votes to remain parties than they did to leave parties, so even on a purely next election footing, would suggest that we have to move to a remain position.”
And, on the influence of Corbyn’s aides, the Edinburgh South MP commented: “These are unelected advisors and the entirety of the Labour movement wants the position to change, with the exception of a handful of people around Jeremy Corbyn and the leader of Unite, Len McCluskey.”
Murray praised Richard Leonard for shifting his position on Brexit, saying this was possible due to the steps taken by Kezia Dugdale to give Scottish Labour more autonomy.
However, he acknowledged that it may not be possible to prevent a no-deal Brexit, despite stating that he and colleagues are presently seeking the “mechanisms” with which to achieve this.
Murray told the programme: “If the Prime Minister wants to close down parliament until October 31 and walk away without a deal then the new prime minister can certainly do that.
“It would be a significant dereliction of duty and would completely and utterly devastate our economy.”
And, on the prospect of another general election, he stated: “Anybody in the Labour Party who wants to see a General Election now, when the Labour Party is on 18% in the polls, is not on the same planet as the rest of us.”
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