Jeremy Corbyn reveals he will stand for leader again if he is ousted by plotting MPs in the wake of the EU referendum
But the Labour boss failed to address the plot to unseat him as he gave a speech on immigration after the UK backed Brexit
JEREMY Corbyn has appeared to suggest he would stand again if he was ousted as Labour leader in the wake of the UK backing Brexit.
But he failed to address the plot to unseat him as he gave a speech on immigration after Thursday’s historic decision to quit Brussels.
He spoke about his party’s role in negotiations following the EU referendum but did not address the fact some MPs have tabled a motion of no confidence in him.
Dame Margaret Hodge said Mr Corbyn had failed the leadership test with an “abysmal” performance in the campaign.
She and Angela Smith submitted a letter to the chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party requesting a vote to unseat him from the position he won last September.
Pro-Leave Labour MP and former minister Frank Field said: "He clearly isn't the right person to actually lead the party into an election because nobody thinks he will actually win.
“We clearly need somebody who the public think of as an alternative prime minister."
A host of other northern Labour MPs including Caroline Flint also turned their back on Mr Corbyn, saying he was not reaching the areas and the people Labour depend on to win a general election.
But in a speech in central London this morning Mr Corbyn refused to broach the subject.
And when asked if there was a leadership contest whether the veteran leftie would run again he simply said: “Yes, I’m here, thank you.”
Instead he stuck the knife into David Cameron and the Government for the failure of the Remain campaign of which he was also a backer.
And on immigration he said the UK has to “move beyond the irresponsible debate” which “accuses people of being Little Englanders or racists just for raising the issue".
Speaking at Maxwell Library he called leaving the EU “a historic decision”, and said we “are in a new world”.
“Outside of the European Union we will now need to forge new international relationships and alliances,” he said.
He talked about drawing “the right conclusions”, saying: “Across many parts of Britain there is a feeling of powerlessness.
“In communities that have effectively been abandoned where the high skill unionised jobs were lost in the 1980s or 1990s and have not been replaced.”
He said those former industrial heartlands “have taken the full force of austerity and government economic failure”, and was where people voted for Brexit.
Adding: “The Tories’ choice to make deprived communities pay for a crisis not of their making has opened the door to a nastier, more divisive politics.”
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As well as attacking the Government he said: “We can’t duck the issue of immigration, it clearly was a factor.
“Instead we need to start an honest and rational debate."
He said politicians are often “accused of being afraid about talking about immigration”, saying he was not one of them, and was glad to say that he believes “migration has enriched our country, our culture and our communities”.
Mr Corbyn added: “And we have to move beyond the irresponsible debate that we sometimes have that makes people afraid, or that accuses people of being Little Englanders or racists just for raising the issue.”