The damage that Jeremy Corbyn is doing to the Labour Party can’t be allowed to carry on

I’ve never believed in the expression ‘nice guys finish last’ and there is no doubt in my mind that Jeremy Corbyn is a nice man, but the damage that Jeremy is doing to the Labour Party can’t be allowed to carry on.

That’s why so many Labour MPs now support a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

To be fair, Jeremy never wanted the job. His victory was an accident made possible by the equally poor leadership shown by Ed Miliband and most Labour MPs have tried hard to make the relationship work.

But it isn’t working and it wont work – the country has told us this for months now, most recently in the EU referendum where Jeremy’s weak leadership caused Labour to be battered in its heartlands.

I take no pleasure in pointing out that I knew Jeremy’s leadership would end up in this kind of chaos, that’s why I resigned from the Labour front bench as soon as Jeremy won the leadership election last September.

In my resignation letter, I explained that Labour can only win when we understand the hopes and fears of the British people and those millions of people in the country who instinctively wanted to vote Labour but who didn’t trust Ed Miliband and were never likely to trust Jeremy as the Prime Minister of our country.

Labour needs a new leader to reconnect with our missing voters and win the next general election it can’t happen soon enough.

I’m even more certain of this after this weekend when Labour’s brightest and best have spoken up for Labour voters all over the country and made it clear to Jeremy that they don’t believe he can lead the Labour Party and help the party to win a general election which is likely to be only a few months away.

Leaving the front bench was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in politics and I know what a painful decision it has been for Heidi Alexander, Gloria De Piero, Seema Malhotra, Ian Murray and all those others who have placed the future of Britain and the future of the Labour Party as a credible alternative party of government above their own political careers.

It would have been easy for them to sit and the hands and keep their heads down – but they’ve sacrificed their jobs and that shows you their quality and why it is they entered politics in the first place.

The Tories are in turmoil and there for taking. Having caused the mess the country is in, Cameron has quit and terrified George Osborne hasn’t been seen since the referendum result.

Labour needs a new leader to reconnect with our missing voters and win the next general election.

It can’t happen soon enough.