John McDonnell and Diane Abbott at war with Corbyn’s inner circle after aides thwart bid to back Remain
DIANE Abbott and John McDonnell believe they persuaded Jeremy Corbyn to switch Labour to opposing Brexit but their bid was thwarted by his aides.
The hard-Left Labour leader’s two longest-standing political confidantes have spent weeks trying to convince him to embrace Remain, it has emerged.
With the party’s poll ratings having plummeted, the Shadow Chancellor and Home Secretary fear they now stand just a slim chance of seizing No10 in a snap general election without the pivot.
But Mr Corbyn’s circle of domineering senior advisers – dubbed “the Three Ms” because of their surnames – then talked Mr Corbyn out of it.
The trio are communications boss Seumas Milne, chief of staff Karie Murphy and policy guru Andrew Murray.
They were also yesterday accused of keeping Mr Corbyn “captive”, as the civil war between them and the Shadow Cabinet deepens.
A Labour frontbencher and long standing Corbyn ally told The Sun: “It’s crystal clear for all to see what the Lib Dems are doing to our vote. We have to be for Remain now.
GENERAL ELECTION IN SEPTEMBER
“Just when we think we’ve got Jeremy over the line, the Three Ms talk him out of it again. They are in his face all the time, he cannot escape.”
Mr McDonnell also heaped public pressure on the Opposition boss yesterday to declare Labour’s compromise position to push for a soft Brexit “has not worked” and he now “would want to campaign for Remain”.
Warning that the new Tory PM might call a general election in September, he added: “We need to get to a position sooner rather than later”.
The new revelation comes ahead of another crunch week for Mr Corbyn that will see him under siege on Brexit as well as anti-Semitism.
THE SUN SAYS: LABOUR ON BRINK
EVERY time you think they can’t sink any lower, Labour’s leadership finds a way.
This once great party is now run by a rabble of apologists for anti-Semitism, Marxists and bullies.
They think nothing of spending their members’ cash on expensive law firms in an attempt to throttle the free press.
And when it comes to policy, their combination of two-faced doublespeak on Brexit and a cripplingly expensive nationalisation programme would send the UK economy into a nosedive it might never recover from.
Yet still there are decent MPs on those Labour backbenches who think the tide will turn, that even if Corbyn was to enter Downing Street he could somehow be managed. Codswallop.
It’s put up or shut up time for them.
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Labour’s most senior backbench MP, Parliamentary shop steward John Cryer also last night said Labour had “run out of options” on Brexit, adding: “I’d rather see us go for a second referendum than just heading out of the exit on the basis of No Deal.
“I think we’re moving into a territory where we’re going to end up supporting a second referendum as a point of policy and principle.”
Tory chairman Brandon Lewis said: “Labour should do as they promised, join us in being clear we will and we must leave the EU and deliver on what people voted for, as they promised they would”.
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