Corbyn facing Labour coup Up to 200 MPs could move to get rid of their leader after Brexit vote
The Labour leader has been branded 'spineless' for his limp pro-EU campaign and faces fresh calls to quit
JEREMY Corbyn faces a Labour coup as up to 200 MPs launch a plot to oust him as leader as he claims: "I'm staying."
As Brits voted for a Brexit, Dame Margaret Hodge told how Corbyn failed the leadership test with an "abysmal" performance during the EU referendum campaign.
The Labour leader faces building pressure to quit as Brussels unleashes a backlash against David Cameron's slow-motion EU exit plan.
Pro-Leave Labour MP and former minister Frank Field was the latest senior figure to break ranks and pour public scorn on Mr Corbyn's leadership abilities.
Northern Labour MPs Angela Smith, Helen Goodman and Caroline Flint were also among those turning their back on Corbyn.
Flint said he was not reaching the areas and the people, Labour depend on to win a general election.
Former PM Tony Blair called Mr Corbyn’s contribution to Remain pretty lukewarm and Lord Mandelson said the leader “can’t cut it”.
Shockwaves from the UK's decision to vote to leave the European Union were felt across the world, as finances were hit in the aftermath.
EU leaders hardened their stance to force Britain out of the union as fast as possible, while the White House insisted President Barack Obama stood by his controversial warning that London would be at the back of the queue for any trade deals.
Westminster speculation that Mr Corbyn could use a speech on the aftermath of the referendum to announce his resignation was denied by Labour, despite many of the party's pro-Remain MPs expressing despair at what they see as his lacklustre performance in the campaign, ahead of a no confidence vote against him next week.
Mr Field said told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "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."
But last night Mr Corbyn insisted he wants to be PM and would stay leader. He said: “I’m carrying on. I’m making the case for unity.”.
When asked this morning by ITV News whether he would be staying on, he said: "Absolutely I'm staying."
He urged Dame Margaret to “think for a moment” before pressing on with her no confidence motion.
He said he was elected with a “very large mandate . . . from the party members as a whole”.
In a bid to shore up his leadership, Mr Corbyn will today deliver a speech on immigration. He has pulled out of a planned appearance at Glastonbury.
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Dan Jarvis, Keir Starmer and Chuka Umunna have all been talked up as Labour moderates who could challenge for leadership.
When asked this morning by ITV News whether he would be staying on, he said: "Absolutely I'm staying."
Scotland's SNP government was also launching a diplomatic offensive on the continent to remind EU chiefs that Scots voted overwhelmingly to stay in the bloc.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has made it clear she intends to use the referendum results to try to force a second independence vote when the negotiating situation becomes clearer.
But eyes were all on the Prime Minister after he announced plans to quit his post by October.
Tory Remain backers were getting behind Home Secretary Theresa May as the best placed candidate for a leadership battle with ex-London mayor Boris Johnson.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker insisted Britain's break from the EU was "not an amicable divorce", before adding sharply that it was never "a tight love affair anyway".
"Britons decided that they want to leave the European Union, so it doesn't make any sense to wait until October to try to negotiate the terms of their departure - I would like to get started immediately," he said.
The comments came as a prominent Leave advocate, Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, came under fire for saying a post-Brexit Britain could still join the single market with its free movement of labour rules.
Mr Hannan claimed this was not a backtrack on campaign promises as he insisted the Leave side had promised to control immigration, not end it.
However, Tory former chancellor Ken Clarke warned against a lurch to right-wing nationalism in the party as he attacked Ukip immigration policies.
Britain's new status in the departure lounge of the EU was underlined by the exclusion of Mr Cameron from a meeting of the other 27 leaders next Wednesday to discuss the implications of Brexit.
Under the Lisbon Treaty, London has the right to decide when it triggers Article 50, which begins the two-year exit negotiation period.
How does a vote of no confidence work in the Labour Party?
The motion is discussed by Labour MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
The chair of the PLP can decide whether the motion should be debated.
If he allows the vote there will be a secret ballot.
The motion has no formal power to force a leader to resign but it would increase pressure on them to do so.
If a leader refused to resign, 20% of the unhappy MPs could nominate a willing candidate to stand against the leader.
If this threshold is reached, the party's National Executive Committee would decide the timetable for the contest .
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn condemned the motion as a "self-indulgent act", although he acknowledged it had been discussed at a post-referendum meeting of the shadow cabinet.
He said: "It is a time when our party should be uniting to deal with the real issues that face Britain and the real issues that face the people of Britain, and so to create divisions in the party is a bit of a self-indulgent act."
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