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DAVID CAMERON LAID into Jeremy Corbyn across the House of Commons today, telling him it was not in the national interest for him to remain on as Labour leader, and attacking his performance on the pre-Brexit campaign trail.
It comes as Corbyn faces a revolt from his MPs, who backed a no confidence motion in his leadership by an overwhelming margin yesterday evening.
“I know the honourable gentleman says he put his back into it. All I would say is I would hate to see him when he is not trying,” the UK prime minister said of his opposite number’s referendum campaign effort.
He added:
It might be in my party’s interests for him to sit there, it’s not in the national interests and I would say, for heaven’s sake man, go.
Labour MPs voted against Corbyn in a no-confidence motion by 172 to 40 after dozens of members of his frontbench team stepped down in recent days.
Corbyn, however, is still refusing to go anywhere.
No confidence
The embattled leader was elected to the job last year on a wave of support from grassroots Labour members, but has since struggled to build broad support among the parliamentary party.
His below-par performance campaigning for a Remain vote in Europe was the final straw for many MPs (see below). He had been known for his eurosceptic comments in the past, and voted against a number of EU treaties.
In the latest development in what’s been a nightmare few days for Corbyn, his predecessor Ed Miliband has said the Labour leader’s position is now untenable.
Miliband told the BBC’s World at One:
The question, then, for him, is what’s the right thing for the country, and for the party, and for the causes he cares about? I’m not a Blairite. I’ve never been called a Blairite. I’m not a plotter. I’m somebody who cares deeply about this country, deeply about my party, and deeply about the causes that I think Jeremy and I care about.
Corbyn has reiterated, however, that he’ll definitely be on the ballot paper in the by-now-inevitable leadership contest. He’s banking on the grassroots members who swept him to power last year to back his candidacy once again.
Meanwhile, organisers of a rally by Corbyn’s supporters planned for this evening have said they had to cancel it due to “too much demand” as the venue they booked is too small.
Cameron has said he will step down in the wake of the referendum’s ‘Leave’ result, and will leave office when his successor is chosen in early September.
With reporting from © AFP 2016
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