Sign up to the GrimsbyLive newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jeremy Corbyn was last night accused of ‘not being bothered' about Grimsby as he was confronted by furious Labour MPs for leading them into their worst electoral defeat in over 80 years.

Leadership candidate Jess Phillips read out a text from defeated Great Grimsby candidate Melanie Onn in which she said she felt abandoned by the party as she lost the seat for the first time in 74-years.

It came amid angry scenes on Tuesday night as Mr Corbyn, who has refused to step down as Labour party leader until next year, was confronted by surviving MPs as they attempted to dissect how the party lost 59 seats in a general election that saw the Tories emerge with an 80-seat majority and a renewed mandate to push Brexit through parliament.

Among those present was Birmingham Yardley MP and leadership hopeful Ms Phillips, who read out the text from Ms Onn.

Speaking to reporters after she left the meeting - which went on for over two hours - Ms Phillips said the text was about how Ms Onn had been “let down by the leadership and the frontbench’.

She said: “Nobody had bothered with Grimsby, nobody went to help her, nobody called her … there were lots and lots of complaints about how nobody has called any of the people who lost.”

(Image: PA)

Mr Corbyn later apologised for the electoral failure, which previously the former shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had claimed was his responsibility, in a move widely seen as an attempt to protect his leader from the fall-out.

“I am very sorry for the result for which I take responsibility,” Mr Corbyn said.

“I will continue to lead the party until a new leader is elected. I want us to have the smoothest possible transition for the sake of the party as a whole and for those Labour mayors and councillors who are up for re-election in May.”

Ms Onn, who represented Grimsby from 2015, lost Grimsby to Tory candidate Lia Nici by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Ms Nici and over 100 other Tory MPs arrived in parliament on Tuesday to begin the process of swearing their allegiance to the Crown.

In an assessment of why she lost the seat after the result was announced, Ms Onn said there was an “issue” with Mr Corbyn’s leadership as well as the party’s policy on Brexit, which was to hold a second referendum with the option to Remain on the ballot paper.

“People were keen to say ‘It’s not you, we think you’ve done a good job’, but...and there were too many ‘buts’,” she told GrimsbyLive after the defeat.

“If it wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn it was Brexit and if it wasn’t either of those things it was a manifesto they didn’t believe in and didn’t think it was deliverable,” she added.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Remaining Labour MPs delivered a similar withering verdict at the meeting, with Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West, telling reporters how she had made clear to Mr Corbyn that he could “make all the excuses in the world” but that the “biggest drag” on the election was “him and his leadership”.

Another MP said at the meeting: “It was a very difficult election and we were very unpopular on the doorstep. We stood on a manifesto to respect the referendum result and then we didn’t.”

Those that defended Mr Corbyn, including Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe, told colleagues that the party had “much to celebrate” including its new intake of black and ethnic minority MPs.

(Image: PA)

When she acknowledged that the “reality” was that Labour had lost the election, she was met with cries of ironic disbelief.

The meeting comes as Labour prepares to choose a new leader, with several names coming to the fore. Those tipped as potential successors include shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy and Ms Phillips.

MPs are also braced for the state opening of parliament on Thursday, in which Boris Johnson is expected to lay out his domestic agenda in the Queen’s Speech.

The Prime Minister will then aim to bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill - the legislation needed to enact his Brexit deal before parliament on Friday which is expected to be nodded through with little fanfare thanks to his 80-seat majority.

Mr Corbyn confirmed that Labour would be voting against Mr Johnson’s Brexit bill, citing concerns over reaching a good trade deal by the end of the transition period.