Labour leader says message from results is ‘very, very clear’ after party suffers losses

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Jeremy Corbyn has claimed the local election results indicated voters want MPs to “get a deal done” on Brexit, after his party suffered losses.

Labour had hoped the results would signal it was poised to take power at a general election, with the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, suggesting on Thursday night it might gain 400 seats.

But, with the results all in on Friday evening, the party had suffered a net loss of more than 80 seats compared with its 2015 figures.

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Asked about the results, in which the Conservatives suffered much bigger losses, Corbyn told ITV: “I think it means there’s a huge impetus on every MP, and they’ve all got that message, whether they themselves are leave or remain – or the people across the country – that an arrangement has to be made, a deal has to be done, parliament has to resolve this issue. I think that is very, very clear.”

His comments echoed remarks from McDonnell, who had earlier claimed the message from voters was: “Brexit – sort it.”

But they underlined the deep divisions in his party over Brexit, with many MPs interpreting the results, which included strong performances from the remain-supporting Lib Dems and Greens, as a sign that Labour should unambiguously embrace a second EU referendum.

Clive Lewis, Labour’s Norwich South MP, said: “We are skewered on a harpoon of paralysis and indecision. Labour is like someone with a limb tied to four horses: hard Lexit, PV, customs union and revoke. Not sure how long before its head pops off and the four horses race away.”

Elections coordinator Andrew Gwynne hailed the party’s success in taking control of Trafford council in Greater Manchester and Amber Valley in Derbyshire, and advances in areas where the party would hope to take seats at a general election, including Conservative MP Johnny Mercer’s Plymouth Moor View seat.

Labour also highlighted the success of Jamie Driscoll in the North of Tyne mayoral race.

But the party lost control of councils in Labour heartland areas including Barnsley, Middlesbrough and Darlington, and failed to make inroads into Conservative territory.

Owen Smith, the Pontypridd MP who challenged Corbyn for the leadership on a pro-referendum platform, said his party’s “Brexit fudge” was “melting under the public’s gaze”.

Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) It’s been clear for months that Labour’s Brexit fudge was melting under the public’s gaze. We lost votes in every direction last night - because voters don’t reward equivocation. But we lost most to Greens and Lib Dem’s - being rewarded for their clarity on Brexit.

However, not all Labour MPs agreed with that theory. Lucy Powell, the MP for Manchester Central, said: “It’s a mixed picture for us, but the key worrying trend is the white working-class moving away from Labour. It’s a long-term trend, but Brexit has put rocket boosters under it.”

And in Sunderland, where Labour held on to the council but lost seats to the Lib Dems and Greens, the council leader, Graeme Miller, blamed the anti-Brexit stance of local Labour MPs including Bridget Phillipson.

“We’ve seen a massive voter protest on that issue,” he said. “Sunderland voted as a city to leave, and having had a message from MPs saying we have to have a people’s vote and a second referendum, people are saying we are not just accepting that in the Labour party.”

Phillipson rejected his argument, pointing to the nature of the swing away from Labour, which benefited the Lib Dems and Greens as well as Ukip.

“There was a big swing against us to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens,” she said, adding: “I fear Labour’s position has been too hesitant and lacking in clarity over the past few months, depressing support among our voters at a time when they expect strength and leadership from my party rather than fudge.”

People’s Vote campaigners pointed to swings against Labour in a string of other leave areas – 2.5% to the Lib Dems and 5.7% to the Greens in Tameside, for example – as evidence that its strategy of trying to please both leavers and remainers was costing votes.

Neal Lawson, the chair of the left-leaning pressure group Compass, said the rise of the minor parties showed Labour should accept that the two-party system is creaking at the seams and form a “progressive alliance”. “Our democratic system is still two-channel black and white TV – when the electorate wants real-time, instant and infinite choice,” he said.

Labour is braced for a bruising campaign in the European elections later this month, with the Lib Dems being styled as the “stop Brexit” party, and Nigel Farage’s Brexit party entering the race to hoover up disgruntled leavers.

At a crunch meeting of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) earlier this week, Corbyn saw off a bid spearheaded by his deputy, Tom Watson, to promise a confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal in its European election manifesto.