Centrists plot comebacks as the Labour Party hits its worst spell since the general election It’s an “omnishambles”. Recent developments have “shown just how dire our dilemma is”. Backbenchers are “ashamed” at the current state […]

It’s an “omnishambles”. Recent developments have “shown just how dire our dilemma is”. Backbenchers are “ashamed” at the current state of the party.

Whatever part of the fractious Labour family they come from, its MPs agree on one thing: the party is going through its worst spell since the general election. But they cannot agree on another: what will happen next.

A spell of relative calm had prevailed following Jeremy Corbyn’s success in defying all predictions and depriving Theresa May of her Commons majority.

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Some of his critics admitted a grudging respect for his achievement and accepted frontbench posts, while others fell into a sullen acceptance of the changed political landscape.

Simmering resentments

Events of the last three weeks have ended the ceasefire. Mr Corbyn’s widely criticised response to the Salisbury poisoning and accusations that he has not faced up to anti-Semitism in party ranks have brought the suppressed resentments of centrist MPs back to the surface.

Their anger is further fuelled by complaints that the Labour leadership is pursuing an ambiguous course over Brexit.

One backbencher claimed yesterday that around one third of the party’s 259 MPs were “really fed up and think it’s all going to end in tears”.

He added: “There could be a trigger-point where things take off.”

Mass protests

The tensions that have been contained for the last eight months are once again plain to see. In remarkable scenes this week, more than 30 Labour MPs joined a mass protest in Parliament Square against anti-Semitism in their own party.

It was followed by a succession of MPs condemning their leader’s stance on the issue at a highly-charged session of the PLP. One former minister said: “There were meetings before the election which were angry and confrontational. This was different – there was a feeling of anguish and shame.”

Many of the protesters signed a letter yesterday calling for the Corbyn ally, Christine Shawcroft, to be suspended from the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) after she sent an email showing support for a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial.

A public argument has also broken out over the fate of Dan Jarvis, the Barnsley MP who is bidding to become the elected mayor of the Sheffield city region in May.

Febrile atmosphere

After the NEC has ruled he could not do both jobs, Yorkshire’s Labour MPs united to condemn the ultimatum of the party’s Corbyn-backing ruling body.

Meanwhile Owen Smith was sacked last week from the shadow Cabinet for publicly attacking Labour’s official policy on Brexit and Blairite MP John Woodcock was reported to be on the point of quitting the party’s whip in protest over his leader’s stance on anti-Semitism and Russia.

The atmosphere has become so febrile at Westminster that one friend of Woodcock privately accused Mr Corbyn’s office of spreading rumours about him in an attempt to force him out.

The Labour leader’s allies, including Ms Shawcroft, insist that rows over anti-Semitism have been confected to undermine his leadership. And they argue that it is no coincidence that the furore comes ahead of local elections where Labour is expected to make strong gains.

Sensible leadership

But what next for those backbenchers who believe the tumult of recent weeks is evidence of Mr Corbyn’s unfitness to lead them?

One said: “People talk about how can we sort this out, how we can get the party back to a party into a position with a moderate sensible leadership.”

They have no firm answer other than vague speculation about MPs sitting as independents and making common cause – particularly over Brexit – with like-minded Tories and Liberal Democrats.

The idea of a breakaway party is widely dismissed – not least because older Labour hands witnessed the SDP’s spectacular failure 30 years ago.

Another MP said: “These are things people talk about all the time, but there is nothing organised happening.”

Centrist reality

He added: “A lot of people are thinking about their future. Some people want to leave politics, and get on with their life. Others want to save the party like Roy Hattersley and Denis Healey did in the 1980s.”

A veteran figure insisted that all was far from lost for the centrists, pointing to the success of anti-Corbyn candidates in elections held by Labour Students and the party’s West Midlands region.

“Lots of colleagues are fighting back in their constituencies, often cleaning out these people [Momentum],” he said.

But the reality the centrists face is that Corbyn allies now control most parts of the Labour machine apart from the parliamentary party and that the vast bulk of the membership stands enthusiastically behind their leader.

It will be an uphill struggle for the people who once ruled the roost in the party to come back from the margins – particularly as they have no collective game plan for making that happen.