Jeremy Corbyn has been castigated by past and present Labour MPs after delivering a New Year’s Eve message in which he did not mention the party’s catastrophic general election result, saying only that it had been “quite the year”.

The video address, in which the Labour leader said the party was now “the resistance” to Boris Johnson’s government, was rounded on in comments on social media from his critics, including those in heartland seats who lost their constituencies to the Tories.



Phil Wilson, who lost Sedgefield – the former seat of Tony Blair – to the Conservatives, tweeted: “No Jeremy Corbyn you are not part of the resistance to Boris Johnson you are one of enablers of Boris Johnson.”

Neil Coyle, the MP for Bermondsey, who has been a longstanding critic of Corbyn, said the party would have been better able to resist Johnson had they not reduced representation to the lowest levels “since before the French resistance existed”.

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Caroline Flint, who was voted out in Don Valley after 22 years as an MP, chastised Corbyn for not mentioning the election in his message considering there was supposed to be a review under way into the result.

Supporters welcomed the video message, which argued that the party had built a strong movement that would defend the NHS and fight against poverty. One Labour activist on Twitter said in response that the hope brought by Corbyn “will live on” and they had never been prouder to support the party. Another said they hoped the next leader would match Corbyn’s integrity, and others said they would continue to fight for socialism.

Meanwhile, Richard Burgon has become the latest member of the shadow cabinet to throw his hat in the ring for the vacant deputy leader post, positioning himself as the most leftwing candidate. A number of Labour sources said he had the backing of Karie Murphy, Corbyn’s former top aide and an influential figure in his office.

In an article for Tribune magazine’s website, the shadow justice secretary said the party should narrow down what it was offering to voters to 10 key policy areas, and needed to maintain the popular green industrial revolution idea to shift industrial workers into more environmentally friendly jobs.

Burgon wrote that Labour had lost the election not because of Corbyn’s popularity ratings but as a result of broken promises on Brexit that meant the public could not trust that their manifesto could be delivered.

He also suggested that New Labour had cost the party votes by “proposing austerity” in the first place, a reference to the then Labour chancellor Alistair Darling saying in 2010 that the party would cut further than Margaret Thatcher.

A source close to a rival campaign said this remark by Burgon was an attempt to deliberately start a fight with Blairites in the party and show himself to be a socialist aligned with Corbyn’s politics.

A spokesperson for Burgon said he would put together a team in the new year and that Murphy was not involved currently.

Labour’s sole MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, is also considering running for the deputy leadership. The Edinburgh South MP said the party needed a “strong Scottish anchor” to revive the party in the country. Corbyn recently handed the shadow Scotland secretary role to Tony Lloyd, the MP for Rochdale.