Labour leader urges former prime minister to respect referendum result and focus energy on future relationship with EU

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Tony Blair’s call for pro-Europeans to form a new cross-party movement to oppose Brexit, urging the former prime minister to respect the result of the referendum and to put his energy towards building relations in Europe.

Corbyn, who was questioned on the comments after addressing Labour’s local government conference at Warwick University, said: “Well, it’s not helpful. I would ask those to think about this – the referendum gave a result, gave a very clear decision on this, and we have to respect that decision, that’s why we didn’t block article 50.

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“But we are going to be part of all this campaigning, all these negotiations about the kind of relationship we have in Europe in the future.. The referendum happened, let’s respect the result. Democracy happened, respect the result.”

Earlier Corbyn said people were dying at the hands of the government’s austerity policies in a scathing attack on the prime minister days before two crucial byelections.

The Labour leader blamed ministers for an “emergency” in local services and a social care crisis caused by “disgraceful neglect” as he urged voters in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent to “send a message” to Theresa May on 23 February that they had had enough of cuts.

In a speech to Labour councillors at Warwick University, Corbyn said: “We have a state of emergency in our social care system and the worst crisis in the history of our NHS.”

He added that the situation in social care was an “absolute scandal that leaves 1.2 million elderly people without the care they need”.

Corbyn cited a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that said the crisis was linked to 30,000 excess deaths in 2015. “People are dying because of the choices made by this government,” he said. “Councils are at breaking point on social care. Our social care system has been privatised, outsourced and cut. It has dehumanised our parents, grandparents and neighbours.”

Corbyn vowed that a Labour government would provide the NHS and social care with adequate funds while accusing May of leading a government that gives billions away in tax breaks to big business and the richest in society while cutting services for the most vulnerable.

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He said: “It is this callousness, even brutality, that has put local services in a state of emergency.”

The twin byelections, caused by the resignation of Labour MPs Jamie Reed and Tristram Hunt, represent Corbyn’s toughest electoral challenge yet. The Conservatives are hoping to win Copeland from Labour, which is trailing in the polls. Corbyn’s past opposition to nuclear power is viewed with suspicion among many voters in the Cumbrian constituency, which is economically reliant on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility.

The party’s battle to retain the two seats suffered a further blow after Corbyn’s campaigns chief, Simon Fletcher, quit on Friday over an apparent clash with Labour’s inner team over the direction of the party.

The sudden resignation of one of his closest aides follows the resignations of four shadow cabinet members over Corbyn’s support for the article 50 bill.

Corbyn said on Saturday that Fletcher would continue working with Labour. “Simon and I are great friends and will remain great friends. We had a good chat last night. I’ve known Simon for 25 years, he’s a great friend of mind and he is going to do other things, but will continue working with us.”



In Stoke, which voted strongly in favour of Brexit in last year’s referendum, the main challenge is expected to come from Ukip, where the party leader, Paul Nuttall, is standing.

Corbyn, who is expected to campaign in the constituency on Saturday, claimed Labour would “defeat Ukip’s politics of hate”.

A Ukip spokesman said Labour had taken the people of Stoke for granted.