Ben Bradshaw said Labour ought to be 20 points ahead of an ‘evidently beatable’ Tory party PA
Jeremy Corbyn was “the one issue on the doorstep” in Labour’s
defeat in the Copeland by-election last week and anyone who suggests
otherwise is “lying”, according to Labour MP Ben Bradshaw.
Speaking to The Independent, the former cabinet
minister placed the blame for the historic loss – the first time an
opposition party had lost a by-election to a sitting Government in more
than 30 years – at the door of the Labour Party's leader, claiming that
no Labour seat was safe in the 2020 general election.
“Our candidate [Gillian Troughton] has done a fantastic job
of making sure the voters knew that she was very pro-nuclear power,” he
said. “There’s no point kidding ourselves. Talk to anyone who campaigned
in that election the only issue was Jeremy Corbyn.
“Anyone else who suggested otherwise is lying. Jeremy was the one issue on the doorstep.”
Mr Bradshaw’s comments come after Labour frontbenchers, including Shami Chakrabarti, suggested that bad weather and poor public transport had
contributed to the loss. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell argued that
high-profile interventions by former Labour figures Tony Blair and Peter
Mandelson were in part to blame.
“It was a terrible result for Labour,” said Mr Bradshaw.
“You have to go back to 1960 until there was another loss of an by
election seat from an opposition party to a party of Government without
any kind of extenuating circumstances. It was an absolutely catastrophic
defeat for us."
“Based on the opinion polls and the real results not just in
Copeland and Stoke but in local and council by-elections all over the
country, no Labour seat is safe. Not a single one.”
Mr Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter since 1997, praised the
“incredible and very important” interventions made by former Prime
Minister’s Tony Blair and John Major on the subject of Brexit. “There
are at least 48 per cent of people out there whose views and hopes are
not being represented at the moment by any major political party or
leader,” he said. “We’re one of the few countries in the world that
doesn’t take notice of what former prime ministers think or say, and
given the experience they’ve had at the highest level, I think it’s more
important than ever that we have those voices to speak on behalf of the
resistance.”
Mr Bradshaw said the Labour Party ought to be 20 points
ahead of an “evidently beatable” Tory party and argued that forcing
Labour MPs to vote in favour of Article 50 was “catastrophic historical
and political error”.
“I think a hard Tory Brexit is
going to be an absolute disaster,” he said. “It will unravel very, very
quickly and when people begin to see that happening that will provide a
huge opportunity for Labour, but only if we are in a position where we
can capitalise on that and only if we are competently led.
“We can stop a destructive and hard Tory Brexit and Labour
can win the next general election. But certain things have to happen. I
will do everything I can over the next few weeks and months to ensure
that they do.”
On the three-line whip imposed by Mr Corbyn during the
Article 50 vote, Mr Bradshaw said: “Future generations will not forgive
the people who were responsible for that when they see the damage that a
hard Brexit is going to do to our country.”
Mr Bradshaw also defended Mr Blair over the Iraq war and
said the public should trust the former PM now that he is re-engaging in
political debate.
“The Chilcot inquiry completely exonerated Tony Blair of all
of the mad allegations that were thrown at him,” he said. “I think that
quite unfairly and without any evidence there is a section of the
British public that don’t like Tony Blair.
“We’ve got to get over this nonsense about Iraq – just look
at Syria where we didn’t intervene, it’s far worse, far more people
died, far more refugees and no solution in sight. In Iraq you now have a
functioning democracy and it is beating back Isis.”
“There are some on the far left who are blinded by their
misinterpretation of what happened in Iraq and that perverts their view
of anything Tony Blair does or says. In the real world that is not the
majority view of people who I meet on the doorstep.”
Despite the recent resignations of fellow Labour MPs Tristam
Hunt and Jamie Reed, Mr Bradshaw, who unsuccessfully ran for the
position of deputy leader in 2015, confirmed he intends to stand for
re-election in 2020. “I’m staying and fighting to save the party I’ve
spent all my life fighting for,” he said.
“I think this country desperately needs a left-of-centre
party more than ever at this time, with the awful and destructive damage
the Tories are wreaking on our health and social care system, our
education system and our economy. I’ve got more fight in my belly than
I’ve ever had."
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