Hilary Benn Denies Plot To Oust Corbyn

Sacked shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn has denied mounting a coup against Jeremy Corbyn amid suggestions eight members of the shadow cabinet are to follow him out of the door.

The Labour party has been plunged into civil war after Mr Corbyn sacked Mr Benn after learning of a move to oust him, sparking the resignations of shadow health minister Heidi Alexander, shadow young people's minister Gloria de Piero and shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray.

Early on Sunday morning, Heidi Alexander resigned telling Mr Corbyn in a letter: "I do not believe you have the capacity to shape the answers our country is demanding."

Ms de Piero and Mr Murray followed her just hours later with a Labour source warned to expect "mass" resignations in what appeared to be the start of an orchestrated coup.

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A source close to Mr Corbyn told Sky News: "They have been planning this for months. If Jeremy Corbyn holds his nerve he may yet see them off.

"If some of the PLP want a new leader they literally have to set up a new party and the speaker has to sign it off."

The Momentum movement that delivered Mr Corbyn to power was galvanising support pressing Corbynistas to back the leader with twibbons on Twitter and readying phone banks to mobilise his 100,000 supporters.

Mr Benn denied he was leading a coup against Mr Corbyn but said he had no confidence in the leader who "didn't bring a great deal of enthusiasm to the task" of the EU referendum and was a "decent man" but "not a leader".

He said if other shadow cabinet ministers felt the same they should do the "straight forward thing" for the sake of the party and that "consequences would unfold".

However, speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, he said he would not be running for the Labour leadership himself.

He told Sky News: "We need strong and effective leadership of the Labour party.

"I told Jeremy Corbyn last night that I no longer had confidence in his leadership and he dismissed me from the shadow cabinet."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the BBC: "Jeremy is going nowhere."

He said that the Labour leader had a "strong mandate from the membership".

Mr McDonnell urged the shadow cabinet to "respect the Labour members" and said it was all about "solidarity".

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There are suggestions that close Corbyn ally Diane Abbott will replace Mr Benn as shadow foreign secretary.

A senior Labour backbencher said: "A lot of people were trying to stay calm and reflect over the weekend regardless of their feelings about Corbyn - but you simply can't call for unity in the afternoon and then sack someone in the middle of the night."

There has been strong support for Mr Benn from Labour MPs, including the former cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw, who said: "The Labour shadow cabinet must now act to save the party and for the sake of the country. Otherwise we will never be forgiven."

These dramatic events came at the end of a day in which Mr Corbyn was cheered by supporters after he insisted he would fight on even if a move by Labour backbenchers to force a vote of no confidence in him succeeds this week.

But only minutes later, at a pride event in central London, he was heckled by a Labour activist who said the vote to leave the EU in Thursday's referendum was his fault and he should resign. Mr Corbyn said he had done all he could.

The rift between Mr Corbyn and Mr Benn, whose late father Tony was one of the Labour leader's closest friends, dates back to the tense Commons debate on military action against Syria late last year.

MPs were left stunned by the bizarre spectacle of the Labour leader and his own shadow foreign secretary speaking out on opposite sides of the debate.

After Mr Corbyn opposed military intervention at the start of the debate, MPs cheered and applauded a passionate speech by Mr Benn at the end of the debate in favour of bombing Syria.

Mr Corbyn later said he had been appalled by Mr Benn's speech. He tried to sack him in what was called a "revenge reshuffle", but faced a shadow cabinet backlash and had to settle for exerting a number of loyalty pledges from him.