Yahoo News Jeremy Corbyn to plead with supporters not to 'give up' following humiliating by-election defeat
Jeremy Corbyn will plead with supporters not to "give up" following a humiliating by-election defeat in Copeland.
The Labour leader faced calls to step down last week after the party lost the seat in Cumbria, making the Conservatives the first governing party to gain a constituency in a by-election since 1982.
In his speech to the Scottish Labour Party conference in Perth this afteroon, Mr Corbyn will insist now is not the time to "retreat, run away or give up", despite the embarrassing loss.
It comes after his deputy leader said it was not "a suicide approach" to stick with Mr Corbyn, but suggested he lacked "coherence and clarity".
Speaking on Peston on Sunday, Tom Watson said: "We can win a General Election with Jeremy Corbyn but things have to change.
"I think the country now knows that he is a conviction politician, I think they now want to see that he can give greater policy coherence and greater clarity when explaining what our mission is."
Speaking this afternoon, the under-fire leader will say he "cannot lie and say the result in Copeland was what we wanted", but will also insist the "time has come" for his left-wing policies.
The loss of Copeland shows the "scale of how hard our task is to persuade people of our message", Mr Corbyn will say.
He will insist: "The policies and ideas we are setting out are policies whose time has come. But to win that fight we need to remain united.
"United in our belief in our movement. United in our commitment to once again make our society fairer, better and more just.
"That's why Labour believes that together we're stronger. Unity is still our strength."
Mr Watson hit out at the union boss Len McCluskey and other party supporters for failing to publically defend Mr Corbyn's leadership.
He said: "If I've got some frustrations, it's that those people that are Jeremy's cheerleaders, that made sure that he was elected a second time last September, they should be sticking with their leader in the bad times, not just the good.
"Dave Prentis has spoken out, but I'd say to you this morning where's Len McCluskey defending his leader in this difficult time?
"It shouldn't be just down to me."
