Yahoo News Labour MP Wes Streeting tells Jeremy Corbyn to his face he should quit as party leader
A Labour MP has told Jeremy Corbyn to his face that he should quit as party leader.
Wes Streeting, MP for Ilford North, confronted his party leader at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
He told Mr Corbyn he needs to step down if the party is to have any chance of winning the next general election, Politics Home reported.
Mr Streeting said Mr Corbyn’s leadership has become “a bigger issue than Brexit” for the party.
Mr Corbyn is mired in internal fighting with his party over its position on Brexit and the upcoming European elections.
Politics Home reported that some backbenchers claim they have been banned from distributing their own campaign leaflets.
At the meeting in Parliament, Mr Streeting told Mr Corbyn: "What is being heard on the doorstep across the country and what people are saying in the tea room, but won’t say to your face, is that you are a bigger issue for us than Brexit.
“If you’re prepared to sacrifice our place in Europe because you think it will deliver a Labour government, why won’t you make way for a leader who can win a general election?”
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Hove MP Peter Kyle, who wants a second referendum on Brexit, said at the meeting: "Jeremy, I urge you to simplify our policy to make people realise that we are talking with absolute sincerity."
Mr Corbyn said at the meeting: "I do understand the frustrations about campaign material and the way in which they have been put to people. I'll be taking action immediately to make sure you get answers.
I only said what too many say in the tea room, but won’t say to Jeremy’s face, about what voters are saying on the doorsteps. It wasn’t this bad with Ed. Some of us warned back then that we’d lose in 2015. We weren’t listened to then, either, leading to Tory majority and Brexit. https://t.co/F2Xc0S76lM
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) May 14, 2019
"I understand the need for a clear message. I don't want to be in a position where voters don't understand what we're saying.”
Meanwhile, former minister Bridget Prentice has quit Labour in protest over Mr Corbyn’s handling of Brexit and tackling anti-Semitism within the party.
The former MP for Lewisham East claimed the party had "been destroyed" under Mr Corbyn's leadership.
In a strongly-worded attack she said that "in all the major issues of the day, you have called it wrong".
