Official Labour youth organisation claim those involved in attempt to oust Corbyn have “betrayed” Labour and its supporters
SCOTTISH YOUNG LABOUR (SYL) have sent a letter calling to Kezia Dugdale calling on her to oppose an attempted “coup” against leftist UK party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The letter from SYL’s executive and seen by CommonSpace comes after days of open revolt by many of Corbyn’s front bench team, who claim that he failed to perform sufficiently well campaign for a remain vote during the UK’s referendum on EU membership.
The letter, seen by CommonSpace, reads: “We are writing today to ask that you publically reject the ongoing coup against Jeremy Corbyn.
“It is our duty as the Scottish Young Labour committee to represent the interests and politics of our members. We were elected to committee on an unequivocally pro-Corbyn platform.
“For us to remain silent now would be to abdicate our mandate and responsibility to our members. We believe that the current coup against Jeremy Corbyn is undemocratic and unjustifiable.”
The letter further argues that Corbyn had secured a majority of Labour supporters for an In vote in the UK’s referendum on EU membership, and that the faction fight was preventing Labour from capitalising on the political turmoil following the Out vote.
“We ask you to publicly reject the ongoing coup and declare confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. We urge you to stand up for unity and democracy.” SYL executive
It reads: “It is clear that it is driven by factional manoeuvres rather than concerns about Labour’s performance in the EU referendum. Jeremy campaigned tirelessly for a remain vote. The Ashcroft polls show that the vast majority of Labour voters followed his lead.
“We note that Labour is tied with the Conservatives in national polling. It is likely that Labour can win a snap election. Those who have sought to damage Corbyn have reduced Labour’s chances of winning that election.
“We believe that they have not only betrayed the party membership but the communities that we represent.
The letter concludes with a call for Dugdale to not only publicly oppose the attempt to remove Corbyn, but to announce her own personal confidence in his ongoing leadership.
It reads: “It is with this in mind that we ask you to publicly reject the ongoing coup and declare confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. We urge you to stand up for unity and democracy.”
The attempt to oust Corbyn as leader began less than 24 hours after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Under a pretext of Corbyn’s failure to mobilise a larger majority of traditional Labour voters to support an In vote, shadow foreign secretary Hillary Benn contacted Corbyn to inform him he had lost confidence in his leadership, leading him to be removed from his ministerial post.
This event triggered a slew of resignations from senior and junior shadow cabinet members, and a vote of no confidence, expected to be undertaken by Labour party MPs later today (Tuesday 28 June).
On Monday night (27 June) Corbyn spoke to thousands of party members and supporters outside the Westminster Parliament, who had gathered to support his leadership.
Picture courtesy of Garry Knight
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