Ex-Labour MP Gisela Stuart urges traditional party voters to back Boris Johnson and 'get Brexit done'
2 min read
A former Labour MP has called on the party's traditional supporters to back Boris Johnson at the general election.
Gisela Stuart urged voters to "set party allegiance aside" as she launched a bitter attack on Jeremy Corbyn's leader of the Labour party.
Ms Stuart, who served as MP for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 until 2017, said she continued to hold Labour values, but claimed the party she believed in had "gone" under Mr Corbyn.
She spoke out as she appeared at a Conservative press conference alongside former Vote Leave colleagues Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
On the dilemma facing Leave-backing Labour supporters, she said: "They will feel as I do that they face a difficult choice, torn between loyalty to the party and the best interests of the country as a whole.
“I say to these traditional Labour voters who three and a half years ago voted to leave, that we can bring the country back together again, and we can unite, but that is not by voting for Jeremy Corbyn."
She added: "Vote Leave was a cross-party endeavour and I believe that this election, we need to come together again once more.
"Set aside party allegiance to get Brexit done and heal the country. In this election I will not vote for Jeremy Corbyn, but I can vote for Brexit.
"Labour has voted twice to delay Brexit. The Labour leadership, the Shadow Cabinet and most Labour MPs do not believe in Brexit.
"And Labour’s proposed Brexit deal is so bad that not even Jeremy Corbyn can bring himself to support it."
Her comments will come as a further blow to the Labour leader, who is facing growing criticsm over his plans to hold a second referendum on Brexit in which he has pledged to remain "neutral".
Speaking at the same event, Mr Johnson said Labour's plans would mean further "dither and delay" as he pledged to deliver a series of post-Brexit reforms if he is handed a majority on 12 December.
The Prime Minister said his 'Brexit roadmap' would see a new state aid system created to help protect British firms as well as the implementation of a new points-based immigration system at the end of the Brexit transition period in January 2021.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
