Ex-Tory grandee Jeffrey Archer: I'd vote for Jeremy Corbyn if I lived in the North
2 min read
Former Tory grandee Lord Archer has said he would cast his vote at the next election for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour if he lived in the north of England.
The novelist and ex-Conservative deputy chair - who was jailed for perjury in 2001 and now sits as an independent peer in the House of Lords - said he mulled support for Mr Corbyn's party on a recent trip away from London.
"I was travelling through the north-west of England recently, where I was giving a speech at a school, and as I looked out of the window it did make me think I’d vote for Corbyn if I lived up here," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
"I felt I had too much, that I’m over-privileged. And with half of what Corbyn says, I find myself agreeing with him 100 per cent. It’s the other half that’s the problem."
Despite his praise for the Labour leader, Lord Archer said he objected to Mr Corbyn's backing for a rise in inheritance tax, and warned that Labour's general tax policy could trigger a 1970s-style "brain drain".
REES-MOGG 'THE WRONG MAN'
Elsewhere in his Telegraph interview, the former Tory bigwig weighed in on a string of current political issues, heaping praise on Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg as "the best parliamentarian" he had seen but "the wrong man" to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader.
"I think he’d make a brilliant Speaker of the House of Commons," the peer said.
"He has a lovely feel for the House, but not leader."
He also heaped scorn on calls for a second referendum on Brexit, saying: "I voted remain, and I lost, so I thoroughly disapprove of the idea of being asked to vote again."
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