Pro-Jeremy Corbyn Labour MP calls on party to apologise for ‘treacherous’ general election campaign
3 min read
A Jeremy Corbyn ally and Labour MP has called on the party’s top brass to apologise for its “treacherous” and "damaging" 2017 general election campaign.
LLoyd Russell-Moyle, who won Brighton Kemptown from the Conservatives last year, said Labour HQ had been focussed only on retaining their then-current MPs ahead of the vote.
The party subsequently went on to pick up 30 seats and deprive Theresa May of a majority, despite many polls predicting the election would be a Tory landslide.
The MP, who campaigned for Mr Corbyn to be party leader on both occasions he contested it, criticised the leadership, who he said had “agreed” the strategy.
“The rule of thumb should be no party should ever go into an election to just stem its losses,” he said in an interview with HuffPost UK.
“If your strategy is to not win any new seats and just try and retain the seats you’ve got, that is a strategy of losing seats. A retention strategy is always a loss strategy.
“I think that it was treacherous for the party organisation to run a campaign that was for retention only.
“I think people who agreed that strategy, and it was agreed in the leader’s office as well as in Southside [Labour HQ], should really apologise. Because I think it did damage the party.
He added, however, that while he “understands all the motivations” that led to the approach it was right some people responsible “have apologised” for the campaign.
Mr Russell-Moyle also said that while he would describe himself as a “left-winger”, he recognised that Mr Corbyn had his “flaws”.
“I support Corbyn. I think he is a very good leader. I think he has revived the party. Do I see he has his flaws? Of course. He has flaws. He is a human being. All human beings have flaws...
"We will disagree on certain things. Things can sometimes be very frustrating.
“I am very satisfied with him. I supported him in both leadership elections. But there have been moments where I’ve thought ‘oh god why have you done that’ or ‘why have you said that’. You know certain statements where he’s had to come out and re-clarify.”
He added: “Even if I was the leader I would disagree with myself half the time. Because of course you re-evaluate things yourself. And sometimes you think ‘actually I was probably wrong about that’."
The Labour MP said Mr Corbyn was “as close as we are going to get” to a “decent leader” for the party.
Elsewhere Mr Russell-Moyle hit out at “really nasty Labour MPs”, who he said were “rude and obnoxious”.
Although he did not list names, he reportedly pointed to Len McCluskey's recent article in the New Statesman, where the Unite boss cited Chris Leslie, Neil Coyle, John Woodcock, Wes Streeting and Ian Austin as a “dismal chorus”.
Both the Labour party and Mr Corbyn's office have been approached for comment.
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