Chancellor: Public will reject Corbyn’s new party like they rejected him before
The public will reject Jeremy Corbyn’s new party like they rejected him twice before, Rachel Reeves has predicted.
The Chancellor launched an attack on the former Labour leader personally as well as his new party, saying “the bloke’s got a big ego”.
Ms Reeves told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that Mr Corbyn had “tried to destroy my party” during his leadership in which he lost two general elections, one in 2017 and one in 2019.
She was asked about the left-wing party during an appearance on the Iain Dale All Talk show on Saturday.
Your Party
Mr Corbyn launched the new political party with former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, which still does not appear to have a name but is marketed as “Your Party”.
Mr Corbyn vowed it would “take on the rich and powerful”.
Asked about whether the new party could eat into Labour’s support by becoming a “Reform of the left”, the Chancellor said: “Jeremy Corbyn has had two chances to be prime minister and I think the country gave their verdict, most recently in 2019 when Labour had its worst result since 1935.
“If he wants to give it another go, be my guest. I think the voters will have the same reaction.”
Asked by Mr Dale if Labour was being complacent about the new political group, she said: “It’s not being complacent. He tried to destroy my party and he can now go set up his own party.
“The country has rejected him twice. The bloke’s got a big ego. He can have another go but I think the country will have the same verdict.”
Cheers
The Chancellor’s comments saw some of the biggest cheers of her chat with Mr Dale, which lasted around one and a half hours.
Mr Corbyn has said that more than 500,000 people had signed up to the movement in less than a week.
The figure was dismissed by Ms Reeves who told the crowd in Edinburgh that her sister Ellie Reeves, a serving Labour MP, had received an email stating she had signed up to the party.
Speaking at the same event, the Chancellor said Reform UK was now Labour’s main rival, describing the Tories as “irrelevant”.
But she warned that Nigel Farage offered “simple solutions” that amounted to a “mirage”.
Mr Corbyn has been approached for comment.
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Corbyn was tested, refused to endorse remain and appeared more leave and seemed a Euro sceptic and was beaten at the polls by a liar and a cheat.
This will be interesting but I fear futile and open the door for reform.
But Starmer is not doing anything to allay this. Home goal it seems.
It’s like there’s a conspiracy between old Tories and old Labour to keep the Tories in power so old Labour has an enemy to campaign against, which is much more fun than doing the hard work of governing.
Ego? Er, pot, kettle, black…?
In terms of complacent stupidity, these remarks from Rachel Reeves rank alongside Simon Harts’ ‘There is no appetite for devolving the Crown Estate’. WOAH! Really? How did that turn out?
Ms Reeves’ political crystal ball predictions are as hopeful (and desperate) as her “economics”!
For the record…
“Starmer’s ‘landslide’ saw Labour get fewer votes than Corbyn’s ‘worst result ever’ Keir Starmer’s Labour Party got 609,578 fewer votes than his former boss Jeremy Corbyn at the last general election.l”
And Keir’s polling now? Even in his own constituency…look away Rachel!
Read the runes Rachel-the-Rattled.
Interesting use of ‘rejected’ here, in that Corbyn polled more votes than Starmer won with… this might be more interesting than our provably dim-witted chancellor thinks.
Corbyn lost, twice. Starmer won. That’s the difference. The number of votes isn’t what decides it under FPTP. Comparing votes between elections with massively different turnouts is for petulant losers.