Labour MPs to give Sadiq Khan a hero’s welcome... and Jeremy Corbyn a grilling

Hero's welcome: Sadiq Khan
Jeremy Selwyn
Joseph Watts9 May 2016

Jeremy Corbyn today faced a grilling at the first meeting of Labour MPs since the elections, while Sadiq Khan was expected to receive a hero’s welcome.

Labour MPs told the Standard Mr Corbyn must recognise that poll results which saw the party drop seats in England, Wales and Scotland represent a failure to make progress.

Mr Khan’s appearance after his mayoral win was expected to boost morale, though some MPs planned to hail his campaign as an example Mr Corbyn should follow.

The Labour leader’s backers have been trying to put a positive spin on results as being “better than expected”, ahead of Mr Corbyn’s arrival at the meeting in Westminster tonight.

However, Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle said: “Many will want to see recognition that Thursday was not a move forward.

“Even pre-boundary review, Labour would still be 50 seats behind the Conservatives at the next [general] election based on those results.” He said Mr Corbyn’s supporters were performing “fascinating mental gymnastics” in claiming the results are positive, adding: “Any failure to acknowledge that we are behind where we need to be will not go down well.”

Sadiq Khan's first official day as London Mayor

1/13

Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock said: “Tonight it will boil down to those saying we did ‘better than expected’ and those pointing out that expectations were that it would be catastrophic.

“We will be asking whether ‘slightly better than catastrophic’ is really where we need to be aiming.”

The party was “nowhere” in terms of making progress in crucial seats in middle England and just appeared to be shoring up its core vote, he added.

One Labour MP who preferred not to be named said shadow chancellor John McDonnell had “played a blinder” in making expectations so low that the results looked like progress.

Another senior backbencher said: “There’s no doubt people are going to be asking how are we going to turn this around. MPs want good results. These are not good enough.”

Former shadow cabinet member Yvette Cooper echoed the comments, but went on to praise Mr Khan’s achievements in London.

She said: “Sadiq was a very good example of how you do have to reach out in order to win support.”

Under pressure: Jeremy Corbyn 
EPA

Speaking to the BBC, she added: “It’s great that Sadiq won but obviously we had a grim result in Scotland, and as Jeremy said, we only ‘hung on’ across England. That is not enough in order for us to win the general election.”

Mr Khan took to the airwaves yesterday to warn his party against “just speaking to Labour voters”, in what was seen as a coded attack on Mr Corbyn.

The new Mayor distanced himself from the Labour leader during his campaign, particularly in calling for tougher action during the height of the party’s anti-Semitism crisis.

The issue was likely to arise again at tonight’s meeting, with one MP telling the Standard the issue had done “immeasurable damage to the party” at the polls last week.

Looking ahead to the meeting, he added: “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in