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Tonight on Panorama - the battle for the soul of the Labour Party. The | :00:07. | :00:14. | |
leader, Jeremy Corbyn, adored by his supporters. It's not about an | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
individual, it's about what we collectively as a society want to do | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
and want to achieve. But challenged by his own MPs. The reason I'm | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
standing is I want the Labour Party to survive. We've been on the | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
frontline of Labour's Civil War. The battle for the soul of the Labour | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
Party is going to be fought out in the streets of Brighton Hove. I | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
think we are standing absolutely at the edge of a cliff. It might well | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
be that one or other of the factions or both of us end up going over it. | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
The fight is turning nasty. There has been abuse. There has been | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
bullying. There have been threats. It's real. It's happened to me. | :00:55. | :01:07. | |
Homophobic, sexist, anti-sellic -- Semitic, that's nonsense. Can the | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
party unite or is this the end for Labour? Unless things change | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
radically and rapidly, it's very doubtful that I'll see another | :01:20. | :01:21. | |
Labour Government in my lifetime. Welcome to Brighton, the seaside | :01:22. | :01:47. | |
town with an alternative street. Summer by the sea and it's holiday | :01:48. | :01:56. | |
weather. But here inside Labour's biggest local party, the feuding | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
between left and right has grown bitter. The struggle revolves around | :02:00. | :02:08. | |
Jeremy Corbyn. CHEERING | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
The Labour leader's in town for a leadership campaign rally and so are | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
more than a thousand of his supporters. I think Jeremy Corbyn is | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
perhaps Britain's greatest hope for a genuinely new type of politics. | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
Many of the volunteers here are Momentum members, the grass-roots | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
group fiercely loyal to Corbyn. We are ordinary people who are enthused | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
and who have become active because we've got real hope now. This is a | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
politics of hope. Labour's opinion poll ratings look dismal and he's | :02:43. | :02:49. | |
fighting to stay on as leader. But he's still smiling, counting on | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
Labour's members, whose votes will decide this election. Jeremy is a | :02:53. | :03:01. | |
breath of fresh air. He's actually speaking some sense which is really | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
speaking to the people. United we're very strong. United as a party we go | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
forward to create that decent, better society. Jeremy Corbyn is | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
good at packing out the crowds. They believe in him and many are drawn to | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
his left-wing policies, anti-Trident, anti-tuition fees and | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
renationalising the railways. Great job. I know why I got the job. Zblt | :03:25. | :03:37. | |
Corbyn phenomenon is about timing. Labour's traditional, working-class | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
support has been ebbing away for years. Jeremy Corbyn has built a new | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
base and made it all his own. After all those New Labour compromises and | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
one election defeat too many, they wanted something different. Jeremy | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
Corbyn may have been around for decades, but he's certainly | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
something different. Trouble is most Labour MPs believe he's a hopeless | :03:56. | :04:05. | |
leader and they are out to stop him. Meet the challenger, Corbyn's | :04:06. | :04:08. | |
enemy's are pinning their hopes on him. Hello there. Owen Smith calling | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
from the Labour Party... I think you're better than him. I'm | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
apparently better than the rest, that will do. He was one of more | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
than 170 Labour MPs who declared they had no confidence in Jeremy | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
Corbyn this summer. And today, he's come to Brighton too, campaigning | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
for a council by-election. I fear that the Labour Party is in danger | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
of an historic split. I think this is a battle for the soul of the | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
Labour Party. The reason I'm standing is I want the Labour Party | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
to survive. You're not voting for him? No. Oh, well, never mind. He's | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
won the overwhelming backing of his fellow MPs, who believe Jeremy | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
Corbyn is far too left-wing, unelectable. Beware of the dog, | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
they're always my favourite. We've got to take seriously the fact that | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
the public are moving away from us and that on a whole host of areas | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
for a very long time, on the economy, on immigration, on Social | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
Security we are losing the argument with the public. We have to do much | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
better at going out and making the case to the public for why they | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
should support us. And we haven't done that. But those close to Corbyn | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
argue Labour's growing membership tells a different story. Large | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
numbers of people feel the economy and society is not delivering for | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
them. So they're looking for an alternative. The Labour Party | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
provides that alternative. That's why they're joining us. We're the | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
biggest political party in Europe now. We're now over half a million, | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
nearly 600,000, I think growing all the time. I welcome that. Whoever | :05:47. | :05:56. | |
wins Labour's leadership contest, they're going to have to try to heal | :05:57. | :06:04. | |
the wounds of a brutal few months. Near Brighton, the fight has been | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
particularly dirty. No-one knows that better than local Labour MP, | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
Peter Kyle, a former aide worker and advisor to the Blair Government. He | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
won the seat from the Tories in the 2015 election, one of the few bright | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
spots in a dismal Labour performance. We only have one MP in | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
the south-east beneath London now, that's me. I went through the whole | :06:30. | :06:37. | |
pile. Unfortunately there's a new pile. Peter and his team have an | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
unexpected problem, the local party membership has doubled to 6,000 in | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
just over a year. It's now the biggest in the country and some of | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
those new recruits are out to get him. There's suddenly just this | :06:51. | :07:00. | |
anger, this visceral anger, which is unchannelled and it's unproductive. | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
I'm pushed away from huge sections of the new membership. Democracy is | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
being shut down. Things are so reductionist either you're a | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
Corbynite or you're an enemy. That's not the party that I know and love. | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
Things came to a head last December, when Peter Kyle voted in favour of | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
air strikes on Syria in a free vote. In the days that followed, he | :07:26. | :07:28. | |
received abusive and threatening messages. What I saw during the | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
Syria debate was something that was a shock for me. Within the party | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
there was an almost uncontrollable rage within one bit of it, which was | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
being uncited, by people around the leader, within Momentum, people with | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
axes to grind. Drop into any party meeting in this constituency and | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
Labour's divisions are loud and clear. And they're heart felt. But | :07:55. | :08:01. | |
it strikes me that Jeremy Corbyn's followers are keener on fighting via | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
the social media and I dipped into the Labour Party forum for a week. | :08:07. | :08:15. | |
I'm made of strong stuff, but these deeply horrible misogynyst, | :08:16. | :08:23. | |
anti-Semitic, homophobic, vitriolic, thick and just mean people sent me | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
away. I couldn't stand it. It was messing with my head. There is a | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
slight bit of prejudgment on new members. You automatically assume | :08:32. | :08:38. | |
just because we're coming in and supporting Corbyn, we're Trots or | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
stormtroopers or whatever. We're actually not. What's happening here | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
is a vivid example of what's happening in local Labour Parties up | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
and down the country, MPs pitted against local members, members | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
against each other and the atmosphere's become increasingly | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
poisonous. There has been abuse. There has been bullying. There have | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
been threats. It's real. It's happened to me. It's happened to | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
many of my colleagues. Most party members are thoroughly decent, kind | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
people but there are a small minority who are absolutely | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
determined to silence any alternative voices, any debate, any | :09:18. | :09:20. | |
criticism and the party simply can't survive that. The real worry for me | :09:21. | :09:27. | |
is that it's being used to create an image that the Labour Party is some | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
kind of cesspit, homophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic, this is nonsense. I'm | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
offended that my party is being accused of that in this way. It's | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
all done to try and shift the blame on Jeremy Corbyn. Back in Brighton | :09:45. | :09:56. | |
Hove, the battle for control of Labour has intensified. At July's | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
annual general meeting, a group of Corbyn supporters, backed by | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
Momentum, were elected to key posts. But then, amid hotly contested | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
allegations of bullying, intimidation and vote rigging, the | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
local party was suspended and is now being investigated. Greg Hadfield | :10:13. | :10:22. | |
was elected local party secretary that night before the vote was | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
annulled. A former Daily Mail journalist, he's now one of | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
Brighton's most devoted Jeremy Corbyn supporters. I think I'm a | :10:31. | :10:42. | |
Nescafe socialist. Even though to some he might look a bit like a | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
Conservative. You're not that Tory (BLEEP), are you? No I'm the | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
secretary of the Labour Party, who was suspended. I got 66% of | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
socialist vote and then I got suspended. I thought you were that | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
Tory bloke. Because I'm wearing a jacket. He's off to rally the troops | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
at a meeting organised by Momentum and to turn his fire on the MPs who | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
rebelled against their leader. We're going to say to Jeremy Corbyn, look | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
behind you, you've got 600,000 members supporting you. Don't look | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
over your shoaleder to see 176 people trying to stab you in the | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
back because when he wins in September, we'll be there for him | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
and we'll be there for the Labour Party. | :11:31. | :11:39. | |
APPLAUSE We're now approaching end game, the | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
hidden fractures between the leadership, between MPs, between the | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
members, this is where it's decided. The battle for the soul of the | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
Labour Party will be fought out in the streets of Brighton Hove. I'm | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
determined as a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, we're going to win, because | :11:56. | :12:03. | |
this cannot go on. In the background to this struggle, are two rival | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
visions - those MPs who mostly believe change should be driven | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
through Parliament and on the other side, those left-wingers who want to | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
build, instead, a mass movement way beyond Westminster. | :12:15. | :12:25. | |
Some in Labour see fighting for change outside Parliament as | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
undemocratic, but there's also fear of entryists inside the party, | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
members of far-left groups who've deliberately infiltrated Labour. | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
That's banned under party rules. Brighton is central to these | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
allegations. Ivor used to be an MP here, was a minister in Tony Blair's | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
Government. He's now gathering evidence and attended the July AGM. | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
What we are seeing is clear entryism. We have seen this. We have | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
evidence that people who stood for election on July 9 are members of | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
other organisations, which are prescribed by the Labour Party and | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
have been prescribed since the 1990s. That is completely and | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
utterly unacceptable. These people have hidden it in order to try and | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
gain entryism into the Labour Party and I'm afraid, they have to be got | :13:25. | :13:33. | |
out. Kept out of the party? Yes. Two of those accused of being entryists | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
were elected to the local party's executive committee alongside Greg. | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
The party is still suspended, so meet the Brighton, Hove and District | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
Executive Committee in exile, as they like to call themselves. This | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
one, I stand with Jeremy Corbyn. It's the basic message. Brilliant. | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
Yeah. There's stickers as well. These are the Corbyn for Prime | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
Minister, Corbyn for leader, love socialism sticker. We completely ran | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
out of the national Jeremy Corbyn badges, but we've made more local | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
ones. Phil Clarke stood against Labour five times, including the | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
2015 Council elections. That's banned under Labour's rules. I've | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
been in the social party and stood for trade union and socialist | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
coalition. I did that because I felt that the Labour Party wouldn't again | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
be a voice for working people and the trade unions. I'm not an | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
entryist. I made a personal decision to join the Labour Party. I'm in the | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
a member of any prescribed group in the Labour Party. I want to see a | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
Labour Party that is what it was set up to be, which is the voice of | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
working people through the trade unions in Parliament and that's why | :14:55. | :15:02. | |
I'm a member. Mark Sandell was elected chairman of | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
the local party until it was suspended. He's accused of being an | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
entryist because of his support for the controversial far left group the | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
alliance for workers liberty. It's a socialist organisation, not a party. | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
It publishes a newspaper which, I think, is a very good newspaper, I | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
support. But is he a member of the AWL? We don't have a membership. Is | :15:25. | :15:37. | |
he a Trotskyite entryist? I don't see myself as an entryist. The | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
Labour Party is the place where my politics will be most effective, | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
it's the place where my politics have a history. The Labour Party | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
were founded by great socialists who wanted to get rid of capitalism and | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
change the world. It was also founded bit trade unions, which I've | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
always been a supporter of, where else would I take my politics? I | :15:56. | :15:58. | |
don't think you should ban people because you don't like their ideas. | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
But Panorama understands that both men are under investigation by the | :16:07. | :16:13. | |
national party. They could be banned by Labour for breaching party rules. | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
So many party argue there is nothing to worry about. The Alliance for | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
Workers love the deep, they must be delighted that they keep getting | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
mentioned. There must be half a dozen of them in the whole country! | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
You know the argument, we have seen many on the left, some from groups | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
or other parties once opposed to Labour, coming aboard and joining | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
behind Jeremy Corbyn, so the idea of entryism is not a myth, is it? The | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
vast majority of people who are joining the Labour Party have got | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
nothing to do with Trotskyism or entryism. Of course, there will be | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
handfuls of people who are old hands, who might be regarded as | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
people who have got a different political agenda. But for others, | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
talk of entryism is like a grim echo of the past. Back in the mid-19th | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
80s, the far left group Militant were a party within a party, and | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
Neil Kinnock took them on and won. I am telling you you cannot play | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
politics with people's jobs and with people's services! | :17:23. | :17:35. | |
So has the problem returned? The idea that there are 300,000 or more | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
entryists is absurd. There are people who have returned to the | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
Labour Party who have the objective of securing the control of the | :17:45. | :17:53. | |
movement by the ultraleft. They are well organised, they are | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
experienced, they are obsessive, and they probably exert a | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
disproportionate amount of influence. | :18:03. | :18:12. | |
Early August, and it is Pride weekend. A celebration of gay rights | :18:13. | :18:22. | |
in Brighton. Four MP Peter Kyle, today is a reminder of what Labour | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
can achieve when it is in power. Many of the freedoms that we are | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
celebrating today there were actually granted by a Labour | :18:33. | :18:34. | |
government, the equalisation of the age of consent, gays serving in the | :18:35. | :18:41. | |
military, civil partnerships. But it is divorced that springs to mind | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
when talk turns to Labour's leadership babble. What has | :18:47. | :18:58. | |
genuinely taken me by surprise is that the figures are practically | :18:59. | :19:06. | |
50-50, or 60 for Jeremy, but it is genuinely much closer than I was | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
expecting. Owen Smith has got an exhaustive schedule of touring | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
around, because we are well aware that he needs to raise his profile, | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
he needs to let people know what he stands for, and you know, let's be | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
honest, a lot of people are saying, who is Owen Smith? Momentum is also | :19:27. | :19:35. | |
at Pride, busy signing people up to the Jeremy for Leader campaign. This | :19:36. | :19:42. | |
kind of street campaigning, harnessing people power, is what the | :19:43. | :19:50. | |
Corbyn phenomenon is all about. We are getting enormous amount of | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
support for Corbyn, a lot of them are Labour members, a lot of them | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
are not, but the membership process has just begun. If Jeremy Corbyn | :19:59. | :20:06. | |
does win the leadership election, some members of the local party are | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
talking about these select and Peter Kyle. -- the selecting. He would | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
effectively be sacked as the Labour candidate before the next general | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
election. If you are an MP against nationalising the railways, against | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
ending academy schools, if you are against taxing the rich, if you are | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
politically against stopping the privatisation of the NHS and | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
bringing it back into full public ownership, then why would you want | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
to stand as a candidate for a party that supports those things? If he | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
can convince the local members that he will stand for Labour and | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
convince people that those ideas are ones he genuinely supports, then | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
maybe. I very much doubt he can do that. Peter Kyle knows he faces a | :20:58. | :21:05. | |
battle to hold his job. I hope he comes and stands against me so that | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
I can ask him what he has done for the Labour Party in the last 20 | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
years, and I can say what I have done, and then we can put that to | :21:13. | :21:21. | |
the vote. But I think the party has probably split more radically than | :21:22. | :21:24. | |
it was in the 1980s. I think we are standing at the edge of a cliff, and | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
it might well be that one or other of the factions, or both of us, and | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
up going over it. I think it is that serious. Do you think this could be | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
the end of the Labour Party? Of course, no party has a right to | :21:39. | :21:46. | |
exist. And it is not just Brighton. Although Jeremy Corbyn denies he | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
wants a purge of hostile MPs, one of his most powerful allies has a clear | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
warning. I believe some of the MPs have behaved absolutely despicably | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
and disgracefully, and they have not shown any respect whatsoever to the | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
leader. They should be held to account. So those vocal dissidents | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
who do not show the respect to the leader that you describe, when it | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
comes to the selection, you say they are asking for it. Anybody who | :22:16. | :22:23. | |
behaves in a way that is totally disrespectful, out with the culture | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
of the Labour Party, basically they are asking to be held to account. | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
The trouble with all of this is that it destabilises the party, it means | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
that we are fighting each other, it loosens the collective bonds that we | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
have when we work together and incorporate at local level and | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
deliver real results for people. And it means that we are distracted from | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
the real task, which is to unite, to move forward, to form not just an | :22:52. | :22:54. | |
opposition but a government in waiting, and take that fight to the | :22:55. | :23:05. | |
Tories. Last weekend, and the Trades Union | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
Congress rolls into Brighton. While the unions plough through debate | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
after debate about Brexit, workers per role writes, everyone is talking | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
about the future of the party that the union set up to be there | :23:21. | :23:27. | |
political voice, but they are united in agreeing that Labour is in a very | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
bad place. Have you ever seen Labour in this kind of condition in your | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
life? I remember difficult days through the 1980s, people come | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
through in the end because the ultimate lesson is only united | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
parties win. When you are divided, you lose, and I'm afraid that is the | :23:49. | :23:51. | |
real lesson of politics that everybody has to learn at some | :23:52. | :24:00. | |
point. Most believe leadership challenger Owen Smith is going to | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
lose. He is here on the hunt for votes. Getting towards the end, | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
right, so it has been tough, did you ever think it was going to be as | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
tough as it has turned out to be? I thought it was going to be exactly | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
this tough right from the beginning, we were under no illusions how this | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
was going to be, it was going to be an argument within the family, and | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
those are always difficult. You say you think you are going to win, you | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
are the only person I have spoken to who thinks that. I know what we're | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
doing in terms of the phone calls we have been making, the contacts we | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
have been making, and it shows it is evenly balanced, and I will keep on | :24:40. | :24:46. | |
going right to the. With the race almost over, Jeremy Corbyn looks | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
like a winner, but can he win the election which matters the most? You | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
must accept that, from where you stand now, you have got a mountain | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
to climb to get anywhere near being a credible alternative government, | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
you are not going to denied that, are you? Don't judge everything by | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
opinion polls, think of a couple of factors. The last general election, | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
less than half of the young people who had registered to vote actually | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
took part in the election. In the poorest parts of the country, the | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
turnout was the lowest. The involvement of young people in | :25:21. | :25:23. | |
political activity is far greater than it was a year ago. So you are | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
relying on people voting who have not voted in the past and who tend | :25:29. | :25:37. | |
not to vote. Is that pie in the sky? No pies in any sky! Do you accept | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
that your party has to unite again or face political oblivion? We have | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
to unite as a party, and actually by and large we are united as a party. | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
I say to the Parliamentary Labour Party, come together. | :25:52. | :26:00. | |
Since the Brexit vote, British politics has never been quite so | :26:01. | :26:07. | |
volatile. Or the country so divided. Many year and for a stronger | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
opposition to the Government. And even Dean Court wood told me frankly | :26:13. | :26:20. | |
that they need to improve. -- Team Corbyn. Do you need to deliver a | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
better performance in opposing the Government? We have all got to raise | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
the level of our game and learn lessons. I have had enough of | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
politicians who think they are God's gift to politics, we have made | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
mistakes like everybody else, we are willing to learn the lessons from | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
our own PLP, particularly members who have been in this position. A | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
bit of tutoring from old hands. Why not? | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
Most expect Jeremy Corbyn will win, but if he does, even with tutoring, | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
reuniting the party now looks as good as impossible. Some MPs who | :26:57. | :27:03. | |
resigned from his Shadow Cabinet have told me privately they are | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
contemplating returning to the team, but they won't pledge loyalty to his | :27:08. | :27:13. | |
leadership. Hostility to Jeremy Corbyn runs deep. Not just in my | :27:14. | :27:21. | |
lifetime, but stretching back to the 1930s, by any examination, this is | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
the greatest crisis that the Labour Party has faced. You believe you may | :27:29. | :27:33. | |
not see another Labour government in your lifetime, then? I am 74, and | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
unless things change radically and rapidly, it is very doubtful that I | :27:39. | :27:45. | |
will see another Labour government in my lifetime. | :27:46. | :27:54. | |
For all the dire warnings, Labour MPs I have spoken to do not believe | :27:55. | :28:02. | |
me -- Labour is about to split, but without reconnecting to the millions | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
of voters who have turned their backs, Labour faces a dark future - | :28:07. | :28:12. | |
slow decay, broken as a major force in British politics. | :28:13. | :28:16. |