Jeremy Corbyn hits back over leadership challenge rumours

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at internal critics who are pushing for a challenge to his leadership, saying he will continue the “huge project” to transform the party.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Scottish, Welsh and local elections, Mr Corbyn has used an opinion piece in the i newspaper to draw attention to his “landslide” victory in last year’s leadership contest, and to insist that he needs more time to turn around Labour’s fortunes.

He claimed successes like the Government’s climbdowns on tax credit cuts and disability benefit cuts proved that “even in opposition you can force the Government to back down”.

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The build up to the elections has been dogged by internal discontent including a furore around alleged antisemitism within the party as a whole. Some MPs have defined success for the party as gaining hundreds of council seats tomorrow, whereas Corbyn and his allies have set the bar lower.

Corbyn wrote: “What we are trying to achieve is the ambitious programme for change that we promised in the summer – to simultaneously transform the Labour party, transform politics and to hold the Government to account.

“It is a huge project, but if Labour is to win in 2020 we need to be a transformative opposition. We need to rebuild trust in our party, to win new support and to regain people’s trust that politics can make a positive difference to people’s lives.”

In a direct message to the MPs who have openly criticised his leadership, he said: “There will be some who are resistant to it, and those who honestly or otherwise will believe it won’t work or can’t work. But politics in this country must change – and people are demanding it.”

The build-up to the elections has been dogged by internal discontent, with some MPs raising the bar for success tomorrow to gains of hundreds of seats.

There were also reports yesterday that Labour MP Margaret Hodge could be used as a ‘stalking horse’ challenger to Corbyn’s leadership.

A report in today’s Guardian claimed that Corbyn’s critics had accepted there could be no leadership challenge in the wake of this week’s elections due to his continuing popularity with Labour members.

A YouGov analysis confirmed the position, claiming Corbyn would take 43% of first preference votes and more than 60% in later rounds of voting.

Meanwhile, Corbyn’s allies have briefed The Telegraph that the Labour leader could use his support for the Remain campaign in the EU to force his detractors to back down.