Angela Eagle warns Jeremy Corbyn: Quit as leader or I’ll launch a leadership challenge

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Embattled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was given an ultimatum today: resign or face a leadership challenge.

The blunt warning came from senior Labour MP Angela Eagle, who said she had the backing to end the deadlock over Mr Corbyn’s future.

“There are many people, MPs, party members up and down the country, asking me to resolve the impasse and I will if something isn’t done soon,” said the Merseyside MP, who quit as shadow business secretary last week.

“I have the support to run and resolve this impasse and I will do so if Jeremy doesn’t take action soon.”

She also accused Mr Corbyn of refusing to engage fully with deputy leader Tom Watson to try to find a way out of the leadership crisis tearing the party apart. Last Tuesday, Labour MPs voted 172 to 40 to pass a motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn.

Leadership hopeful: Angela Eagle
Getty

“It’s a week since Jeremy lost that vote of no confidence and there are many other people up and down the country wanting him to consider his position,” Ms Eagle said. “He is not properly engaged with even the deputy leader of the party, who was elected with a mandate too. It is now time that he did so.”

Ms Eagle appeared to confirm with her statement that she has the backing of 50 MPs or MEPs for a leadership challenge. She had been expected to launch a leadership bid last week but is believed to have been talked into delaying it as attempts were made to agree on a “unity” candidate.

Allies of Mr Watson have been urging him to stand but so have supporters of Owen Smith, who quit as shadow work and pensions secretary last week.

Ms Eagle’s move came just hours after Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA union, urged MPs to “put up or shut up”. Unions say they are offering to broker a compromise but there were claims support for Mr Corbyn was waning in the Unison and GMB unions.

Mr Corbyn’s inner circle have been accused of stopping MPs from meeting him to tell him to go. But shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Labour leader had an “open door” to see individual MPs, including Mr Watson.

Mr Corbyn, who was elected leader in September, was not expected to address the parliamentary Labour party today. But he was due to face probing questions at a meeting of the Commons home affairs committee over claims of anti-Semitism within Labour ranks.

Embattled: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn PA Wire
PA Wire

In a sign of the paralysis gripping the party, Mr McDonnell was unable to name a shadow disabilities minister or shadow children and families minister after so many frontbench resignations.

But the Hayes and Harlington MP, Mr Corbyn’s righthand man, appealed for calm in Labour ranks, criticising “mass hysteria” at Westminster. “I’ve never seen anything like it, allegations being made, claims being made. Untruths being said,” he said.

Yesterday, Unite boss Len McCluskey said Mr Corbyn was the victim of a “political lynching” but insisted the leader would not quit.

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