'Do the decent thing': Jeremy Corbyn urged to quit by MPs in heated party meeting

Defiant: Jeremy Corbyn
Lucy Young
Mark Chandler28 June 2016
WEST END FINAL

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn defied calls to quit this evening as MPs urged him to stand down during a heated meeting.

The Labour leader is likely to face a leadership challenge after losing 20 members from his top team and a raft of junior frontbenchers over the last 48 hours following the EU referendum vote.

Tonight he faced down a barrage of Labour MP's calling for him to go at a meeting of the parliamentary party.

He was told by one MP tonight: "For your sake but most importantly for the sake of the people who need a Labour government, do the decent thing".

MPs also called on him to "search inside yourself and ask if the electorate really think you are a prime minister in waiting", and he was told he "couldn't offer leadership".

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson told Mr Corbyn he had taken his "share of responsibility, but you should take yours".

Chris Bryant, former shadow Commons leader, said: "The writing on the wall is eight metres high and if he can't see it he needs to go to Specsavers.

"The only person who can solve this for the Labour party and break the log jam is Jeremy himself.

"This is a battle for the soul of the Labour party."

Former communities minister Ian Austin said the "overwhelming majority of speakers were critical of Jeremy and saying he should stand down".

He added: "I have never seen a meeting like it but it's a big moment for the Labour party."

Despite the criticism from across the parliamentary party, Mr Corbyn's aides insisted the Labour leader would not be quitting.

The Labour leader's official spokesman conceded that most of the speakers were "opposed to Jeremy's view or fairly hostile" during the meeting.

Mr Corbyn "has made it absolutely crystal clear already that he is not going to concede to a corridor coup or a backroom deal which tries to flush him out", he said.

"It's all about whispering in corridors, meeting together and people resigning from their appointed posts, but Jeremy Corbyn was overwhelmingly elected by the members of the Labour Party."

Labour senior MPs' resignations (and one sacking)

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The leader will not "betray" the people who elected him, the spokesman added.

Seumas Milne director of strategy and communications, said: "There is one way if people want to change the leadership of the party, that is to stand a candidate, get the nominations and mount a challenge and have an election.

"Jeremy will be a candidate in that election. It's very straightforward."

Afterwards, Mr Corbyn went out to address thousands of people who gathered in Parliament Square to support him.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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