Labour leadership contenders are a joke, says ex-party MP Ian Austin

Ian Austin
PA
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Former Labour MP Ian Austin launched an attack on the party’s leadership hopefuls today, saying their debates are a “joke”.

Mr Austin, who quit Labour over Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism, said they were not addressing the “massive questions” facing the UK.

Writing in today’s Standard, he said: “The leadership debates are a joke. They blame their defeat on the media, attacks on Corbyn or even the voters. They seem to have spent longer debating trans rights than housing or jobs. I’ve not heard a word about welfare reform or massive questions such as equipping Britain for artificial intelligence and globalisation.”

He warned that while Mr Corbyn is standing down, the “extremists” who joined to support him have not gone away. He also hit out at the frontrunner to replace Mr Corbyn, saying: “Even Sir Keir Starmer — supposedly the credible candidate — loyally served in Corbyn’s top team, said he backed him ‘100 per cent’, campaigned to make him prime minister and praised his radicalism.

“All he seems to talk about is unity — but voters don’t want to see him uniting with Corbyn and the cranks and conspiracy theorists. They want the extremists and racists booted out.” Mr Austin, who quit at the election and urged voters to back Boris Johnson, added: “Labour is on life support.”

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