To be ashamed of the Labour Party leadership

[20nil]

Long term member, did not support Corbyn, but even I am surprised by quite how bad he's been.

Where is the opposition? I get that Brexit is difficult, but where is Labour on the collapse of the NHS, the explosion of homelessness, the decimation of local council funding and the ticking bomb that is school funding?

Why is it that we now look to the Lords, the Cof E and petitions to be the opposition?

Shocking state of affairs.

I was initially quite positive about Corbyn - he seemed a rarity (an honest, principled politician), and a lot of his views aligned with my own.

However, his response in the wake of Brexit and limp as fuck opposition, with a party in disarray... he's been a disaster. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad if the MPs had rallied behind him, but he just hasn't got what it takes to pull the party together.

Labour should have won Copeland more than comfortably. Winning Stoke against UKIP is a relief, but given Paul Nuttal's serious porkies, not a surprise.

its official Labour lost Copeland becuase Blair and Mandelson are causing disunity among the party

McDonnell said so

The Tories care little about anything but decimating the opposition, whilst at the same time moaning there isn't any. Quislings the lot of them. They sacrificed Stoke to UKIP.

There was nothing for them to have 'sacrificed' nothing. There is absolutely no way ordinarily Tories would be in with a chance of winning Stoke Central. It is complete Labour heartlands.

The fact that they have increased their vote share is disastrous for Labour.

They can spin it as much as they like. Labour is falling apart under Corbyn.

I like some of what he says. But at the end of the day he simply isn't a leader. How can you expect your MPs to back you and vote with the party on important issues when you, yourself, constantly voted against your own party whip when a back bencher. Quite honestly, anyone with genuine integrity would have left the Labour Party years and years ago if he disagreed with them so often and stood as an independent. He may not have changed the face of politics but then he's not doing that not (not for the better anyway) and he'd probably have served his constituents well enough.

Leadership challenge this summer for a hopeful new leader at the party conference I reckon. Sadly I think Corbyn would win again.

People are drawing analogies with Michael Foot which I partly agree with but Michael Foot had a huge amount of integrity and was an intellectual. He was just totally the wrong person to lead the party at a time when everything became all about image. And he would never have hung around like JC is doing. I also had high hopes for him initially but I can't bear to look at him now.

Time for Ed Balls to step up to the plate.

Ed Balls isn't in Parliament is he?

I've been following the reaction to this and predictably, it's everyone's fault except the Dear Leader.

Apparently he's giving a speech later - around 10:15 I think.

Pleased Nuttall was beaten in Stoke but alarming that he got as many votes as he did considering his execrable campaign.

I've always thought that disunity was the main factor that brought down the John Major administration. Labour seemed united in comparison. Now the positions are reversed.

According to the BBC the last Tory to represent the people of Copeland was born in 1879!

Yes apparently it's Tony Blair s fault. If that's the case TB should make a speech every week in order to get rid of corbyn.

I share your frustration. When I was listening to the news about the by-elections this morning it made me really cross that Labour are just so pathetic right now. Corbyn, as principled as he is, just can't lead. The country really needs him to step up at a time when education is a mess, the NHS is a mess, we're heading towards Brexit with very little idea what awaits us and Labour are just lying down and letting the Tories walk all over them and do whatever the hell they like

Saw a great tweet today that said McDonell has blamed everything and everyone today apart from the boogie

I loathe him so, so much. It's 1982 all over again. I fear JC wouldn't even resign in the wake of handing the tories a landslide in a GE if a majority of party members kept voting for him. He's made that the yardstick by which he's happy to consign labour to electoral oblivion. Ah yes, as we suspected, it's all the fault of the twatty blairites, not the utterly incompetent fool currently 'leading' the party into an electoral battle of the Somme. Let's hope they all advance in a straight line!

i dare say the story about copeland and the leadership is 'fakenews' :)

I like Corbyn's politics but as a leader, he is fucking useless. The real fight starts now? No, the real fight was when you sat on your arse and did fuck all during the referendum campaign.

We need a strong opposition in this country right now and what we have is a bunch of useless, disorganised pricks.

They lost Copeland because many people work at Sellafield or BAE and are quite reasonably are worried about their jobs.

They lost Copeland because many people work at Sellafield or BAE and are quite reasonably are worried about their jobs.

Those same people had those jobs in past elections. Labour won.

Corbyns anti nuclear stance which is against party policy aswell. Was never going to go down well.

Let's not forget that yes Labour won in Stoke Central but the majority was cut in more than half.

Yes it is the anti nuclear stance that is the issue locally.

Jesus. In despair at the denial going on on twitter. An 8% swing . A leader who will not take responsibility for anything but his supporters still think he has integrity.

I love the bit about voters being let down by the 'political establishment' - so let down they voted for the Tory party. Radical.

Twitter Corbynites are making me despair too.

According to them (and to the woman from momentum on 5Live just now) it's all the fault of the media.

Honestly, I've been watching politics since Thatcher and cannot think of one political leader who doesn't get ridiculed in the media. Heath, Thatcher, Foot, Kinnock, Major, Howard, Blair, Brown, Clegg......ALL have been ridiculed to death.

Mainstream media do not effect a strong leader who people want to vote for. The bullshitometer is off the scale.

I agree. And with pp who said Corbyn and McDonnell talking about fake news etc was a new low even for them. They are encouraging a disdain for the truth to allow them to stay in power - that puts them in appalling company.

They have used the usual media bias to allow everything damaging to slip off them - including the well-documented stuff they have openly discussed about eg IRA and Hamas.

Ian Lavery MP who is campaign manager for Labour has just had an absolute meltdown on daily politics. Embarrassing and cringe worthy to watch.

He also denies it has anything to do with Corbyn.

I've been checking in on the Guardian's live coverage of the by-election result. This jumped out at me. I feel it summarises neatly everything that's wrong with Corbyn's leadership. For reference, the person asking the question is an ITV journalist:

Here is the full text of Chris Ship’s question, and Jeremy Corbyn’s answer. (See 11.03am.)

Ship: I want to ask you specifically about Copeland. Since you found out that you’d lost a seat to the governing party for the first time since the Falklands War, have you at any point this morning looked in the mirror and asked yourself this question: ‘Could the problem actually be me?’

Corbyn: No.

Ship: Why not?

Corbyn: Thank you for your question.

Some in the audience applauded Corbyn’s answer.