27 Jun 2016

Labour leadership battle: It’s a busy morning at Corbyn’s office

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Tom Watson told the Labour leader he faced a challenge but, aides to the leader say, stopped short of telling him to go. His next set of visitors will be less conciliatory.

Queuing up with a plan to see him afterwards is a mighty delegation of the Shadow Cabinet including Angela Eagle, Lisa Nandy, John Healey and others who intend to come in en masse to make the same point as the people who’ve already resigned.

The leadership is expecting the PLP meeting to be a bloodbath, one aide said.

The Labour Leader is holding on thanks to the support of trade union bosses. But as one leadership aide acknowledged, the Deputy Leader Tom Watson has an umbilical relationship with Unite’s Len McCluskey so is it really likely that the unions’ hostility to this coup will go the distance?

The leader’s office sounds as unsure as anyone else right now.

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