UK Labour leader defies revolt over Brexit strategy

London / AFP

Britain’s opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted he would not give up his job in a Labour Party revolt over his handling of the EU referendum campaign, as the aftershocks from the “Leave” vote reverberate around the country.
Eleven members of the veteran socialist’s top team resigned Sunday, blaming him for failing to rally the party’s core working-class vote base to support the “Remain” campaign.
But Corbyn hit back, saying he would not betray the trust of the party members who elected him only last September, and vowed to “reshape” his shadow cabinet starting on Monday.
“I regret there have been resignations today from my shadow cabinet. But I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me—or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.
“Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate,” he said in a statement.
The comments came after a day of high drama which started overnight Saturday with the sacking of foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn, who had told Corbyn he did not have confidence in his leadership.
“He’s a good and decent man but he is not a leader, and that’s the problem,” Benn told the BBC.
Benn’s departure triggered a wave of resignations, including health spokeswoman Heidi Alexander, education spokeswoman Lucy Powell, Scottish spokesman Ian Murray and transport spokeswoman Lilian Greenwood.
By late Sunday 11 members of Corbyn’s top team had quit, also including justice spokesman Lord Charles Falconer, who was a close friend of former Labour leader Tony Blair, whom he served as lord chancellor.
“As much as I respect you as a man of principle, I do not believe you have the capacity to shape the answers our country is demanding,” Alexander wrote in her resignation letter to Corbyn, which she published on Twitter.
One third of Labour voters chose to leave the European Union in Thursday’s historic vote, against the advice of the majority of the party’s MPs and the leadership.

UK ‘should only trigger Article 50’ to leave EU when ready

London / AFP

Britain should only trigger Article 50 to leave the EU when it has a “clear view” of how its future in the bloc looks, finance minister George Osborne said on Monday following last week’s shock referendum. The surprise decision to leave the EU sparked the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, who had backed the unsuccessful Remain campaign—but has left the activation of Article 50, which triggers the departure, to his successor.
“The prime minister has given us time as a country to decide what that relationship should be by delaying the decision to trigger the Article 50 procedure until there is a new prime minister in place for the autumn,” Osborne said .