Labour's Gareth Snell lashes out at leadership as he predicts losing his Stoke-on-Trent seat

Jacob Jarvis13 December 2019
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Labour candidate Gareth Snell has lashed out at leadership in the party as he predicted losing his seat at the election.

Mr Snell, who represented Stoke-on-Trent central, said he believes his constituency will be among those taken by the Tories.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a humiliating defeat with the exit poll predicting a major Conservative majority of 86 seats.

Reacting to the final forecast, Mr Snell said: "This is one of the worst results the Labour Party could have imagined.

"The fact is in seats like Stoke-on-Trent we're going to have another five years of Tory Government... the damage and untold horrors they will unleash in Stoke-on-Trent I believe lays firmly at the door of those running the national party's campaign and the decisions that they have made, about where to target and the sort of Brexit response they should have made."

Asked if he thought he had lost, told the BBC: "Yes. Yes I do."

He said that Mr Corbyn had "come up on the doorsteps" - and had divided opinion.

Hitting out at the party leadership, he said: "Some of the siren voices in the shadow cabinet who have big Liberal Democrat votes in their London seats decided that stopping Brexit and therefore lining themselves up for future leadership bids was much more important than respecting the vote in marginal constituencies... and they've sacrificed us for whatever political ambitions they want to do next."

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It comes after the Tories won Blyth Valley from Labour, marking the party's first ever victory in the constituency and a huge blow for Mr Corbyn.

His leadership has been called into question already following the exit poll.

However, the founder of Momentum, Jon Lansman, said the decision on whether Labour should replace Mr Corbyn as party leader doesn't need to be taken "until the New Year".

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, speaking on his and Mr Corbyn's positions, said: "The appropriate decisions will be made and we'll always make the decisions in the best interests of our party."

"I think Jeremy has to make those decisions himself. You know Jeremy has always been a reluctant leader, I don't think he'll overstay his welcome," he said.

"But I think he should be able to make decisions. And I don't think we should rush into these things. Christmas is not far away, I don't think decisions really need to be taken about this until the New Year."

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