'Not good enough!' Labour ex-minister blasts Jeremy Corbyn despite strong election performance

Criticism: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Robin de Peyer10 June 2017
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Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised by a former shadow chancellor who claimed Labour missed an “open goal” and should have won the election.

Labour’s Chris Leslie said his party “shouldn’t pretend this is a famous victory” after it defied expectations to prevent Theresa May’s Conservatives winning a majority.

Mr Corbyn was praised for his campaign after Labour won 262 seats and secured its highest share of the vote since Tony Blair’s government in 2001.

Former minister Mr Leslie said there had been "fantastic results" in some constituencies where Labour had been rumoured to be under threat.

But the Labour MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We haven't won that election.

"We shouldn't pretend that this is a famous victory. It is good as far as it's gone but it's not going to be good enough.

"Five years of Conservative government, I just can't, I'm afraid, be a cheerleader for that particular outcome because this was an open goal for all of us.

"We should have been getting in there."

Challenged if Labour could have won under another leader, Mr Leslie said: "I've never known a more beatable Prime Minister than Theresa May - brittle, I think very, very wobbly and shaky indeed."

Pressed again on the question, Mr Leslie said: "I will never apologise for my view, which is yes, you've got to of course inspire people, absolutely, and we haven't done that well enough in the past.

"But you've also got to convince them of your credibility that you can actually move from protesting about a government into being the government. Those are the questions we've really got to ask ourselves.

"If we fail to ask those questions we may well at the next general election get another 262 - we can pat ourselves on the back about that, of course that's better, but it's just not good enough."

Mr Leslie said a lot of people see Mr Corbyn as a "credible" prime minister, although stopped short of giving his endorsement.

He said: "We're in an era of open, honest politics. I'm not going to pretend that I have suddenly changed my views about this.

"You know that I've got disagreements with Jeremy on particular issues, whether it's security, economy - I think we're past the period where we should be asking people to pretend they've got different views."

Mr Leslie said he respects Mr Corbyn's views, with the Labour leader adopting the same approach with him.

On whether he would join Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet, Mr Leslie said: "My worry is if I was to serve in the shadow cabinet there'd come a moment where something would come up which I'd disagree with, and these are my principles - whether it is to do with security or the running of the economy - I might have to then resign, who knows what happens."

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