Dear Labour member,
I am writing to explain to you why I have today called on Jeremy Corbyn to stand down as Leader of the Labour Party. I have been loyal to Jeremy throughout his tenure as Leader. I resisted calls to speak out against him when he was running for the job and since he was elected. I have backed him 100%. But my constituents and the country urgently need an effective, united Labour party to try and chart a progressive way forward for Britain after our exit from the European Union. We face grave economic risks and huge uncertainty. The situation has become untenable because the overwhelming majority of members of the Parliamentary party have lost confidence in him. This is not ideological----the opposition to him is from all wings of the PLP. It is certainly not about a ‘Blairite’ wing of the party. I believe Jeremy’s views on austerity and inequality are important for the future of the party. Nor is it unconstitutional---our constitution specifically provides for a Leader needing the support of the parliamentary party and the party in the country. The constitution says that if a Leader loses the support of 20% of the Parliamentary party and they nominate another candidate, there should be a fresh ballot. Jeremy has lost the support of more than 75% of the PLP. I understand my position will upset some party members. Some who support Jeremy and some who fear this is a distraction from the crisis the country faces. To supporters of Jeremy, my candid view is that a progressive, Left agenda is more likely to be taken forward in a united Labour Party, not a wrecked, divided party. And to those who worry about distraction, we cannot function as an effective Opposition in the current circumstances. Jeremy has had a profound and lasting influence on the debate about who we are as a party and the causes we need to fight for. I know he is someone who cares deeply about those causes, our party and our country. I hope he will reflect on how he can best serve this agenda at this critical moment for Britain and the Labour Party. With best wishes Ed Miliband [shared via Facebook]
33 Comments
Angela thomas
3/7/2016 07:18:48 pm
I joined labour only for J.C, if he is out then so am I and thousands and thousands of others.
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Michael Reynolds
3/7/2016 07:35:40 pm
Same with me. I've always voted Labour and only joined because of Jeremy Corbyn. If he is out, then I am too and will never vote Labour again. If I want a Tory party, I'll vote for the real one, not a Tory lite version.
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Nadia Ermilova
3/7/2016 07:24:34 pm
So, who is according Ed Miliband will be effective leader? Angela Eagle? She was planning this coup for 10 months instead of doing her duties for people. Why Ed Miliband is lying? JC was the only who could unite people. If PLP cannot unite between themselves they have to leave as they are not fit for purpose. Let other talented leaders do the job. Shame on you Ed Miliband, you are a traitor
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Vanessa
3/7/2016 07:33:25 pm
Monstrously patronising and factually incorrect. No thank you, Ed.
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Alison Bull
3/7/2016 08:04:09 pm
I am utterly disgusted by the plp who have gone against J.Corbyn. They are destroying the labour party and democracy as a whole. Maybe a revolution is what they are aiming for because should he be pushed of the ballot, that's the only next logical step. For once there is someone worth voting for, igniting passion in hearts of many, including young people who previously were so estranged from politics. A.new kind of politics for the people and if the labour party forced the truth out about Jeremy Corbin rather than the down right lies pouring out in the media, then even more people would be behind him. Jeremy Corbyn could win in the next election, it's just a shame so many of the plp are Blairites they should know what is good for them, abandon this pathetic coup and get behind their leader; or are they so far right they really would like to see conservative power upon us for years to come.
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Jim Saunders
3/7/2016 08:14:21 pm
You get party unity by following your elected leader you disingenuous prick.
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3/7/2016 08:17:00 pm
I will never vote for any of the potential contenders who have conspired and plotted against Jeremy Corbyn since the day he wad democratically elected with a huge mandate to be our Leader. I will never vote for any.potential contenders who have betrayed not only Jeremy, but their constituents, the membership and the country through their resignations during this uncertain and unstable time when the country needed unity. You talk if division and strength....they instigated their own actions, they chose the time and they have tried everything in the book to divide! The only strength I see is that of a Leader (who is loved respected and believed in by the membership) continuing to fight the issues that need fighting despite attempts to bully, harass, humiliate and discredit by Labour MPs who were elected to and should be supporting our Leader. Of course he can lead.....the dissenters spectacularly failed at the last General Election and can not be trusted by the membership, let alone the country, as evidenced by their shameful actionsThey have failed our party and it's membership with their disloyalty and treachery. This is not what the Labour party stands fo. They need to go and read our Labour values. I am so disappointed in you, Ed Miliband! Make no mistake, these actions will never be forgiven or forgotten. If Jeremy Corbyn is forced out, my membership will be withdrawn and the extra donations I make will stop....and I know that will be the case for the majority of the membership! They did this.....Jeremy Corbyn did not!
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Vic.g
3/7/2016 08:52:39 pm
Well said Isabel
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Mark McCormack
3/7/2016 08:23:06 pm
Sorry Ed, your position on wanting to have a leader that will unite the party is absurd. You have a leader who wants to lead but the MP's are the ones rebelling. They STILL don't have a candidate that would best Jeremy. Set a date for a leadership challenge or just pick a damned candidate, its making you look like idiots.
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barbara brown
3/7/2016 08:46:01 pm
You haven't said what he is doing that you disapprove of? Do you want him to beat you with a stick or tie you up? You seem to want a strict nanny to control you. Behave like grown ups please.
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Kevin dilworth
3/7/2016 08:57:38 pm
Ed we lost because of you....so who are you to tell somebody to step down .....lets have a ballot of members and see who they elect....my guess it's not going to be you, Watson, benn, Kendal or the Eagles
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Val Kilby
3/7/2016 09:07:08 pm
Would someone like to tell me what exactly Jeremy Corbyn has done to make all these MPs turn against him? I joined the Labour Party because of Jeremy Corbyn, and I will leave if he is ousted. In the time he has been in office I have seen a compassionate, truthful, honest and passionate leader of the Labour Party. The only thing Labour MPs had to do was back him and the party would have been united and have a very good chance of winning the next election. Why has that been so hard for them to do?
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Vikki Harper
4/7/2016 07:08:08 am
He hasn't done anything to the PLP except to get elected. He hasn't lost their support, he never had it! He just scraped through the nominations he needed to get on the leadership ballot. And many of those who nominated him would never have done do if they thought he had a chance of winning. The fact is the PLP was aghast when we voted him in and they've been plotting ever since to get him out and yo restore their order.
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Andy Craik
3/7/2016 09:19:16 pm
I'm not the most elequent when it comes to political debate but like many others I came back to Labour because we had a leader in Jeremy Corbyn who recognised that the real people out there like me had become disinterested in the type of sound-bite filled, promise breaking polotics that you Ed Milliband were offering alongside the tories. The fact is that under Jeremy the Labour Party really has a strong chance of winning power back and that is because of loyal members, not the shameful 75% of MPs who still have not realised that the climate needs to change. The people who you all represent are demanding it but it's obviously passed you all by.
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wendy smith
3/7/2016 09:22:19 pm
ed they have been asked on numerous occasions what it is he lacks as a leader,and not one has given an answer yet,its all about personality,you know it was tough with Cameron and even you took the bait to argue back about pointless things,jeremy just doesn't respond to the insults that pushes Cameron into having to get back to the subject something you didn't do, I think if Jeremy goes the labour party will also loose many if not all members, you are another who says your constiuents have contacted you to express their disillusionment in Jeremy but nobody has ever showed evidence of ,emails ,text to back these statements up, if you have a genuine argument show us the evidence.
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Anne
3/7/2016 09:26:40 pm
Ed. I am deeply disappointed in your decision to call for jeremy to resign. I am, however, not surprised. The election was lost under your leadership because you conceded to the blairites and offered a Tory lite version of labour policy.
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Crispin
3/7/2016 09:58:02 pm
Please reconsider your position and get your fellow MPs to unite behind Jeremy and the hundreds of thousands of members who support him.
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Annette Taberner
3/7/2016 10:01:46 pm
"The constitution says that if a Leader loses the support of 20% of the Parliamentary party and they nominate another candidate, there should be a fresh ballot."
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michael
3/7/2016 10:28:43 pm
Ed you are you telling porkies no where in the Labour party rule book is the following quoted >Nor is it unconstitutional---our constitution specifically provides for a Leader needing the support of the parliamentary party and the party in the country. The constitution says that if a Leader loses the support of 20% of the Parliamentary party and they nominate another candidate, there should be a fresh ballot> you made this up shame on you when you have to tell untruths to win an augment you have already lost it.
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Lorraine Murphy
3/7/2016 10:46:17 pm
Disgraceful behaviour from the 172 MPs and now you. So lets get this straight, the Tories who have been saying leave for years call a referendum, then Cameron says Remain. Benn and Johnson of Labour were for Remain but didn't campaign much, so Corbyn gets the blame. You really can't make this rubbish up can you - do you think voters are so thick they can't see through this. It is not Corbyn who has brought the Labour Party to disrepute, it is the 172 MPs "the Chicken Coup". The could have used this opportunity to unite and fight the Tories and instead they have stabbed not only Corbyn but the Labour Party, its voters and Britain in the back. You lost the last election - don't try and scupper the chance of the one person in Labour that people will unite and vote for, you are on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of democracy. If Corbyn goes the Labour Party will be finished
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Ross
3/7/2016 10:52:04 pm
Sorry, Ed, I didn't read the whole "letter". To be honest I didn't read any of it. But I'm pretty sure I know why you're not backing Jeremy Corbyn now. Because you're spineless. Because you've realised he could succeed where you failed. Because you think the only way to revive your otherwise deceased political career is to shack up with the other red Tories and hope that there might be a job in it for you when Angie the Eagle wrestles control from the party. Well, let's hope you're wrong. Given your record I think my money's safe.
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Anya-Nicola Darr
3/7/2016 11:29:41 pm
Seriously, what a cop out Ed!!. The last manifesto you came up with, after the right of the party I suspect had deviated you from your natural predilections, was frankly PANTS! You allowed them to bring out such things as the 'Immigration Mug' and the ruddy 'eadstone! I shed tears of joy the day you got in as I honestly thought there would at long last be a change of direction. I was sadly disappointed in you. The Blair legacy is one of war and an ever greater divide between the have and the have nots. Some really rubbish things were put into place like replacing Housing Benefit with LHA which under the Tories has been extending, hitting the poorest the most. PFI in the National Health Service anyone? What happened to bringing back student grants that had been so popular when Labour was in opposition or those houses that never got built? I could go on but get this, neither the membership not the country wants this paltry offering anymore. We know Jeremy Corbyn has the guts to deliver something different and a change of direction. I no longer have confidence in the PLP to be honest and am sure any so called deal they cooked up would be reneged on as soon as they got into office. I never trusted New Labour and I was correct You only have your own well paid jobs and self interests at heart! I've got to the point now where I wish the party would ruddy split. Just as long as we keep the Labour brand as its us who understand what that word means! The rest of you please leave us to get on with it and you go and form SDP Mark 2 because let's face it, that is where you are already ideologically, while we select candidates that can deliver Jeremy's vision to the country!!! Sooner the better!
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lorraine taylor
3/7/2016 11:58:30 pm
Deeply dissapointed in you Mr. Milliband. You was bulliedabd turned upon, how did YOU feel when you went to bed at night? Genuine question here, "have you been bought"
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Ellie
4/7/2016 01:11:43 am
I'd just like to say that since I have been of age to vote I have always been a socialist, I have always voted labour and I have volunteered, handing out leaflets, door to door, I have called people on the phone....
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Alex England
4/7/2016 01:18:29 am
Ed, I think you're making a mistake. I supported you and felt you were taking us in the right direction, maybe not clearly enough to win back all the people we'd lost in the post-1997 slideback, but a move towards where the people are. Corbyn won such a massive mandate because Labour's members have seen the Overton window shift so far right that we've got no-one left occupying the centre, much less the left. The people are no longer interested in mitigation as a central policy pillar, and the attempt to pull the whole party back to a path that worked, in electoral terms at least, in the nineties is what is actually tearing us apart. I think you're a good man and I respect your contribution immensely but I think you need to get behind our leader.
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David Andrew
4/7/2016 09:25:31 am
So you are the kind of person who would sacrifice not only one person, but the aspirations of the thousands of people who democratically elected him for your little boys club. Coward
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Rachel Seabrook
4/7/2016 10:39:52 am
This is not what 100% support and loyalty looks like, Ed.
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Terry Kelly
4/7/2016 01:17:03 pm
I supported Ed Miliband for leader and now I ashamed of him. This mob of traitors are wallowing in the gutter and their case is being made by the right wing Tory press, how low can they get? how deep can they sink.
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Ann Mustafa
4/7/2016 05:22:25 pm
Unfortunately I would estimate over 2/3rds of the labour supporting members would go with him, and that's just members. You underestimate the electorate if you believe they will continue to vote blindly for the labour party without Jeremy leading it. All the labour party has been for the past few decades is the best of the worst. We have a chance now to be the best of the best.
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Leslie Anthony Stuart - Thompson
4/7/2016 06:30:49 pm
I intend to keep JC there as long as possible removing access to local CLP and conference aid if we can to bring our MP to heal . there to serve not play games. Corbin his our leader . lets see how that get on delivering there own bloody leaflets and sorting out there blood own dairy's
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Bob brown
5/7/2016 06:19:43 pm
Ed you are mistaken sir you let blairites run your campaign against most hated tory party ever and you lost because was same old rubbish Jeremy is a decent Man who cares and will change things we pay for party and you are disrespecting our wishes and as for Welsh wind ba g Kinbuck he soon buggered off and made fortune as eu commissioner he don't give a fig about us get behind elected leader put up us
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Harold Michaels
6/7/2016 06:33:10 pm
Over the last 9 months, Jeremy Corbyn has played a major part in overturning quite a few hateful destructive Tory policies. He has for the first time in many years in the Labour Party provided what it had been lacking for too long - genuine opposition and compassion. Funny... in your time of leadership, I cannot think of one single thing you actually did or opposed. You were totally invisible and insignificant. You had your chance to make an impression and blew it badly because you were not suited for the job. So for you, a failed leader to go about telling a leader who has acheived far far more than you ever have and ever will do is pure sour grapes. Corbyn has acheived far more in 9 months than you did in 5 years... and that is a FACT. You clearly have a problem with that, so best you step aside, shut up and let Jeremy get on with his job.
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