The leadership of Jeremy Corbyn over the Labour Party is again under a pall given his party’s poor performance in Copeland, a constituency in north-west England that his party had held since 1935. That the Conservatives easily won the seat in a by-election is bad enough; that it is the first time in 35 years that a Conservative government actually managed to gain a seat in a by-election is astounding.
Corbyn, though, remains popular with the rank-and-file members of his party, if not his MPs. There is a growing feeling within senior party members that Labour will face a difficult time in a general election. Polls suggest that instead of giving the government of Prime Minister Theresa May a run for its money over austerity measures and a health care system in crisis, just 16 per cent of Britons would cast their vote for the party.
There is a reality too that the 48 per cent of Britons who voted in last June’s referendum to stay part of the European Union are now left without any strong voice or realistic alternative when it comes to opposing May’s so-called ‘hard Brexit’.
With Labour under Corbyn in disarray and seemingly unelectable, May has a relatively clear path for severing ties with Brussels in a sharp manner. With only the 56 Scottish Nationalist Party MPs being the only united voice against Brexit, May must wish she could call a general election now.
She can’t, because of the fixed-term election law. And those MPs in her own party who are pro-EU are not willing to speak out now, lest they be seen as opposing the result of the referendum.
