In Brighton, eyes are on two rising stars who are tipped to replace Jeremy Corbyn. The first is Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, who is popping up at several fringe events about the future of the party. The second is Dan Jarvis, the former shadow justice minister, who made his only appearance at a Huffington Post fringe event this afternoon. Jarvis revealed that running for the Labour leadership this time around was ‘never on the table’ and Jeremy Corbyn did not offer him a job (contrary to previous reports) in his shadow cabinet — even though he turned it down.
Just like the other moderates who have spoken at this conference, the MP for Barnsley Central said he could still ably serve his party from the back benches. Despite leaving front line politics, he warned that Labour must keep up its defences against the Conservatives:
‘As a party we are under attack. We are up against a ruthless Tory machine It was a ruthless Tory machine that outfought us, outgamed us, outplayed us, outspent us at the General Election.
On Syria, Jarvis said he believed that Corbyn shouldn’t whip any vote in the Commons:
‘I think it’s right that individual Labour MPs scrutinise this proposal, apply their own judgement.
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