The one thing quieter than the quiet Commons at the moment is the Labour leadership. Even when Jeremy Corbyn speaks in the Chamber, he makes so little impact that trees falling in empty forests have excited more attention. Last Monday during his response to David Cameron’s European Council statement, Labour backbenchers nattered amongst themselves in a manner more common in the tea room. Corbyn probably wasn’t offended: he almost seemed indifferent to his own statement too.
Time was when a poor performance from the leader was bad for morale amongst Opposition backbenchers. But these days, most Labour MPs would rather Corbyn did a bad job consistently, as it doesn’t give any of the delusional optimists in their party any opportunity to start wondering whether everything might work out without a coup. As I report in my Times column today, a growing number of backbenchers are starting to think that a coup is not just necessary, but urgent.
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