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Labour MP vs Owen Jones: Would Corbyn have supported a government led by Attlee?

It’s safe to say that the uneasy peace formed in the Labour party after the snap election is coming to an end. Labour MP Ian Austin has today penned an article for PoliticsHome which is titled: ‘The current Labour leadership is completely outside Labour’s mainstream tradition’. And he doesn’t mean that as a compliment.

In the article, the MP for Dudley North takes issue with both his leader and his leader’s chief cheerleader Owen Jones, the Guardian columnist. Austin says Corbyn and the hard left have ‘taken over the Labour Party and want to turn it from a mainstream social democratic party into something very different’. The Labour MP says it is ‘ludicrous’ to pretend that Corbyn and McDonnell are part of Labour’s great tradition and ‘would have supported a government led by Attlee and Bevin’:

‘One of the great ironies of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership is that his supporters want to claim he both represents a “return to Labour’s socialist tradition” and a radical departure from Labour’s past.

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Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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