Labour was supposed to be having only one big row this week at conference – on Brexit. Instead, it’s ended up having two: one about how the party will campaign on Britain’s future relationship with Europe and the second on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Today has not seen a good recovery from the Labour leader after yesterday’s attempt to oust Tom Watson. Corbyn appeared to save the day by refusing to allow the motion to go ahead at the NEC meeting, but is much wounded by the fact that the putsch was attempted at all. That there are suspicions one of his own aides, Karie Murphy, was part of this plot, hasn’t helped. But far more damaging is the resignation of Andrew Fisher, which I covered this morning. Corbyn wasn’t able to close down either the Watson or the Fisher story when he appeared on the Andrew Marr Show, and neither did he offer a particularly convincing line on Europe.
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