Owen Jones: I’d find it hard to vote for Corbyn

Oh dear. Earlier this week, Mr S reported that Derek Hatton — the ‘socialist firebrand’ who joined Labour with the Trotskyist group Militant (before being expelled) — had turned on Jeremy Corbyn. The former Corbynite said the Labour leader’s Article 50 stance showed ‘a real lack of leadership’.

In a further sign that Corbyn is losing support among the hard left, Owen Jones has used an interview with the Standard to declare that he would ‘find it hard to vote for Corbyn’. Jones, who originally championed Corbyn’s leadership bid, has been critical of the Labour leader of late — but did still vote for him in the most recent leadership election. Alas he’s not so sure he would do it again:

‘The Left has failed badly. I’d find it hard to vote for Corbyn.’

And who would he like to see lead Labour instead? A young candidate who is ‘able to keep Labour’s fractured coalition together’. Could Jones be laying the foundation for a rumoured leadership challenge from a certain Clive Lewis?