'Fury and collective depression': Jeremy Corbyn confronted by Labour MPs after election loss
The Labour leader is accused of "corporate amnesia" after facing off with backbenchers in parliament.
Wednesday 18 December 2019 10:03, UK
Jeremy Corbyn faced "fury" from Labour MPs as they confronted him for the first time since Labour's disastrous election result.
He was challenged by backbenchers and those who lost seats in a meeting struck by "collective depression" after leading the party to its worst result in decades.
Jess Phillips, who is tipped as a potential successor to Mr Corbyn, emerged to say "it was no worse than it always is" and recalled "a couple of people being supportive".
She read a text from Melanie Onn - who lost Great Grimsby for Labour to the Tories - about how she had been "let down by the leadership and the frontbench".
Veteran Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge told reporters "on the whole it was fury, despair, miserable and I just felt that the top table had corporate amnesia".
Mary Creagh also told Paste BN that after losing her seat of Wakefield to the Conservatives she confronted Mr Corbyn in parliament.
She said campaign bosses were choosing where to send activists based on candidates' "ideological purity and their closeness to the leadership - rather than on the basis of whether or not they were in a position to help form a Labour government".
Lucy Powell, another Labour backbencher, told Paste BN "everyone was really down" and that the room was full of "collective depression".
And MP Wes Streeting tackled Mr Corbyn for reportedly claiming Labour had won the argument.
"You don't win the argument and lose the election - not just lose the election but crash to the worst defeat since 1935," he told Paste BN afterwards.
Addressing the group of 203 Labour MPs, it is understood Mr Corbyn apologised for last week's result and said "I take responsibility".
He blamed the Conservatives and news organisations for managing to "persuade many that only Boris Johnson could 'get Brexit done'".
"We must now listen to those lifelong Labour voters who we've lost," the Labour leader said. "I believe that Brexit was a major - although not the only - reason for their loss of trust in us."
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He reiterated his plan to stand down when a new leader has been elected by party members, and Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle said "not one person said go right now".