Jeremy Corbyn denies he has 'lost control of the party' after Tristram Hunt resigns
The Labour leader's comments come after Tristram Hunt, the former Shadow Education Secretary, quit the party to become the next director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
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Your support makes all the difference.Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed suggestions he has “lost control” of Labour following the resignation of a second MP from the party in a matter of weeks.
His comments come after Tristram Hunt, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency since 2010, quit the party to become the next director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Speaking to Sky News, the Labour leader, however, denied he had “lost control” of the parliamentary party and was not expecting any more MPs to follow Mr Hunt and Jamie Reed – a persistent critic of the Corbyn project who resigned in December.
Mr Hunt is a respected published historian, who lectures in modern history at Queen Mary University in London and came to prominence in the 1990s as a Tony Blair supporting adviser to the science minister David Sainsbury
The former Shadow Education Secretary has been a vocal critic of the Labour leadership, and shortly after Mr Corbyn’s victory in a second leadership contest last year he reeled off a series of gaffes aimed at the Labour leader.
However, in his resignation letter, he did not criticise Mr Corbyn, but said the opportunity to lead the V&A was too good to turn down. He wrote: “I have no desire to rock the boat now and anyone who interprets my decision to leave in that way is just plain wrong.”
When Mr Corbyn was asked whether he was “secretly pleased” at the departure of an MP who has been an open critic of his leadership, he replied: “No, I don’t want anyone to resign, I don’t want to lose MPs.
“I’m not expecting any other MPs to resign. In most parliaments there are a number of by-elections, so if they come, they come.
“I haven’t lost control of the party. The party isn’t out of control. We are a very large party with a growing membership, we have a vibrant policy-making process. We have a party which is very active.”
It also emerged on Friday that Theresa May was aware of Mr Hunt’s resignation before the Labour leader, who found out on Friday morning during a phone call. According to a spokesman for the Prime Minister she gave Mr Hunt’s V&A appointment the “rubber stamp” on Thursday.
“Tristram Hunt called me this morning and told me he was very honoured to be offered the position of director of the Victoria and Albert Museum,” Mr Corbyn added. “We chatted about that, we chatted about the work they are already doing in Dundee, and the way that he is planning to expand the museum and maintain free entry to it.
“The last thing I wrote in my letter to him was ‘I look forward to visiting the V&A to meet you as director and have a look around’.”
At the 2015 election, he won the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat with a 5,100 majority from Ukip, making the by-election a huge opportunity for that party. On paper, it is a reasonably safe Labour seat – but Stoke-on-Trent voted 69 per cent to Leave the EU in the referendum, by 81,000 votes to 36,000.
But Mr Corbyn said he was confident Labour would retain the seat. “It’s been a Labour seat for a long time, we have a strong message to put out, we are opposed to austerity, we want to see investment in city communities, we want to see a continuation of the industrial renaissance and technical renaissance of Stoke-on-Trent. I’m looking forward to the campaign,” he added.
But Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, was quick to torment his political opponents, tweeting: “Tristram Hunt’s resignation from Stoke will be followed by many others. Labour is doomed.”
One Labour MP told the Politics Home website: “Tristram has been talking about this for a while, so it’s no surprise that he’s decided to go. There are scores of us who would quit if we had another job to go to because we know that the party has no chance at the next election.”
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, did not disguise the latest blow to his party, saying of Mr Hunt: “His departure will be keenly felt by Parliament and by the Labour Party.”
On Saturday the Labour leader is also expected to deliver a speech at an event hosted by the Fabian Society in central London.
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