Labour MP calls for general strike to 'topple cruel and callous Tory government'

Tom Watson says the event was ‘nothing to do with the party’ adding: ‘I’m sure she got a little bit carried away with herself’

A Labour MP has called for a general strike to “topple” Theresa May’s government, prompting criticism from senior colleagues.

Laura Smith, the Crewe and Nantwich MP, backed mass industrial action if Jeremy Corbyn is unable to force a general election, when she spoke at a fringe meeting at the Liverpool conference.

“Comrades, we must topple this cruel and callous Tory government as soon as we can,” she said to loud applause.

“And if we can’t get a general election we should organise our brothers in the trade unions to bring an end to this government with a general strike.”

The speech won a standing ovation from the audience, which included Richard Burgon, a member of the shadow cabinet, and fellow Labour backbencher Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

But Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, pointed out the original general strike – involving 1.7 million workers, over nine days in 1926 – was “an absolute failure”.

“It’s not particularly helpful, but she is a new MP and she was at a big fringe event – nothing to do with the party organisation,” he told BBC Radio 4. “I’m sure she got a little bit carried away with herself.

“If you actually look at the history of the general strike most trade unions will tell you it was an absolute failure for the working class.”

Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, also criticised the Crewe MP’s call, saying: “That’s not our position. We’re certainly not advocating general strikes as Labour Party policy.”

Ms Smith was speaking at The World Transformed festival, run by the Corbyn-supporting grassroots group Momentum and running parallel to the main Labour conference.

Mr Corbyn and his shadow cabinet have spent the week in Liverpool demanding a general election, arguing the prime minister’s failure to reach a Brexit deal is proof she cannot govern.

But, asked about rumours she will go to the country, on a trip to the United Nations in New York, Ms May told the BBC: “It would not be in the national interest to have an election.”

The 1926 general strike was prompted by support for coal miners, who had been locked out of their mines after a dispute with the owners.

Ms Smith, a former teacher, was a surprise winner over a sitting Conservative MP in Crewe at last year’s election, with a wafer-thin majority of just 48.