Jeremy Corbyn's disastrous week adds momentum to Stop the Cor coalition

What has happened to the fine words that the Labour leader spoke when he was elected two months ago?

Jeremy Corbyn in 2012, speaking at Stop the War coalition's 11th anniversary protest against the war in Afghanistan calling for troops to be brought home by Christmas (Corbis)

The Stop the Cor coalition is building. Jeremy Corbyn has had a disastrous week as Labour party leader, at a time when he should have been uniting his party after Paris. Any pretence of collective responsibility was shattered, and a coalition is building against him.

What has happened to the fine words that Corbyn spoke when he became leader two months ago? What happened to his backing of an “open debate” and his rejection of “personal attacks” that he issued in his conference speech, which may have bought him more goodwill among his MPs? “I want open debate, I will listen to everyone, I firmly believe leadership is listening,” he said in Brighton. That seems to be forgotten now. The charade is over.

The Labour leader started the week declaring there would be no free vote for his MPs on Syria, despite saying in 2013 that votes on military action required parliamentarians to go with their consciences, not the party line. To impose a three-line whip on military action against Isis would stifle the very debate he claims to want. Then, he seemed to be coming round to a free vote, although his position is still unclear this weekend.

His entire foreign policy is based on consensus and diplomacy through the United Nations. But now the UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of “all necessary measures” against IS, Corbyn, who is against the use of force in Syria, and indeed against shoot-to-kill of terrorists on British soil, is now at odds with the international community, including China and Russia.

The Labour leader has not condemned the Stop the War coalition, an organisation he used to chair and whose aims are at odds with the mainstream Labour Party, for its offensive tweet which blamed the Paris massacre on the West’s involvement in the Middle East.

And what about all the personal attacks that continue to be waged against Labour MPs who dare to speak out against the leader? They do not come from Corbyn himself, but they are made in his name. When Chuka Umunna criticised online trolls on Friday, he was greeted with a comment on Facebook from a Corbyn supporter calling the Streatham MP a “lying, deceitful stinking Red Tory ... an Uncle Tom in the Tory Party”.

At least Corbyn was quick to criticise Ken Livingstone, whose gaffe-generating presence is surely a cunning plan by the leader’s circle to make their man look good, for saying that shadow defence minister Kevan Jones needed “psychiatric help”. But what was Corbyn doing appointing someone so opposed to Trident on a review of defence policy, something that Maria Eagle, the shadow Defence Secretary, found out about on Twitter? How can you have open debate when you are undermining your own Shadow Cabinet?

Corbyn and his camp believe that there is a minority of Labour MPs, mainly those who backed Liz Kendall, who are against him. He might find that the Stop the Cor coalition is broader than that.

Argument is not abuse

On Friday, a Twitter account called @JeremyCorbyn4PM, which appears to have the blessing of the leader, issued a statement calling for an end to personal attacks. Not by the vicious Corbyn supporters who hurl online abuse at MPs such as Umunna, Jamie Reed and Mike Gapes, but, they say, by these very MPs who dare to criticise Corbyn. Yet these MPs are not engaging in personal abuse, only defending the right to speak freely in this so-called “open debate”. The statement demanded Labour MPs “represent us”, the party membership who voted for Corbyn.

Let us nail the lie once and for all that Labour MPs do not represent the party. Corbyn won his mandate to lead by securing 250,000 votes, nearly 60 per cent of the party electorate. But Labour MPs, the vast majority of whom did not back Corbyn, were given their mandate on 7 May by voters on the famed “Labour doorstep”.

We live in a representative democracy. Labour MPs represent the 9.3 million people who voted for Ed Miliband’s general election manifesto. Today, the polls suggest that Labour voters are deserting Corbyn’s party – the Conservatives are running Labour close in Scotland. Corbyn and his supporters would do well to remember that.

Scandal and Grant Shapps

The growing scandal surrounding the alleged bullying by Mark Clarke, a former Conservative election campaign organiser and failed Conservative parliamentary candidate, of a young Tory who killed himself, threatens to engulf the former chairman Grant Shapps.

Shapps appointed Clarke in 2014 as a director to run RoadTrip, a grassroots election organisation, despite concerns about Clarke’s behaviour dating back to the 2010 election. The question is how much did David Cameron know about Clarke and his appointment?

In 2009, I heard the Tory leader describe Clarke to aides as “that nightmare in Tooting”, the seat where the candidate dubbed the “Tatler Tory” was trying to unseat Sadiq Khan. Did Cameron believe Clarke to be a nightmare back in 2009 based on claims by his ex-girlfriend, about six months earlier, that he was a womaniser? Or was there something more? And did the PM give his blessing to Shapps appointing Clarke as a director of the party in 2014?

Don’t be nasty about Nick

It was good to hear Nick Robinson back presenting the Today programme on Saturday morning after sounding croaky in his debut last week.

The former BBC political editor, who had an operation to remove a lung tumour this year, had a cold in time for his first programme but said he didn’t want to pull out because he is a “news junkie”. I found it staggering that some people complained that his voice was too strained last Monday.

We are so used to smooth-larynxed broadcasters, particularly on Radio 4, that anything that defies this norm is something to whinge about. After a few days off, he sounded in better voice. We should be wishing Robinson well, not complaining that our breakfast soundtrack isn’t always easy listening.

Twitter: @janemerrick23