Woe Jeremy Corbyn: 100 MPs could join Tom Watson's army as the Labour deputy leader goes on manoeuvres

Up to 100 Labour MPs are poised to form a new rebel movement under deputy leader Tom Watson, his allies have claimed.

Mr Watson is said to be planning a guerrilla operation to establish a centre-Left ‘party within a party’ with its own whipping operation that could cripple Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, leaving just 145 MPs under his control.

He has long been planning the move, but it has been accelerated by the civil war which has broken out over anti-Semitism, and is now expected to come in the next fortnight.

Mr Watson, a veteran party power-broker and union fixer, claims he has an independent mandate because he was elected deputy leader by the membership.

And he caused fury in Mr Corbyn’s team last week by pledging to personally ‘log and monitor’ complaints about anti-Semitism and abuse within the party.

Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby wrote to Mr Watson, copying in all Labour MPs and Lords, to rebuke him for trying to interfere, saying: ‘It is absolutely inappropriate for you to set up a vague parallel complaints monitoring system’.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6765119/Woe-Jeremy-Corbyn-100-MPs-join-Tom-Watsons-army.html