Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are set to exploit their ‘strong and stable’ unity-bonus that will have reeling Tories in outright panic.
Corbyn entered the Commons Chamber today to an unprecedented standing ovation from almost every one of his significantly-increased number of Labour MPs, as this video (no sound, as Parliament was not formally in session yet) shows:
Not only that, but as Clive Lewis and David Lammy couldn’t help leaking, he received a similar ovation from a large part of the room during Tuesday’s PLP (parliamentary Labour Party) meeting – a setting that had previously been the scene of pitched battles with screaming ‘moderates’:
I know leaking PLP meetings is naughty but given the two years we've had: @jeremycorbyn receiving a rapturous PLP standing ovation ✌🏾#unity pic.twitter.com/SEQhkr5sQQ
— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) June 13, 2017
Never leaked from the PLP before but 1st time for everything.. standing ovation for Jeremy. Colleagues united & ready to take on the Tories
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) June 13, 2017
Corbyn told his MPs that Labour will ‘remain in permanent campaign mode’ and went on:
We are now a government in waiting and we must think and act at all times with that in mind. That is our responsibility to the huge numbers who voted for our manifesto last week: a programme to transform Britain for the many that caught the imagination of millions.
This was a remarkable result achieved because we stayed united and worked as a team and I have no doubt together we can win the next general election, whenever that may be.”
In the Commons Chamber, Corbyn followed the tradition of making a humorous first address as Parliament resumed, but still took Theresa May and her party apart in a speech that dripped with the class of a Prime Minster in waiting, mocking their ‘coalition of chaos‘ and planting a huge flag in ‘strong and stable‘ for himself and his party:
May’s attempt at a smile was about as genuine as her ‘business as usual’ speech on her return to Downing Street.
But she was about to receive far worse news than Corbyn’s appropriation of her campaign slogans. With his clear status as the strongest politician in the Commons and the vast majority of his parliamentary party now united behind him, Corbyn has decided he’s going to plant a lot more flags.
65 to be precise.
Corbyn and his team plan to remain in election mode and, with immediate effect, he is going to start a programme of campaigning in the sixty-five most vulnerable Tory-held marginals, in a move which will terrify May and her cabinet, who are still smarting from the loss of eight Tory front-benchers last week as well as numerous previously established MPs.
Those target seats are listed below, together with the Tories’ margin of victory last week. Wins in those 65 seats will give Labour a clear majority in Parliament. Corbyn is aiming to rout the Tories.
Where Labour’s headquarters bureaucracy has been pilloried for the small-minded, negative approach in the last General Election campaign that has many Labour members calling for General Secretary Ian McNicol’s proverbial head on a plate, Corbyn is extending and expanding the aggressive confident, positive campaign he conducted in order to – literally – ‘take the fight to the Tories’.
Clearly the Labour leader intends to use his stature – not ‘new-found’, but newly-recognised by his embarrassed critics – to ensure that the Tories have no respite, no breathing space in which to lick their wounds and regroup.
Whether the next General Election is next week or in six months time, Jeremy Corbyn is not merely parking his tanks all over the Tories’ lawn in readiness – he’s tearing up their shrubbery, rockeries and flower beds, too.
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| Southampton, Itchen | 31 |
| Preseli Pembrokeshire | 314 |
| Pudsey | 331 |
| Thurrock | 345 |
| Hastings & Rye | 346 |
| Chipping Barnet | 353 |
| Norwich North | 507 |
| Calder Valley | 609 |
| Aberconwy | 635 |
| Stoke-on-Trent South | 663 |
| Telford | 720 |
| Northampton North | 807 |
| Broxtowe | 863 |
| Bolton West | 936 |
| Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland | 1,020 |
| Mansfield | 1,057 |
| Hendon | 1,072 |
| Northampton South | 1,159 |
| Pendle | 1,279 |
| Morecambe & Lunesdale | 1,399 |
| Putney | 1,554 |
| Camborne & Redruth | 1,577 |
| Finchley & Golders Green | 1,657 |
| Copeland | 1,695 |
| Milton Keynes South | 1,725 |
| Harrow East | 1,757 |
| Milton Keynes North | 1,915 |
| Blackpool North & Cleveleys | 2,023 |
| Watford | 2,092 |
| Morley & Outwood | 2,104 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 2,190 |
| Chingford & Woodford Green | 2,438 |
| Crawley | 2,457 |
| South Swindon | 2,464 |
| Worcester | 2,490 |
| Carlisle | 2,599 |
| Walsall North | 2,601 |
| Corby | 2,690 |
| North East Derbyshire | 2,861 |
| Reading West | 2,876 |
| Southport | 2,914 |
| Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire | 3,110 |
| Cities of London & Westminster | 3,148 |
| Rossendale & Darwen | 3,216 |
| Stevenage | 3,384 |
| Scarborough & Whitby | 3,435 |
| Clwyd West | 3,437 |
| Truro & Falmouth | 3,792 |
| Filton & Bradley Stoke | 4,182 |
| Loughborough | 4,269 |
| Erewash | 4,534 |
| Shipley | 4,681 |
| Nuneaton | 4,739 |
| Plymouth, Moor View | 5,019 |
| Uxbridge & South Ruislip | 5,034 |
| East Worthing & Shoreham | 5,106 |
| Sherwood | 5,198 |
| Halesowen & Rowley Regis | 5,253 |
| Gloucester | 5,520 |
| Rochford & Southend East | 5,548 |
| Wimbledon | 5,622 |
| Colchester | 5,677 |
| South Thanet | 6,387 |
| Altrincham & Sale West | 6,426 |
| Dover | 6,437 |
and what about Arfon – lost by 82 votes against Plaid Cymru – typical London based LP – can’t see outside the box
Note that a seat held by Plaid Cymru is not a “vulnerable Tory-held marginal”.
kc greetings Ian Campbell we fought and lost in the 80s never again must we be shafted by our own
Ever played a strategy game against someone who knows that you’ve totally won but instead of ‘taking the win’ you just keep strengthening your position until they resign out of desperation? The Tories are going to be smashed at the next general election!!! 😀
Here comes CORBYN!
All winnable because let’s face it, nobody is more…
E L E C T A B L E
Glad to see my constituency is number 21 on the hit list, can’t wait, bring it on
THE GOOD WILL ALWAYS WIN OVER EVEL.
Surprised to see Chingford & Woodford Green on that list.
Constituency of iain dummkopf-schmitt & former constituency of norman ‘on yer bike’ tebbit aka “The Chingford Skinhead” (And Churchill IIRC)
Always thought of that as a die-hard, sun-reading, tory seat. Seems he’s not THAT popular in his own backyard, these days…:)
We are ready in Morecambe and Lunesdale. We stripped the invisible David Morris’s majority right back to 1399 on a shoestring campaign and will take him down next time. We are starting campaigning again and crowdfunding for an office to run from. Any help will be much appreciated.