FORMER Labour Home Secretary Lord Blunkett has told of his “despair” at the “anti-Semitism and thuggery” in the party under Jeremy Corbyn.
Lord Blunkett, who was an MP for 28 years, said the Labour Party is “plagued by intolerance and division” and on course for a 1983-style drubbing.
Writing for the Daily Telegraph he said the party has “irrational views on security and international issues.”
Lord Blunkett said: “The behaviour of the hard-Left within the Labour Party – the anti-Semitism, the thuggery, the irrational views on security and international issues, and the lack of realisation that you have to embrace a big tent of people in order to win – certainly makes me despair.
“But it also makes the likelihood of an all-out Labour majority in this general election extraordinarily slim. The political landscape right now is completely different to what the hard-Left would have you believe.
“We are in a 1983 situation here, not a 2017 one – with not only the Lib Dems and the Greens, but the Brexit Party, the Tories and the SNP all seriously vying for traditional Labour votes.”
The 1983 election saw Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party command a sizeable majority after votes for the opposition were split between Labour and the Liberal/SDP Alliance.
But he urged moderates within the party to “stay and fight” to ensure the “voice of reason” prevailed, following deputy leader Tom Watson’s decision to stand down after years of warring with Team Corbyn.
EX MPs’ BLISTERING ATTACK
Lord Blunkett’s intervention came after a bruising week for Labour which has seen two of its former MPs urge voters to back the Tories instead.
In blistering attack, Ian Austin and John Woodcock blasted Mr Corbyn for siding with terrorists and said he was “unfit to govern”.
Mr Austin, who quit the party earlier this year in fury at the vile anti-Semitism in Labour, branded Mr Corbyn a disgrace.
Mr Austin, who joined Labour as a teenager, told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: Theres only two people who can be Prime Minister on December the 13 – Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson.
And I think Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to lead our country – completely unfit to lead the Labour Party.
Mr Woodcock, the former Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, said Mr Corbyn in Downing Street would be catastrophic.
He aded: People have got a choice to make on December 12 and it cannot be Corbyns Labour Party. Weve had atrocity after atrocity.
SEXIST AND RACIAL SLURS
In a fresh scandal facing Labour yesterday, four candidates were exposed for spouting vile sexist and racist slurs within 24 hours.
Three wannabe MPs dropped out the election race for offensive comments.
But a fourth – Ian Byrne – was clinging on despite massive pressure to quit after making sick jibes against female politicians and the Royal family.
He shared a Facebook message about underwear tycoon and Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone which called to hit the c*** where it hurts.
In another post he branded Tory minister Esther McVey a “b*****d” who he hoped would soon be gone.
Back in 2014, he branded Prince William a “horse faced t**t” on the social media site.
The scandal comes after three other Labour candidates dramatically quit the race for Parliament after being exposed for alleged racist and sexist comments.
Gideon Bull quit as the Labour candidate for Clacton after being accused of calling a Jewish councillor a Shylock a money pinching Jewish character in Shakespeares Merchant of Venice.
Kate Ramsden compared Israel to an abused child who becomes an abusive adult.
Frances Hoole also quit after sharing an offensive image of her SNP rival Joanna Cherry with the message Bang! And the terf is gone.
A ‘terf’ is an offensive term for a feminist who discriminates against trans people.
