British Prime Minister David Cameron bet the mortgage on siding with the “Remain” side during the Brexit referendum and lost. And now his career in public life is over. He announced his resignation following the result last week, but will remain until a new prime minister can assume control, hopefully by this fall.
On the other hand, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who’s been slammed for his lackluster leadership during the referendum, has vowed to stay on as leader, despite a river of resignations from his shadow cabinet. He also lost a no confidence vote with Labour MPs by a 172-40 margin. It’s hard to see how any leader can remain after only 40 members support you remaining, but he’s as defiant as ever to remain as leader of the opposition.
In the first Prime Minister’s Questions post-Brexit, Corbyn asked whether Cameron would apologize on behalf of his government for the alleged state of child poverty in the country. Cameron was blunt and straightforward [emphasis mine]:
Income inequality has gone down, average incomes have grown at their fastest rate since 2001. He asks about poverty, there are 300,000 fewer people in relative poverty since 2010, half a million fewer people in absolute poverty since 2010. Look if he’s looking for excuses about why the side he and I were about the referendum, frankly he should look somewhere else. And I have to say to the honorable gentleman; he talks about job insecurity and my two months to go. It might be in my party’s interest for him to sit there. It’s not in the national interest, and I would say, for heaven's sake man, go!
THE METRO FRONT PAGE: "Please Jez go!" #skypapers pic.twitter.com/Z2UCNZWVLy
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 28, 2016
Former Labour Leader Ed Miliband has called on Corbyn to resign, describing his successor's position as untenable. In the meantime, Deputy Leader Tom Watson is reportedly making moves behind the scenes with Corbyn to avoid all-out civil war, according to The Guardian. They added that Corbyn seemed resigned to the fact that a leadership challenge is going to happen, but confident that he commands enough support with party members to emerge victorious again. Nevertheless, as the drama drags on, there's also a fear that Labour could split again.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member