Caerphilly MP Wayne David has warned of “dire consequences” for the Labour Party should “far left” Jeremy Corbyn be elected leader.
Latest polls show support for Mr Corbyn among those registered to vote in the contest at 53% and up to 1,000 people heard him speak in Cardiff on Tuesday, August 11.
But, Mr David, who is supporting Andy Burnham for leader, said that if he were elected the Labour Party would find it difficult to be effective in opposition and would lack credibility ahead of the next General Election.
Mr David, who is Shadow Minister for Constitutional Reform, said: “Jeremy Corbyn has successfully enthused large numbers of people. But those who have got a vote in the leadership need to realise that Jeremy is on the far left of British politics.
“His economic policies are rooted in the past and are irrelevant to Britain’s needs. And his foreign policy questions Britain’s international alliances and would severely weaken Britain’s defences.
“Those who have a vote should think long and hard about whether the British electorate would vote for an individual who holds such views.
“I am not a fan of Tony Blair but his warning about Labour being on a precipice should be heeded. The Labour Party is undoubtedly at a critical juncture.
“The question is whether party members and supporters will go forward and risk the party’s destruction or turn back before it’s too late.”
At the Cardiff rally, Mr Corbyn said he would end austerity, strive for an equal society, make higher education free and bring back education maintenance allowance for 16 to 18-year-olds, funded by increasing corporation tax.
He also outlined his opposition to nuclear weapons and said Labour MPs were wrong to abstain from voting against the Government’s welfare reform bill.
A Jeremy Corbyn campaign spokesperson said: “We’ve had thousands of people who have turned up to events across Wales in the last week who have received Jeremy’s thoughts and analysis with a great deal of enthusiasm.
“We’re in a situation now where Labour Party needs to look back at where it’s coming from and needs to look at alternatives to austerity.
“We’ve fallen into the trap of believing that the crisis was caused by the previous Labour Government and that’s clearly not the case when there’s crises across Europe.
“This is a worldwide economic crisis that was caused by the failure to regulate the banking system not by a Labour Government, and the people of Wales are clearly realising that.”
Mr David is correct on some points and not others. But that’s irrelevant as the only threat Jeremy Corbin represents to the Labour Party is that he will derail the party gravy train.
As a plaid Cymru supporter, I have no real view on Wayne Davids opinion, unlike Pete. But I think Jeremy Corbyn is probably the right man to lead the Labour Party to victory, and that worries me, in that we, in Plaid, could lose local Council seats on the back of his `popular` opposition in the UK Government against Cameron, and the publicity he will get for labours opposition to austerity, (much like my leader in Wales`s same views), between this year, if he is elected leader, and the next General Election. He will certainly court popular publicity for labour.
He would certainly blur the lines in respect to my parties opposition to the Tories monitory policies and labours current toothless sheep approach. and stealing our coat in the process.
Stealing it back you mean.
Yes, Pete, I do ., But they may have outgrown it and it will never really fit again.
It’ll fit just fine should Corbyn take the throne. A little to snugly for my liking but fit it will.
If any of the others get it, it will fit just as bad as when Blair cast it down without ever trying it on.
Why would you join a party you dont support? pay a membership fee for a party you dont support ? and do so without even having a vote in the current election,?
You must want to change the party? is that it?
To help hasten the end of the Labour Party and by association the Tories too. So out of the fire a Phoenix may rise and we might actually get to vote for a party that isn’t as vile as either of the aforementioned? Anything will do as long as it isn’t the status quo. Does that answer your question?
Whatever Wayne David’s views on Corbyn the internal crisis in the Labour party is surely due to the weakness of the other candidates.
Yvette Cooper, isn’t she the one who ‘flipped’ her house three times in 24 months in order to gain maximum pecunary advantage from the tax payers of this country?
Liz Kendall, a Tory really. Why would Labour party members vote for her when if they held her views they could simply join the Tory Party?
Andy Burnham, worthy working class credentials (son of telephone electrician father and receptionist mother) spoiled by his closeness to the failed Brown administration.
If this is Labour’s finest who can blame the party members for voting Corbyn? He at least comes across as saying what he really thinks and has a record of not always following the party whip’s instructions.
If Labour sink into obscurity the blame cannot be on Corbyn but the recent Labour history of blindly agreeing with the sinister policies of the EU commissioners and their abandonment of workers.
No Mr David the people of Wales vote Labour because they always have and always will regardless of who the candidate is our wether they are left, right or centre. The English however could see straight through Milibands lies, and could look to Wales as an example of how Labour can badly run a country, a crumbling NHS, poor education, constant cuts to public services, dreadful transport, yet more and more tax increases. Labour spend spend spend, ruin the economy, then the Tories get back in and have to clean up the mess, and so the cycle continues.
Unlike other Labour Party past leaders, and the current `other` three candidates in the leadership election, Wayne David has simply laid out his opinion in respect to Jeremy Corbyns potential leadership credentials and why he does not support him in the election.
Wayne David has the decency, and the respect, for all his colleagues in the labour party entitled to vote in the election, NOT to urge them NOT to vote for Corbyn, he simply states why he feels they should not support him for the post of leader of the party, others have been much more focused on telling members NOT TO VOTE FOR CORBYN rather than impressing on labour members who they SHOULD vote for, and this includes the other candidates in the race. Perhaps, for those who care, the Candidates at least should be shouting as loud as their can about their own abilities and policies in the hope they too can galvinise potential supporters minds in their favour like Corbyn has done and continues to do.
I just missed the opportunity to vote I the leadership election. I’m gutted as I would of voted for Corbyn, must check my emails a bit more regularly. Corbyn would take a slice of everybody’s vote as he genuinely is a man of the people. It may not make labour as unelectable as some seem to think.
At least it would hasten the end of our decline as a nation as once he got his mitts on the countries tiller we would all be doomed.
When I wrote to Wayne David and asked him to nominate Jeremy so that we could have the widest possible choice. I guess that Wayne’s nomination went elsewhere. I am sorry about this because many members of the party present and previous want a leader who represents their feelings. I think that the summary as made by Cllr Williams is a good one – as a labour party member who wants to see her party continue as a party of the people for the people supported by People I can only see one candidate worthy of voting for. So my vote Wayne will be for Jeremy. This is not a perverse vote, but one made in the knowledge that if the MPs of our party are so out of touch with their support then perhaps they should take a look at themselves, and see what is wrong with their ideas.
Wayne you are a great MP but have you not learnt that you should listen to all your party members, not just the few who will agree with you no matter what you say?