British Labor Party in turmoil as Jeremy Corbyn loses confidence vote

Reporting from London —  Britain’s post-”Brexit” political meltdown intensified Tuesday as Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn overwhelmingly lost a confidence vote among his parliamentary colleagues — but flatly refused to step down.

The vote threatens to split the opposition party in two, at the very moment when the majority Conservative Party is suffering its own leadership crisis; Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron announced his intention to resign Friday, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union, setting up a parliamentary contest to succeed him.

The country’s political turmoil has overshadowed its economic crisis. The British pound and British stock prices recovered slightly Tuesday after two days of dizzying plunges following Thursday’s anti-EU vote, which stoked widespread pessimism about the country’s prospects for continued economic growth.

The pound, which had reached a three-decade low against the U.S. dollar on Monday, recovered slightly to $1.33, and also rose modestly against the euro. The benchmark FTSE 100 index of British stocks rebounded by 2.64% in London trading. But it was not clear whether the recoveries reflected less pessimistic sentiment about the effect of an EU split or merely bargain-hunting.

Corbyn lost the parliamentary confidence vote Tuesday evening by 172-40, with 13 abstentions.

The outcome seemed almost pre-ordained. The 67-year-old Corbyn has been much less popular among his colleagues in Parliament than among the Labor rank and file. Parliamentary discontent with his leadership has soared since the referendum vote, in which Corbyn was considered to have lent only lukewarm support to the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, a position that was supported by party doctrine.

The discontent came to a head starting before dawn on Sunday, when veteran Labor figure Hilary Benn told Corbyn in an early morning phone call that he had lost the confidence of the party in Parliament. Corbyn fired Benn as the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, leading to a wave of resignations from Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet, his leadership team. By midday Tuesday, more than 40 top officials had resigned, many of them hastily replaced by political novices and unknowns from Corbyn’s far-left wing of the party.

Corbyn won his leadership position in September with strong support from Labor members across the country, though many of them had joined up following a rules change that allowed anyone to join the party by paying a three-pound fee, the equivalent of about $4.50.

Although there are differences, Corbyn resembles a British Bernie Sanders. Relatively little known in the countryside before his leadership election, he represents the north London borough of Islington, which includes some of the poorest and also some of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city. He has been known for taking political positions well to the left of the Labor Party as a whole.

The new party members’ reliability as voters in a general election has been questioned, but Corbyn on Tuesday cited their support in refusing to yield the leadership.

“I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labor members and supporters,” he said after the no-confidence vote, “and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy.”

That is technically correct, though by tradition a party leader yields to a parliamentary rebuff of such magnitude. Corbyn said he would run again in any new leadership contest.

Corbyn’s weakness stems from doubts that he could lead the party to victory in a general election. A nationwide vote for Parliament does not need to be called before 2020, but it is looking more likely in the near term given the turmoil over the Brexit referendum.

Party insiders believe Corbyn’s lackluster performance during the referendum campaign may have eroded his support among Labor voters, especially the young, who largely favored remaining in the EU.

A leadership election can be triggered by a vote of at least 51 party members in the British and European parliaments. That’s viewed as almost inevitable following the no-confidence vote. But party insiders are aghast at the prospect of an internecine war.

“Young people particularly are horrified at the result of this referendum,” David Ward, former chief of staff to the 1990s Labor leader John Smith, told the Guardian after the no-confidence vote. “And anyone who cannot fill a front bench cannot be credible as an alternative government. I think Corbyn will lose an electoral challenge.”

The internal conflict points to a historic rift between a center-left faction and a more militant leftist faction supporting Corbyn.

“The violinists are very much on the ship deck,” said Matthew Goodwin, politics and international relations professor at the University of Kent. “Jeremy Corbyn and the Labor Party are staring at the possibility of losing over 100 years of party history. It now appears highly likely that the Labor Party is heading for a full-on split.”

The Conservative Party, meanwhile, is entering its own period of instability. Cameron’s resignation announcement triggered jockeying for his position; candidates for the party leadership must file formally by Thursday, with the election expected to end by Sept. 2.

In the wake of the Brexit vote, the leading candidate has been thought to be former London Mayor Boris Johnson, a flamboyant and popular politician who emerged as the leader of the anti-EU campaign. But he is facing an unexpectedly stiff challenge from other candidates, chiefly Home Secretary Theresa May, a veteran member of the party’s front ranks.

But May campaigned to remain in the EU, which places her on the wrong side of the political statement issued by British voters in the referendum: They supported leaving the EU by a 52% to 48% vote.

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Special correspondent Christina Boyle contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

11:34 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 9:10 a.m.