Exclusive: More than 50 PPCs call on Corbyn to quit

This article was edited to remove the name of one PPC who said he had been placed on the list inaccurately by the organisers of the letter.

More than 55 Labour parliamentary candidates have called for Jeremy Corbyn to resign as leader and said the party would “fail” in a general election.

The former PPCs, who stood seats across London and the south-east, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales, said Labour needs a leader who would be seen as a “credible Prime Minister” with a vision for the whole of Britain.

The letter has been signed by 57 candidates and sent to John Cryer, chair of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).

“We admire the service that Jeremy Corbyn has offered to our Party as leader in the past year and his long service as an MP and within the Union movement,” it reads.

“However, we believe we must accept that we cannot achieve our shared ambitions for the future of the United Kingdom without a leader able to command the confidence of the country. That is why we believe that the Labour Party must seek a change of leadership.”

The letter comes after Corbyn lost 23 members of his shadow Cabinet with 20 choosing to resign, two peers effectively quitting and Hilary Benn being sacked over the weekend.

Activists and would-be candidates have grown increasingly concerned about the prospect of a newly installed Tory leader – such as Boris Johnson or Theresa May – calling a snap election in the aftermath of the vote for Brexit.

The full text of the PPCs’ letter is published below. A spokesman for Corbyn declined to comment.

Dear John Cryer,

As Labour Party candidates in last year’s General Election we have knocked on thousands of doors and spoken to thousands of voters of all backgrounds, across the country. There are two deeply important lessons we learned in that effort.

First, we cannot win an election unless the country believes that our Party leader is a credible Prime Minister, who they can trust to both lead our country on a world stage and help their family at home.

Second, that the Labour Party must have a strong and positive vision for the country as a whole. We have to be a party of every region, age and background.

We have come to believe that were a General Election to be held today, Labour would fail these two tests.  

We admire the service that Jeremy Corbyn has offered to our Party as leader in the past year and his long service as an MP and within the Union movement.  However, we believe we must accept that we cannot achieve our shared ambitions for the future of the United Kingdom without a leader able to command the confidence of the country.

That is why we believe that the Labour Party must seek a change of leadership.

Yours sincerely