McDonnell urges calm as leadership prepares for contest

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said that he believes there will be a leadership election, as he urges calm among the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Speaking this morning, the close Corbyn ally said “it looks as though we’ll have a leadership election”, as rebel MPs prepare to back a challenger – and one could come forward at some point today, with the likeliest candidates either Tom Watson or Angela Eagle.

McDonnell accepted this scenario, but told MPs that they should “play by the rules” and “calm down”.

Westminster rumours suggest that Eagle is currently the favourite to be a candidate against Corbyn, with some expecting an announcement after today’s PMQs.

Former acting leader Margaret Beckett appeared on the Today programme this morning, airing her discontent with Jeremy Corbyn – saying that she never believed she would vote against a serving leader in her “wildest dreams.”

“Jeremy is the ninth Labour leader under whom I have served, Beckett said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be casting a vote of no confidence in the leader of the Labour Party .

“I have been loyal to every single one of them with their different views and approaches.”

She conceded that lots of people “admire” Corbyn, but said that he simply lacks the experience to acrry out the job.

Beckett said: “There are lots of people who admire the lots of fine qualities Jeremy has. I don’t think anybody would quarrel with that. But they don’t of themselves make you a leader.

“Jeremy has no experience. It’s not a fault it’s just a fact. He has no experience at all of the problems of leadership – the hassle, the scrutiny from [the press]. That’s a world that was beyond him until he was elected leader.”

And last Seema Malhotra, who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet this week, said that Corbyn should resign to spare the party a “bruising, divisive and distressing” leadership contest.

Malhotra denied co-ordinating her resignation with anyone else, and said that her decision was due to one reason: “It comes down to this fundamental: we have an unelectable leader.”