Stephen Hawking calls on “disaster” Corbyn to stand down as Labour leader

He is a world renowned physicist, thinker and author who has struggled with the major questions facing humanity.

Now, however, Stephen Hawking has delivered his verdict on a very different set of problems – Labour’s poor public support.

The Cambridge professor has called on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to step aside, describing him as a “disaster” and saying that whilst he agrees with him on much politically he cannot win a general election.

“His heart is in the right place and many of his policies are sound but he has allowed himself to be portrayed as a left-wing extremist,” Hawking told The Times.

He confirmed he would continue to vote Labour, but that there is a futility to doing so, saying: “I think he [Corbyn] should step down for the sake of the party.”

Hawking publicly backed the Labour candidate for Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, at the last general election. Zeichner then defeated the incumbent Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert.

Hawking has long been a staunch defender of the NHS against privatisation.