A former acting Labour leader has warned Jeremy Corbyn supporters that they are turning the party into a “fan club”.
Dame Margaret Beckett’s comments came as Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, dismissed suggestions of a future “backroom deal” with the SNP.
And they came as leadership contender, Owen Smith, faced accusations he has changed his stance on private sector involvement in the NHS after claiming the Tories had a “secret plan” to privatise it.
Veteran Labour MP Dame Margaret, who has a seat on Labour’s National Executive Committee, said yesterday that “vast numbers” do not care about her party and some would be happy to see it split.
She added: “We have had examples of people saying ‘I want to join the Labour Party because of Jeremy, but of course, if he ceases to be the leader I shall leave’.
“Those are not members of the Labour party, those are members of a fan club.”
More than 130,000 new members have joined in the last six months and are believed to be widely in favour of Mr Corbyn.
Meanwhile, Ms Dugdale has responded to “talk” that, in the future, Labour and the SNP could reach an agreement to get into power at Westminster.
She said: “I want a Labour government. I want that both at Holyrood and Westminster.
“(But) I want a Labour government delivering Labour priorities, not one diluted by the need to do a backroom deal with other parties.
“Labour is a socialist party. The SNP most certainly aren’t. Sure there are some socialists in the SNP, but that is always overtaken by their nationalism.”
Elsewhere, Mr Smith – who is challenging Mr Corbyn for the leadership – pledged an immediate halt to “Tory privatisation” of the NHS.
In a speech yesterday, he highlighted figures showing that almost 8% of NHS spending in the last financial year went on buying healthcare from the private sector – double the level it was when the Tories took power in 2010.
He insisted that, if he became prime minister, he would boost spending on the service by at least 4% a year, while conceding this would be funded by an increase in taxes.
When pressed with suggestions he had “changed his tune” since the time he worked as head of policy at the drugs giant Pfizer, he replied: “Pfizer sells medicines to the NHS, not services, and I’m talking about clinical services being provided by the NHS.”
