Labour MPs gloomy as Tory excitement mounts at party meetings
Conservatives chant "five more years!" at a 1922 Committee meeting but Jeremy Corbyn receives half-hearted applause from his MPs.
Wednesday 19 April 2017 10:29, UK
Two parties, two meetings of their MPs and two very different moods about a snap election: pre-election delight among the Tories and gloom among Labour MPs.
At a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, Theresa May won a standing ovation, desks were banged loudly and backbenchers chanted "Five more years!"
Two hours later, Jeremy Corbyn arrived late for a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party - stuck on a train, again! - and won muted applause for what MPs said was a lacklustre speech.
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The Prime Minister talked about Brexit and strengthening her negotiating position.
The Labour leader barely mentioned Brexit and talked instead about policies such as free school meals.
"It's not about exploiting Labour's weaknesses," the Prime Minister claimed in her speech to her MPs. But that's not how many of them view the General Election, of course.
"It's about getting a mandate from the country to strengthen our hand," she said, looking ahead to tough Brexit negotiations in Brussels and other European capitals.
"The country has come together after Brexit. But Parliament has not. All the Opposition parties have declared they will be seeking to obstruct the Government's Brexit strategy.
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"So a General Election is needed to give us a clear mandate and ability to negotiate from strength."
It was a short meeting, starting at 5pm and lasting only six or seven minutes, and Conservative MPs were told to come back 24 hours later for a briefing from party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin on "the mechanics" of the election.
The PLP was due to start at 7.30pm, was then put back to 8.15pm because Mr Corbyn was delayed on his return from Birmingham and didn't arrive until 8.28pm.
(A senior Corbyn ally later quipped that under a Labour government trains would be re-nationalised, be clean and efficient and run on time.)
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Deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow chancellor and Mr Corbyn's closest ally John McDonnell, who later told Sky News there had been a "great atmosphere" at the meeting, made speeches in the leader's absence.
Before Mr Corbyn spoke, some MPs - including leading Remain campaigner Chris Bryant - criticised Mr Corbyn for ordering Labour MPs to vote for the Commons motion to trigger an election.
In his speech, Mr Corbyn talked about offering voters "a real alternative" to the Tories, with policies on the economy, housing and free school meals.
But he said: "We have to support the dissolution motion, because anything else would be supporting a Tory government. It's as simple as that."
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And he concluded: "I don't underestimate how much there is to do. So let's get out there!"
But there was little enthusiasm for his speech and the applause was half-hearted. One MP present told Sky News: "He read from a speech. There was no narrative, no vision."
After the meeting, a senior Labour leadership source told reporters the snap election would mean a reprieve for veteran MPs facing the threat of de-selection from left-wing Momentum activists.
The final decision will be made by the party's national executive shortly after the Commons vote on triggering an election.
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"All sitting MPs will be deemed to be automatically re-selected," the source said. "The circumstances of the timing of the election mean the normal process will not be possible."
Veteran Labour MPs Dennis Skinner, 85, and Ann Clwyd, 80, told Sky News they intended to stand in the 8 June election. Earlier, David Winnick, 83, also said he planned to stand.
But there must be doubts about whether Ken Clarke, 76, who had previously announced he would quit in 2020, will stand.
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He has been away from Parliament after heart surgery and colleagues told Sky News that while he is recovering he had not been expected back in the Commons this summer.
Senior ministers told Sky News the Commons debates on the committee stage of the Finance Bill will now have to be cut short and Northern Ireland legislation made necessary by the political deadlock there will have to be rushed through.
At the end of the PLP, there was loud applause for Yvette Cooper, seen by some Labour MPs as a caretaker leader after Mr Corbyn. "She's positioning herself," said one Labour MP.
But before then there's an election. And at the moment the mood among most Tory MPs couldn't be higher and that among Labour MPs hostile to Mr Corbyn couldn't be lower. As these two party meetings have confirmed.