Jeremy Corbyn’s drive for party unity descended into farce yesterday after his senior aide humiliated a shadow minister by rewriting a key Trident announcement via autocue. Clive Lewis, the shadow defence secretary, had been due to commit the Labour Party to abide by plans to renew the UK’s nuclear deterrent as part of a deal with the unions. However, Seumas Milne, the Labour leader’s director of communications, intervened to water down the text minutes before Mr Lewis was due to address the conference. Afterwards Mr Lewis punched a wall in fury and pulled out of a BBC interview. The row is all the more remarkable given that he is a prominent Corbyn ally and considered a potential future leader. He was preparing to tell the Labour conference that he regarded the issue of Trident as “parked” and that neither he nor the party would try to unpick the policy to push ahead with its renewal.
Times 27th Sept 2016 read more »