John Prescott: Labour MPs opposed to Jeremy Corbyn are ‘Bitterites’

The Labour leader was a prominent figure in the late Tony Benn’s failed Campaign for Labour Party Democracy in the 1980s, which campaigned to give members more say over policy.

South West Labour party supporters are calling on MPs to “stop sneering and get behind their leader”, as members of the much maligned Momentum network set up shop in towns across the region.

DESPITE being targeted for a “hurricane of malicious attacks”, Stop the War will bring thousands to the streets of London today for a second mass demonstration against the Syrian air strikes.

The group was forced to perform a similar U-turn in November, when it published an article headlined “Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East”, the day after the Paris terror attacks which left 129 people dead.

On Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn she said: “I think he is behaving with a considerable amount of dignity”.

Jeremy Corbyn must put leadership of the Labour party before his commitments to outside protest movements, Lord Prescott has said. “He is entitled to his errors, but Stop the War and others are entitled to peacefully protest against them, and we shall continue to do so”.

“And one of Mr Corbyn’s shadow ministers Lord Touhig, a former defence minister admitted he will “never” be prime minister” while former Labour Defence Secretary Lord Hutton described him as “a security risk”.

Tristram Hunt, a former shadow minister under Mr Corbyn’s predecessor has called on Mr Corbyn not to attend a fundraiser this Friday for Stop The War.

“Most of all, it has been shown to be right in opposing more than a decade of disastrous wars – in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya – while many of its most vociferous critics supported them”. It would be deeply regrettable if we lost that process and went back to the confrontational process of the 1980s. The second, over Corbyn’s attendance at the Stop the War Christmas party, has also seen the leader’s critics disappointed. We are a force for good.

Louise Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, who has previously spoken out to defend the Labour leader against criticism by sections of the party, told 5Live’s Pienaar’s Politics that she “would not have anything to do with Stop the War”, adding: “I would have advised him not to [attend]”.

Earlier this week Green party leader Caroline Lucas stepped down as patron of the organisation, saying she found herself unable to support the group’s “recent positions”.

Stop the War’s Chris Nineham said the group’s leadership had “distanced themselves” from the blog posts on Paris and the global brigade comparison.