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Labour leadership contest: MP Rob Marris launches scathing attack on party leader Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn's 'pretty dire' Labour leadership has been marked by incompetence, hypocrisy, and associations with 'some nasty people', according to a Wolverhampton MP.

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Rob Marris

Rob Marris has accused Mr Corbyn of taking the party backwards in a damning indictment of his tenure as leader.

He is one of a number of Labour MPs who is calling for Mr Corbyn to quit.

It came as a High Court ruled that around 130,000 Labour members would be allowed to vote in the leadership election, a decision that is expected to give a boost to Mr Corbyn's chances.

In a letter to Labour members in his Wolverhampton South West constituency, Mr Marris outlines the reasons why he thinks Mr Corbyn should go.

He accuses the Labour leader of running an incompetent office that ignores the views of MPs, of being an apologist for 'dictatorship and anti-democracy' and of undermining Labour's Remain campaign in the EU referendum.

Mr Marris denies being part of a 'Blairite coup' or any 'orchestrated plan' to oust the Labour leader. He quit his role on the Labour front bench in June, claiming that Mr Corbyn's position had become 'untenable'.

He wrote: "I loyally gave Mr Corbyn the benefit of the doubt for 10 months, but his performance has been pretty dire, and I now believe that he should resign."

Accusing Mr Corbyn of incompetence, he wrote: "The disorganisation includes, for example, lateness for meetings, inability to organise events smoothly...lack of replies to communications, even from Labour MPs who he purports to lead."

"It saddens me to have to say that Mr Corbyn is a hypocrite as well," Mr Marris continues, citing the Labour leader's role in launching Tony Benn's leadership challenge to Neil Kinnock in 1988.

"Jeremy Corbyn as MP voted against the Labour whip over 500 times – and now he lectures us on loyalty."

Mr Marris, who is backing Owen Smith for Labour leadership, says that Mr Corbyn spent 'over a decade' working disloyally to undermine Tony Blair.

He added that Mr Corbyn has a history of working with and apologising for 'some nasty people'.

"For example, he has championed/made excuses for the IRA, the Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez, the undemocratic Fidel Castro, and of course Hamas and Hezbollah," he said.

He added that Mr Corbyn's decision to vote against a proposal to conduct a ballot in private to protect NEC members had been an endorsement of 'bullying, threats and intimidation'.

Yesterday morning five Labour party members won a High Court battle over their legal right to vote in next month's leadership election.

The NEC had said that full members would not be able to vote if they had not had at least six months' continuous membership up to July 12.

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