Jeremy Corbyn ready for leadership challenge after rejecting deputy's resignation plea

Fighting on: Jeremy Corbyn rejected Tom Watson's plea for resignation
Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Jeremy Corbyn is braced for a Labour leadership challenge after rejecting the latest attempt to persuade him to step down.

Deputy leader Tom Watson had urged Mr Corbyn to resign, warning him that the party was ‘in peril’ following Tuesday’s vote of no confidence by Labour MPs.

Former business secretary Angela Eagle, formerly Mr Corbyn’s most senior member of the shadow cabinet, and pensions secretary Owen Smith are said to be considering a leadership challenge.

Mr Watson told BBC News: "My party is in peril, we are facing an existential crisis and I just don't want us to be in this position because I think there are millions of people in this country who need a left-leaning government."

The big Labour-supporting trade unions indicated in a statement that they would not stand in the way of a contest if it was carried out "through the proper democratic procedures provided for in the party's constitution".

In a speech to students in London on Wednesday evening, Mr Corbyn said that while he recognised not everybody supported the direction he was taking the party, he had the mandate to carry on.

Support: Thousands gathered in Parliament Square to show Corbyn their support 
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

"I also recognise that the mandate was given by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people joining in the political process," he said to cheers from supporters.

He was briefly heckled, with one man yelling: "What about Europe? Where were you when we needed you?"

Mr Watson's intervention came after former leaders Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman joined calls for Mr Corbyn to quit.

Former home secretary Alan Johnson, who led the Labour In campaign in the referendum, added to the pressure with a scathing denunciation of Mr Corbyn's performance.

In a letter to his local constituency party, he accused the Labour leader of an "inability to take responsibility, demonstrate leadership or give the slightest indication that he is capable of moving beyond meaningless platitudes".

The Labour leader, however, remained defiant, with a spokesman saying: "Jeremy Corbyn is determined to carry on with the job he was democratically elected to do."

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