Emma Lewell-Buck speaks out on resignation from Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet

South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck has explained why she resigned from the Shadow Cabinet.
South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck.South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck.
South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck.

The Labour MP stepped down from her post as Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government on June 29, as the Labour Party leadership battle continued.

She has been criticised for abstaining from the vote of no confidence in leader Jeremy Corbyn then resigning from her post.

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She told the Gazette: “I abstained from the vote because it wasn’t constitutionally binding and it was a sideshow. It had no weight whatsoever in our party. There were so few people left by the time I stepped down that if I’d stayed it would have sent the message that I was 110% behind Corbyn and his leadership and I wasn’t and I had to be true to myself.

“I’ve got to look at myself in the mirror every day and I have to be true to what I believe in.

“If I’d stayed and someone had asked me if I thought he was going to win in the next General Election, I would have had to say no, and people would have thought I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. I did what I thought was the right thing to do.”

She added: “Jeremy Corbyn is one of the worst-performing Labour leaders we’ve had in decades.

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“If people want to back him then they can, but we’re not going to win a General Election with him as leader, so we’re not going to be able to save the NHS or stop all these austerity measures, and it hurts me to say that, because I believed in him.”

She also said she was pleased with the High Court ruling that new party members will be able to vote in the leadership election.