Jeremy Corbyn has ‘mountain to climb’ to win next election as poll shows him 36 points behind Theresa May
THE embattled Labour Leader has surged ahead of Owen Smith in the Labour leadership race with almost double the support from party members
JEREMY Corbyn was openly mocked by his own MPs last night for insisting he had a “mountain to climb”to win the next general election.
The Labour chief told loyal supporters he was heading to Downing Street as he launched his bid to be re-elected leader of his party.
The claims came despite a recent opinion poll putting Labour 11 points behind the Tories.
But the poll was not all bad news for the embattled Labour Leader showing he has surged ahead of Owen Smith in the Labour leadership race , but get trounced by Theresa May in a general election.
The Labour leader secured more than double the support of his rival with 54 per cent among party supporters compared to just 22 per cent for Smith.
Twenty per cent are undecided.
The survey also found that 54 per cent of Labour loyalists approve of the leader’s performance but 24 per cent disapprove.
It comes as around 180,000 registered supporters joined the party paying £25 this week and will be allowed to vote in the run-off with the result announced on September 24.
But among all voters who took part in the survey the new PM received 52 per cent compared to just 16 per cent for the Labour chief.
Former shadow Cabinet Minister Michael Dugher said: “The penny has finally dropped.
“The whole point of a leadership contest is to replace him with someone who is capable of winning again.
“It’s a mountain of Jeremy’s own making.”
Defiant Corbyn - who missed his swearing in at the Privy Council last year to go on a walking holiday in the Scottish Highlands - insisted yesterday the Labour “social movement” he is building would give him the keys to Number 10.
But his remarks come as the Parliamentary Labour Party is effectively split.
172 Labour MPs have voted in a secret ballot to say they have no confidence in their leader.
It came as 60 shadow Cabinet and frontbenchers resigned from serving under his leadership.
Many current frontbenchers now have to cover two briefs.
And backbencher Jamie Reed said he would stand at a general election “under a Labour banner” but he would find it hard to stand on Corbyn’s manifesto.
But addressing 2,000 supporters in Salford, Mr Corbyn said: “We have lost the last two general elections, we can’t carry on as before.
“I was elected last year because our members, affiliates and supporters wanted change..they knew we couldn’t go on as before.
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He added: “No one understimates the scale of the task in front of us.
“We have a mountain to climb to win a general election and that’s why we have to change how we do things.”
He told them it’s only when “we come together and campaign...we win”.
Simultaneous events took place in Newcastle, Cambridge, Bristol, Nottingham, Stoke, London and Cardiff.
Jezza bid for crowd funding
JEREMY Corbyn could turn to crowd-funding as individual big donors desert Labour.
Between 2010 and 2014 Labour raised £110million - half from trade unions.
But the party’s top ten donors haven’t given any money since Mr Corbyn was elected. This week 180,000 people paid £25 to allow them to vote in the upcoming leadership contest, raising £4.5million.
And 1.9million watched a leadership video in just one week.
A senior Labour source said: “Given Jeremy Corbyn’s reach on social media crowd-funding is a very real possibility.
“This would mean an end to big business buying influence over the Labour Party.”