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Ian Austin: Ex-Labor MP urges people to vote Johnson to keep Corbyn out as he announces he is quitting Parliament – The Independent, Independent

Ian Austin: Ex-Labor MP urges people to vote Johnson to keep Corbyn out as he announces he is quitting Parliament – The Independent, Independent


    

             

                                   

                                                                         

A formerLaborMP has urged people to vote Boris Johnson and claimedJeremy Corbynis “ completely unfit ”to run the country as he announced his resignation from parliament in a live interview.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Ian Austin, a prominent critic of the Labor leader, made the remarks just hours after the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson,announced he was quitting frontline politics at the December election.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Mr Austin, a former minister and adviser to Gordon Brown, also said he would be stepping down from parliament, as he cited antisemitism allegations that he claimed had “poisoned” the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.                                                                                                                                                                                  

  

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He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “I’ve got to be honest with people. I’m not going to run at this election.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

“The country faces a big choice. There are only two people who can be prime minister on 13 December: Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson and I think Jeremy Corbyn is completely unfit to lead our country, completely unfit to lead the Labor Party.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

    

        

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“It’s really come to something when I tell decent, traditional, patriotic Labor voters that they should be voting for Boris Johnson at this election. I can’t believe it’s come to this, but that’s where we are. ”

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Mr Austin, the MP for Dudley since 2005,resigned from the Labor Party in February, hitting out at Mr Corbyn for “creating a culture of extremism and intolerance”.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Speaking on Thursday – the second day of the official election campaign – Mr Austin added: “Look, the public has to make this choice. The British people have to decide this. Lots of traditional Labor voters are going to be grappling with this question.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

“If they’ve got to face up to that, then I don’t think people like me should have the luxury of running away from it. What Jeremy Corbyn has done to the Labor Party, I don’t want him to be able to do that to the country. ”

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

His remarks comes after the Labor veteran and deputy leader Mr Watson said he was giving up frontline politics after almost four decades to campaign on public health matters, staying on in his role until 12 December election.

                                                                                                                     

Mr Watson said he was standing down for “personal, not political” reasons, and made no mention of the botched attempt the left to abolish his post on the eve of Labor’s conference in September.

                                                                                                                     

“If he felt that the pendulum was about to swing back very rapidly the other way, then he might have hung on,” said one Labor MP. “Perhaps he thought the road ahead was a long, not a short one.”

                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                              

  

    

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