Jeremy Corbyn is massively out of step with the public on the issues that caused three resignations from his front bench, an exclusive poll reveals today.
By two to one, Britons think he should sever his links with the Left-wing Stop the War pressure group, found pollsters BMG Research.
Just 14 per cent think terrorist attacks like the Paris shootings can be blamed on Western military action in the Middle East, which Stop the War has claimed.
Commentary: ‘North London clique’ defines fault line running through party
In the stairwells of Portcullis House, “north London clique” has become a rallying cry for those opposed to Jeremy Corbyn.
The term is loaded with meaning — and goes to the heart of the fault line running through Labour and the trade union movement. Foremost, it suggests Mr Corbyn’s circle is isolated from the real world and doomed to defeat in 2020. Our poll by BMG Research underlines this: Voters do not like Stop the War, the group that Mr Corbyn helped launch in Euston Road.
Mr Corbyn’s bedrock comes from the hard-Left activism that read London Labour Briefing in the Eighties and listened to Ken Livingstone and John McDonnell in draughty halls. The survivors are now returning to Labour, along with the N1 chattering classes, disaffected graduates, and NGO-employed baby-boomers who fled to the Greens in the Blair years. It was no coincidence that the political obituaries to Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden, sacked this week, all stressed their horny-handed roots in Yorkshire and Glasgow. The pair belong to a tribe that sees itself as closer to ordinary people’s kitchen table worries.
The chasm is exemplified by the issue of Heathrow’s third runway. To the Corbyn-McDonnell set, it is a carbon-belching corporate menace. But to the trade unions, a third runway means jobs and prosperity for working households.
The position of Tom Watson is hugely important. He hails from the West Midlands and the trade unions, has no truck with neo-Marxist posturing and a mandate from the membership for his shadow cabinet place. Some Labour MPs think the real fault line in Labour is between its leader and his deputy.
More than three times as many — 47 per cent — agree with sacked ex-minister Pat McFadden, who was dismissed by Mr Corbyn for publicly condemning the Stop the War claims.
The findings will horrify Labour moderates who fear that their Left-wing leader is courting election disaster by aligning the party with Stop the War and its policies, which include unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Labour MP Kevan Jones, who resigned yesterday as shadow armed forces minister, said: “This just reinforces that we are alienating mainstream opinion.
"It means that as a party we are in danger of not being taken seriously on defence and security issues.”
Mr McFadden said: “It’s really important in the face of terror to defend the values of our society.”
The findings came as Mr Corbyn completed his reshuffle with some junior posts.
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However, MPs said he had been prevented from sacking two senior whips, Alan Campbell and Mark Tami, when chief whip Rosie Winterton and others threatened to resign.
Mr Corbyn co-founded Stop the War in 2001 and was its chair for four years until he was elected leader in September.
When he attended a fundraiser for the group last month, defying critics, he hailed it as “vital” and said: “I’ve been proud to be the chair.”
But a clear 63 per cent majority of the public with an opinion say Labour’s leader was wrong to attend the fund-raising event.
Just 37 per cent said he was right to attend.
Dr Michael Turner, research director at BMG Research, said: “These results are a stark reminder for the Labour party that the vast majority of public opinion is opposed to many of its leader’s views.”
A detailed breakdown revealed that current Labour supporters backed Mr Corbyn’s ties with Stop the War, but a majority of those who voted Labour last year thought he should cut them.
Six in 10 Londoners thought he should cut ties, excluding don’t knows.