Senior Labour MP tables motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn

A senior Labour MP has tabled a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn following the referendum vote to leave the EU.

Dame Margaret Hodge has submitted a motion – seconded by backbencher Ann Coffey – to the Parliamentary Labour Party, her office said.

Although the motion has no formal status it is expected to form the the basis of a discussion in the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie said he was “not surprised” at the move and called on Mr Corbyn to consider his position.

“I would say today he does need to consider his position and think about whether he should do the honourable thing,” he told BBC News.

“Every MP is going to have to search their conscience about it but I think I would need an awful lot of persuading to have confidence in Jeremy’s leadership going into a general election.”

Dame Margaret urged Mr Corbyn to “do the decent thing” and stand down in the way that David Cameron had.

“The European referendum was a test of leadership and I think Jeremy failed that test,” she told Sky News.

“He came out too slowly, he was very half-hearted about his attempts to campaign and Labour voters simply didn’t get the message.”

Following the decision to leave the EU,  MPs complained the party was “out of touch” as its traditional northern strongholds such as Sunderland, Rochdale and Oldham voted comfortably for Leave

Frontbencher Chris Bryant turned on former leader Ed Miliband, whose overhaul of the party’s rule book was widely seen to have paved the way for Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader.

Mr Corbyn, a long-time Eurosceptic, defended his conduct in the campaign however, amid criticisms that he offered no more than lukewarm support for Remain, blaming Government austerity cuts for alienating voters.

“A lot of the message that has come back from this is that many communities are fed up with cuts, they are fed up with economic dislocation and feel very angry at the way they have been betrayed and marginalised by successive governments in very poor areas of the country,” he told BBC News.

“The point I was making was there were good things that had come from Europe in working conditions and environmental protections but there were other issues that had not been addressed properly.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair also hit out against Mr Corbyn’s leadership of Labour during the referendum. He said it was “pretty lukewarm in its support for Remain” and failed to mobilise its supporters “to understand that this was not a`protest vote against the Government or indeed the Establishment”, he added.