Film director Ken Loach has hit out at members of the parliamentary Labour party for trying to “undermine” Jeremy Corbyn.
Talking to PA new agency, he said “the Labour Party is not divided in the country” but “the parliamentary bunch” are doing the best to destroy the party leadership.
Loach was talking ahead of the launch of his latest movie Sorry We Missed You, which tackles the gig economy and zero hour contracts.
It’s not that the party is divided
He said: “The Labour Party is in the most curious position, it has a leadership which was elected overwhelmingly by the members, it has got a parliamentary party most of whom became MPs under Blair and Brown, and the leadership has moved 180 degrees away from that politics of privatisation, the illegal war, keeping the trade unions weak, a very right wing government.
“But the MPs represent that politics so they are trying to undermine Corbyn, most of them, and they are at odds with the membership even though the membership are sometimes bullied and persuaded to support them.
“But the members have been largely supportive of Jeremy Corbyn.
“The parliamentary party has tried to get rid of him and the leadership at the top, a small leadership, is Jeremy and those who stand with him.
“It’s not that the party is divided, it’s the parliamentary bunch doing their best to destroy the Corbyn leadership in many ways.”
Better wages and conditions
Loach also criticised “right wing politicians” who have “no intention” of helping people struggling in the gig economy.
He added: “This is the system they want. They talk about constantly expanding trade, constantly expanding the economy, they talk about the free market.
“The European Union is based on the free market, it’s in the founding documents. Everything that (Boris) Johnson does, and the Tories do, is about facilitating the free market, he’s gone to see Trump and said he will put out the red carpet for American companies, that will increase what we call the gig economy.
“They oppose strong unions or do everything they can to undermine them, which would, with collective bargaining, give us strength to get better wages and conditions and go back to the basic analysis we learned in the 60s, my generation at least, was there are two classes in society – those that own and exploit and those that don’t own and are exploited.
“That has been illustrated so profoundly and dramatically that it’s self-evidently true.”
I don’t want the Tories to see my film
Asked if he would like Tories to see his film, which follows a family buckling under the strain of zero hour contracts, he said:
“No I don’t want them to see it, I want us to defeat them.
“They have got to be beaten, they are not there to persuade. They are beyond persuasion.”
Sorry We Missed You is in UK cinemas on November 1.
Related: NAO says government’s £100m Brexit campaign has had “limited impact”
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
