David Cameron called the EU Referendum to win the 2015 General Election. He was under enormous pressure. The polls were against him and he calculated that the outcome would be another Coalition government. We all thought he was right. And if he had been right then the Lib Dems would have vetoed any talk of a Referendum, so Cameron would have been off the hook with his backbenchers.
Sadly, Cameron was wrong; there was no Coalition. He won a majority and so he had no choice but to call the Referendum and start down the path to personal political annihilation. He lost and made history, simultaneously. One man's miscalculation may well have started us on the path towards the death of the Labour Party and the break-up of the UK. But in my view, there is just one man to blame for the situation we're in right now, just one villain of the piece, and that's Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn was elected with a huge mandate. People believed he was a new kind of politician. A man that cared about them and their daily struggles. But what those supporters failed to realise is that Corbyn has absolutely no interest in winning a General Election. Elections are far too prosaic for him. Corbyn is a man whose sole aim is to put the Labour Party back into the hands of the far-Left. He wants to ensure that the far-Left rule the Party for ever. And he's prepared to play the long game to get his way - or destroy the Labour Party trying.
After 40 years of outright opposition to the EU and all it stands for, Jeremy Corbyn backed Remain. It would be easy to put this curious choice down to Trade Union or youth pressure, or a genuine feeling that in order to change the EU, one has to remain a member. But I don't buy that. Not one bit. Corbyn is an intelligent man with vast experience. He hates the EU and everything it stands for. Just as when he stood for leader, he chose to back Remain in order to fight that campaign, and more importantly his own Party, from within.
Let's look at the facts. If Corbyn had really believed in the Remain cause he would have campaigned like a true Remainer. Why not? Everyone else did on either side; and Corbyn is nothing if not a great political campaigner. The Referendum was a passionate, frantic battle for every single vote. But instead of spending his time actively backing Remain, Corbyn and his cabal did everything they could to scupper Remain's chances. The Remain camp begged Corbyn to get out and campaign but their pleas fell on deaf ears. He blocked requests for Labour data; refused to campaign alongside Cameron, and every speech he gave damned the EU with faint praise.
Meanwhile, Labour voters were angry. They were looking for leadership; a person who wanted to Leave the EU as much as they did; someone they thought understood their concerns about jobs, wages and immigration. Corbyn was so absent that many Labour voters assumed he was a Leaver. And as he was almost invisible, the working people found two alternative figureheads who, sadly, for better or worse, spoke their language with passion: Boris and Farage. Corbyn knew this was going to happen - it was all factored into his plan.
Labour voters flocked to Leave. I know they did because my practice, Right Angles, worked for Labour Leave, and we saw supporters skyrocket. I'm sure Corbyn was delighted. The more Labour voters who turned to Leave the more divided the centre-Left of the Party became.
Jeremy Corbyn could have stopped the Remain camp in its tracks. But he chose not to. So Leave was successful and, paradoxically, Jeremy Corbyn won. There can be little doubt that if Corbyn had campaigned energetically, actively and passionately for Remain, the country would likely have voted to stay. But he was far more concerned about his own future, his own political agenda and destroying the centre-Left wing of the Labour Party to bother with little things like staying in the EU.
The Leave result and subsequent 'no confidence' motion has incited the radical Left of the Party and created an atmosphere that encourages people to see Blarites as 'vermin' to be 'exterminated'. There is a very fine line between the rhetoric of the Far Left and the language of Britain First and the BNP. To the radical Left, we centrist moderates must be destroyed at all costs. And it that means the destruction of our Labour Party, then so be it. This is entirely in line with Corbyn's agenda; his grand plan.
Project Corbyn is a success. It's taking the entire Labour Party down and it may well take the country with it too. If Corbyn stays, successive Tory governments are assured. But that's not even on the agenda right now. If Corbyn stays there will be no Labour Party to fight any general elections. This is an existential battle for the survival of the Labour Party. And Corbyn is winning.
Since the vote of no confidence I've been agonising over whether to finally leave the Party; resign my membership and step back from the fight. But if I do that, I'll have no say over the future of the Party that I love. If I resign, I'm saying that I accept the death of the Labour Party.
So despite all the sadness and horror, I'm going to remain a member. I'm taking a leaf out of Corbyn's book and I'm going to fight from within to save the Labour Party. We only have one chance left to get our Party back and I urge as many of you left-wing moderates out there as possible to join me, become members of the Labour Party, and do the same.