The Parliamentary Labour Party may force a showdown with party leadership during its weekly meeting, after Jeremy Corbyn’s comments on potentially legalising prostitution.
In recent months, the weekly Monday night meetings have been a flash point between the Labour leadership and the dissatisfied PLP. Labourites in Westminster are now expecting Labour to lose as many as 200 seats in May’s local elections. This has intensified divisions between the leadership and PLP over the London Mayoral elections, Trident and EU membership.
Corbyn’s comments on prostitution came during a Q&A with students in which he said: “I am in favour of decriminalising the sex industry. I want to be [in] a society where we don’t automatically criminalise people.”
The comments drew strong criticism from Labour MPs such as Harriet Harman however. In her view prostitution is: “exploitation and abuse, not an industry”.
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As of Monday morning the PLP has not commented..
Sub Edited by David Gregg and Alex Vryzakis