Former Labour MP hits out at Jeremy Corbyn saying: Vote Conservative
Former Dudley North MP Ian Austin who has told voters to back Boris Johsnon. Photograph: Simon Cooper/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
A former MP who stood down from the Labour Party earlier this year has said he will not stand in the general election, and as a parting shot told the electorate to vote for Boris Johnson.
Ian Dudley, who has been a member of the party for 34 years, said that Jeremy Corbyn is "completely unfit to lead our country".
"It's really come to something when I tell decent, traditional, patriotic Labour voters that they should be voting for Boris Johnson at this election," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The former minister and Gordon Brown ally, who has several Jewish family members who were persecuted or murdered by the Nazis, said Corbyn's actions against alleged anti-Semitism in the party were "complete nonsense".
"Nine out of 10 in Britain's Jewish community think he's anti-Semitic," said Austin, adding that the party has been "poisoned" by anti-Jewish sentiment.
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Austin voted to Remain but approved to Theresa May's Brexit deal.
"I think Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit policy is a completely fantasy," said the Brexiteer, who objected to the proposed time frame for renegotiation of a Brexit deal, as well as objecting to a second referendum.
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"I'm not joining the Tories," he added. "I didn't leave the Labour party to join another political party. I left it to shine a spotlight on the disgrace it's become under Jeremy Corbyn. And to demand other people step up and do something about it."
Dudley, who has been a Labour member for 34 years, was a former Gordon Brown ally who advocated limits to immigration, and has now started a centre-left political website.
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