Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, frontrunner in the group seeking the Conservative London mayoral nomination, has warned the “glee” of his party colleagues at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Labour Party leader is “totally misplaced”. He said Corbyn could somehow capture the “zeitgeist” and ride the wave of support that confounded his critics, leading Britain into “very dangerous terrain”.
In an exchange with LBC Radio‘s Nick Ferrari, Goldsmith said he is “amazed” that any of his Tory colleagues are “licking their lips” at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn leading the Labour Party because of two possible scenarios.
The first of Goldsmith’s outcomes is that Corbyn “flops”, he explained that in that case “the Government has no effective opposition – and no government is going to perform well without effective opposition, it’s what makes good government. If you believe in democracy, you need a good opposition.”
The second Goldsmith outcome is even worse for the country:
“…the alternative is that he doesn’t flop, that he captures the zeitgeist and people get wildly excited across the country, not just the union members or the people who are signing up in the last few days.
And I think that’s even more worrying because we’d be taking this country into a very dangerous terrain. So I don’t see any good coming out of this at all.”
Goldsmith did, however, concede that he shares some common ground with Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “From a London point of view I’m absolutely thrilled that Jeremy Corbyn is opposed to Heathrow expansion, so there’s one issue, one issue at least on which we can agree.”
Writing for Breitbart News today, Nigel Farage identified anti-Corbyn hysteria in the Labour Party. For his part he disagrees with Goldsmith and identifies another Corbyn scenario which would cause the environmentalist Tory MP some concern:
“I have to say I hope he wins. The best news of all? A Corbyn win will be the death of the Green Party. Hooray.”