What next for Labour? LBC's panel look at future of Jeremy Corbyn's party

12 December 2019, 22:57 | Updated: 12 December 2019, 23:08

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Andrew Pierce look at what will happen next for Labour if they suffer a big general election defeat.

The exit poll predicts that the Conservatives will win a big majority, winning 368 seats with Labour securing just 191.

That is a huge blow to a Labour Party who were still hopeful of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.

Speaking on Britain Decides, LBC's election night programme, the panel took a look at what the future holds for a Labour Party which faces a disappointing night.

Andrew asked: "Who would want to take it over at this stage? What a mess! It's shattered to pieces at the moment."

Shelagh Fogarty pointed out that the successor is likely to be another person of Corbyn's ilk, possibly with more appeal.

But Andrew hit back: "They couldn't have less appeal than Jeremy Corbyn."

Jacqui then stated: "If we had just lost, Jeremy Corbyn would have to have gone and then you could legitimately say the manifesto was good, the politics were right, Jeremy Corbyn just wasn't quite the man to do it.

"But if this is the scale of the defeat, that is a fundamental denial of the style of politics that Jeremy Corbyn has been pursuing and therefore it cannot be somebody who's been on his coat-tails.

"There's a massive re-building campaign to be done."

Andrew summed it up: "This is after nine years of Tory rule and let's face it, the last three years of Tory rule were hopeless."