I supported Jeremy Corbyn but it's time for him to go.

I supported Jeremy Corbyn when he was elected but now I think it's time for him to go. There, I've said it. It's not easy to do but it's something that's been niggling me for a while and it had to come out.

I liked Jeremy Corbyn. Everyone liked him. I don't dislike him personally now. When he was elected three years ago, he came into our lives like a bearded socialist whirlwind who turned the Labour Party on its head. He got many people who couldn’t normally give a damn about politics to care and brought even more into the Labour Party fold. We have only to look locally for proof of that - Labour has never been so strong and active as they now are in Cornwall. The Corbyn factor is plain to see. But, a cautionary note from those of us with long political memories: remember the heady days of Liberal activism? Lots of support at the local level but almost ziltch nationally.
 
When Jezza came in, he was like everyone’s new hot date, with his older, well worn, rebellious look. After all, there’s no rebel like a Labour Party rebel, is there? His policies were exciting, interesting and appealed to young people and many others around the country. Renationalising the railways makes sense, everyone hates austerity (including the economists) and forgiving student debts was never going to go down badly. What's not to like? We all knew that he was going to get slaughtered in the press and we shouldn't have expected anything else from them. That’s what the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph and the rest of them do – they exist as Tory attack dogs. For a lot of people, myself included, the thinking was: we'll ride it out and build a popular movement, a left-wing open house that appealed to people up and down the country. And then we'll move from strength to strength. Except that this hasn't happened. Instead of going from the hot date to the long-term boyfriend, Jezza has instead become the creepy guy who just won’t leave you alone in the pub or wherever.

I live in Cornwall and have lived in Kent and I know the challenges the Labour Party faces to get elected: sadly Corbyn is not the man to meet them. There’s lots of different incidents I could pick up on. His failure to effectively deal with the anti-semitism row, the intimidation at local Labour levels, his ineffectual  EU referendum campaign, his failure to get his MPs to support him, his failure to support Kez Dugdale in Scotland, his failure to expand the party’s electoral appeal, his failure to see Mrs May off at PMQs – the list goes on and most of them are self-inflicted. The Press can't be blamed for everything.

I’ve voted in every election I've been eligible for. In all bar a few, when I've voted tactically, I have always voted Labour. I'm a tribal, visceral Labourite and I’m not going to stop voting Labour. But for a party to be able to hold the Tories to account, let alone govern, it has to be able to organise its MPs into a credible opposition. Which takes us to one of the questions Corbyn had to answer when he came in: how was he, as a man who voted against his colleagues over 500 times, going to marshal them, and put together a team? He didn’t and he hasn't. He's failed. He’s the leader of the Labour party, yet he failed to gain even his closest colleagues’ confidence. I'm afraid I trust the vast majority of Labour MPs far more than I trust Jezza's judgement, especially after his abject EU referendum campaign. Each of them knows the process of politics and government far better than most of us ever will. They know how hard it is. I believe the Labour party belongs in power, like every other Labour party member. But in order to get into power, we have to have a Labour leader who is actually electable – Jeremy Corbyn isn’t. It’s beyond naive to pretend that Jeremy Corbyn is the next Prime Minister in-waiting. He seems to be devoid of authority or discipline and he’s utterly unelectable. He was supposed to reinvent the Labour party as something exciting and modern post-Blair, instead of which he’s shown himself to be a dinosaur from the 1980s and has failed to organise an effective opposition

Leadership matters. Leadership is essential. The Labour Party needs a leader with energy, authority and imagination. Jezza isn't the one. But if not Jezza, who? And that's where it becomes very difficult: who indeed?