JEREMY Corbyn has blasted Keir Starmer over a “really disgraceful” insult he made about him during the outgoing Prime Minister’s resignation speech.
Speaking outside No 10 on Monday morning, Starmer announced he will be standing down as Labour leader.
During that speech, he said he had inherited a party that was “politically, financially and morally bankrupt”.
Reacting to that comment on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Corbyn branded it as “really disgraceful”.
“I was extremely angry about it. I was proud to be elected and to lead the Labour Party, elected twice to lead it, proud of the policies we developed, all of which were endorsed by Keir Starmer,” he said.
“And when I stepped down as Leader of the Labour Party, the party had funds, had 600,000 members, and it had policies that were actually individually very popular across the country about social redistribution, so the idea that it's morally bankrupt is a really disgraceful comment to make.’
When asked to share his message to Starmer on his departure from No.10, Corbyn said his former colleague should “think very hard of the decisions you've made and the people that you've allowed to direct those decisions”.
He added: “The world is a dangerous place. I get that. I absolutely get that. Instead of spending more and more on arms, let's put more and more effort into trying to bring about diplomacy and peace.”
When also asked about the prospect of an early general election, Corbyn described it as “extremely unlikely”.
“If Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister in early July unopposed, then he's elected as Prime Minister by the Parliamentary Labour Party, we have a parliamentary, not a presidential system, so he has no requirement to call a general election,” he said.
“He might say, well, actually, I would like to get a mandate on my own terms, but I don't think there is an overwhelming pressure, and certainly on the streets in my constituency this morning, nobody said anything about a general election.”
