I genuinely don’t understand how you can think that. There are about 650 MPs (not that I bothered to check, so could be a fair bit out). How can the numbers have been there, but the one and only dissenter was Corbyn? Wouldn’t he be outvoted about 650 to one? If instead the numbers were almost in balance but literally one short, then there are about 300 or so other MPs who were exactly the same sticking point as Corbyn. At the risk of appearing sarcastic or insulting, do you understand that the only qualification to lead a government of national unity is to enjoy the confidence of half the House of Commons, plus one?
Perhaps you mean that if Corbyn had supported an alternative then it would have gone through, because he has influence. Perhaps, but that means that not only Corbyn but also hundreds of other Labour MPs would have had to support an alternative. It doesn’t seem accurate to state that it was just Corbyn then? I mean, if the Lib Dems and remainer Tories would only have supported Corbyn, then we would have had a national unity government just as they wanted. So isn’t each of them also the one and only sticking point? Can there really be many “one and only sticking point”?
Perhaps you mean that as Leader of HM Opposition, Corbyn had and has the legal power to single-handedly frustrate this cunning plan? Short answer, since we are discussing by soundbite: he doesn’t.
I mean, it’s nice and all to nitpick other people’s arguments, and it is after all what all of us, inside and outside Parliament have been doing for three years now. But how about addressing the main point? What exactly, was this wonderful hypothetical national unity government going to do, in the short, medium and long terms? What would the outcome we have been cruelly denied by that nasty man have looked like?
I think (but could well be wrong) that Corbyn’s critics think there was and is some way of staying in the EU but not having a Corbyn-led Labour-led government. I don’t think we can remain in the EU without a Labour-led government. There is no feasible way, in my opinion, of getting from here to there.
Clearly, it needn’t be a Corbyn-led Labour Party in government, but I think it is cynically disingenuous in the extreme to say that it is Corbyn who is acting as a hyper-partisan here. If Corbyn’s critics within the Labour Party get a majority for a new leader then that will happen. Lib Dems and Tories do not get a vote in this. If Lib Dems and remainer Tories can’t stomach a Corbyn-led government and would prefer a hard no-deal Brexit, then they have to own that decision and accept it as their own partisan political decision. If that happens, it would not be solely or even jointly Jeremy Corbyn’s fault.
In other words, if the British people wanted a right wing government while staying in the EU, then they should have voted for right wing politicians who were committed to staying in the EU. If people want to stay in the EU, then they have to recognise that an overwhelming majority of the MPs who their fellow remainers voted into Parliament are socialists, and that remaining now must mean a socialist government. Surely, the commentators braying for power to the people, can’t object to that?
Sandwich
Edited to add: I mean I don’t think we can remain in the EU without a general election which returns a Labour-led administration, not that any government of national unity must be a Labour government. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.