Corbyn FINALLY admits he IS partly to blame for Copeland by-election catastrophe as poll finds a THIRD of Labour voters want him to quit

Veteran left-winger admits he 'shares responsibility' for humiliating defeat
Corbyn previously dismissed warnings that he is an electoral problem for Labour
Party slumped to worst by-election performance since war in losing Copeland
Poll shows a third of Labour voters want Corbyn to stand aside as leader

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor For Mailonline

Published: 08:41 GMT, 26 February 2017 | Updated: 11:41 GMT, 26 February 2017

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Jeremy Corbyn finally admitted that he is partly to blame for Labour's Copeland by-election catastrophe today - as a poll showed a third of the party's voters want him to quit.

The veteran left-winger admitted that he 'shared responsibility' for the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Tories in the worst result for an Opposition since the Second World War.

But Mr Corbyn insisted he was determined to 'finish the job' and would stay in charge of the party until the general election.

Despite the grim picture facing him, Mr Corbyn (pictured at a press conference on Friday) has finally accepted that he shares some responsibility for the Copeland defeat

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson denied that it was 'suicide' to keep Mr Corbyn in place but warned that he needed to be more 'coherent'

The defiant posturing came as his deputy Tom Watson denied that it was 'suicide' to keep Mr Corbyn in place but warned that he needed to be more 'coherent'.

'The country now know he's a conviction politician; I think they now want to see him giving greater policy coherence,' Mr Watson told ITV's Peston programme.

The devastating result in Copeland - where Conservative Trudy Harrison romped to victory in a seat Labour has held since the 1930s - has sparked panic.

Despite the party fending off a challenge from UKIP in much safer Stoke Central, there are signs that union support is starting to ebb away from Mr Corbyn.

Mr Watson played down the prospects of a fresh bid to unseat Mr Corbyn, which rebels believed would be rejected by the increasingly left-wing membership.

But he raised concerns that the meltdown Labour has suffered in Scotland could be repeated in England unless something changes soon.

He also took aim at Unite chief Len McCluskey, a key supporter of Mr Corbyn, for keeping silent since the Copeland result.

'If I've got some frustrations, it's that those people that are Jeremy's cheerleaders, that made sure that he was elected a second time last September, they should be sticking with their leader in the bad times, not just the good,' Mr Watson said.

'Dave Prentis has spoken out, but I'd say to you this morning where's Len McCluskey defending his leader in this difficult time?

Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr show today, shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti again denied that Mr Corbyn was an issue

'It shouldn't be just down to me.'

Former foreign secretary David Miliband, often touted as a centrist replacement for Mr Corbyn, has lamented that he had put the party in its worst position for 50 years.

Mr Corbyn refused on Friday even to contemplate the idea that he was to blame for the dismal showing in Copeland.

Asked at a shambolic press conference whether he had 'looked in the mirror' and considered he might be the problem, Mr Corbyn replied bluntly: 'No.' He refused to elaborate further.

Meanwhile, allies lashed out at Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, 'fake news' and the 'establishment' as they tried to find other reasons for the defeat. One shadow cabinet member, Cat Smith, tried to paint the outcome as an 'incredible achievement' because Labour only lost by 2,000 votes.

Trudy Harrison's achievement of turning a 2,500 Labour lead into a Tory majority of more than 2,000 is one the Conservatives insist has not been matched since 1878

In Copeland, Conservative candidate Trudy Harrison (right) polled 13,748 votes to 11,601 for Labour's Gillian Troughton, (left) increasing the Tory vote share by more than 8 per cent as Labour's dropped by nearly 5 per cent

Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti again denied that Mr Corbyn was an issue.

'It's not about the terrible regime, it's about the fact representatives cannot weigh people's votes anymore,' she said.

'What I would say to Dave Prentis and some of these other great men of the left is it's time to unite, because constant attacks on the leadership, constant leadership elections, constant divisions, don't actually attack the issues that would allow us to present an alternative vision.'

But writing in the Sunday Mirror today, Mr Corbyn finally conceded that his dire personal ratings could have had some impact.

'The result in Copeland was deeply disappointing. Labour's share of the vote in Copeland has been falling for 20 years and of course I take my share of responsibility,' he said.

'Both these areas, like many others in Britain, have been left behind by globalisation and lost out from a rigged economy...

'The task now is to fight for a positive future for Britain after Brexit - not the kind of bargain-basement tax haven the Tories want to engineer.

'And we must take our message of economic renewal and fairness to every part of Britain and show that Labour has changed under my leadership.

A ComRes poll for the paper found that a third of Labour voters now want him to stand down. Some 77 per cent of non-Labour voters think he should go.

But addressing the Scottish Labour conference later Mr Corbyn will insist now is not the time to 'retreat, run away or give up'.

Despite the fact that 18 months into his leadership the party is trailing the Tories in the polls by 18 points and faces a rout at the general election, Mr Corbyn will insist the 'time has come' for his left-wing policies.

Mr Corbyn vowed to carry on despite becoming the first Opposition leader to take his party to a by-election defeat against a sitting government since Michael Foot in 1982