The French economist Thomas Piketty has criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s “weak campaign” for Britain to remain in the EU as he confirmed that he had quit as an adviser to to the Labour leader.
Piketty, whose book Capital, documenting rising inequality, became a runaway bestseller in 2013, told Sky News that he was “deeply concerned with the Brexit vote and with the very weak campaign of Labour”.
He said he quit two weeks ago after concluding that his work commitments prevented him from attending Labour’s economic advisory council.
Corbyn has also come under fire from the economist and former Bank of England policymaker David Blanchflower, who resigned on Tuesday, and provoked criticism from the remaining members of the council for a lack of leadership..
The resignations will come as a blow to the Labour leader, who is fighting for his position after losing a confidence vote by 172 to 40.
The group was set up last year by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, to provide Corbyn with a critique of George Osborne’s austerity drive and a framework for the party’s economic policy going into the next election.
Blanchflower, who teaches at the US Ivy League university Dartmouth College and was also asked to examine how the Bank could better serve a future Labour government, said Corbyn was playing “idiotic games” and should step down as leader.
“In light of recent developments, I have decided to resign from the economic advisory council and wind up the review of the Bank of England,” he said.
The resignations have forced the remaining committee members to suspend their work. However, Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning US economist who also agreed to join the group, has yet to make his views known.
Mariana Mazzucato, an economics professor at Sussex University, Ann Pettifor, the director of economics consultancy Prime and the Oxford University professor Simon Wren-Lewis were among the other advisers to agree that they should delay further meetings until “the dust has settled”.
They said in a statement: “We have always seen this body as providing advice to the Labour party as a whole, and not as an endorsement of particular individuals within it.
“For example, we all share the view that the EU referendum result is a major disaster for the UK and we have felt unhappy that the Labour leadership has not campaigned more strongly to avoid this outcome.
“We believe it is now crucial to find a way to resolve the economic and political impasse with the EU in a way that brings the least damage possible to the UK economy and those of our neighbours. We will be honoured to advise the Labour party in the future, should our advice be sought once the current situation is resolved.”
