John Woodcock, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness and, in the opinion of This Writer, a complete and utter twit [Image: Laura Lean/PA].

The problem for the vast majority of the Labour movement is that these idiots, by continuing to cry about the fact that a genuinely popular leader has taken charge of what they considered ‘their’ party, may scupper further opportunities to trounce the Tories.

So we have John Woodcock, MP for Barrow and Furness, who chose the week Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity eclipsed that of David Cameron to tell everybody the Labour leader was bad for the party.

He claimed, on Twitter, that Corbyn is “unwittingly aiding and abetting the Tories” – without even the slightest trace of irony, according to a response by Matthew Black. Of course, Mr Woodcock’s rebellion undermines the recent progress made by Labour and helps the Conservatives.

Is this merely an appalling misjudgement by Mr Woodcock, or is he a Tory fifth-columnist?

An even worse misjudgement was the claim that the disabled are being

“appallingly served by a leadership team who cannot even get its act together properly to stand up for disabled people when they are screwed over by the Tories.”

Perhaps Mr Woodcock has forgotten New Labour’s attitude to the sick and disabled. Let us remind him:

New Labour was the party that introduced Employment and Support Allowance and the hated Work Capability Assessment (WCA) that have caused distress, destitution and death to the disabled.

When members demanded prior to the 2015 general election that Labour (under Ed Miliband) should pledge to end the tyranny of the WCA, they were told that Labour would not support scrapping it “because of fears it [would] play badly with the right wing press and damage Labour’s electoral chances”.

So neoliberal Labour – now known as the ‘Bitterites’ – believed it was important that disabled people continue to die in order to improve their chances of appealing to middle-class voters through the right-wing press.

John Woodcock seems to believe that is how Labour should stand up for the disabled.

This Writer prefers Jeremy Corbyn’s way. Call me a sentimentalist if you like, but it seems more humane to try to help them to live.

It is notable that Mr Woodcock’s rallying cry against Jeremy Corbyn has been answered by only two other MPs.

Jamie Reed, who represents Copeland in Cumbria, said

“If your boss is killing your firm, do you stay quiet?”

He seems to have a strange idea of failure. Since Jeremy Corbyn announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership, membership of the party has almost doubled and support for the now-leader is overwhelming.

And Angela Smith, member for Penistone and Stockbridge, claimed Mr Corbyn had

“failed to make any significant statement on the EU and had failed to hit out at the Tories.”

This is hardly surprising as Labour’s EU referendum campaign is being run by Alan Johnson. Mr Corbyn has concentrated on attacking Conservative Government policies – and, as his barnstorming speech on Budget Day showed, he’s been doing very well at it.

Many of us think this is exactly what an Opposition leader should be doing.

Source: Labour MPs back call for Jeremy Corbyn to stand down | Politics | The Guardian

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