The letter comes after Mr Corbyn won the support of 84 per cent of local Labour parties who expressed a preference [Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images].

Does anybody remember the last one, calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation rather than supporting any candidate against him? [Update: This is the same letter, in fact, with more names added. It’s here.]

It had 500 names, including those of many people who in fact supported Mr Corbyn. You can read about one of them here.

May we expect the current letter to feature the names of people who really do support Owen Smith?

Michael Payne’s comment to the Guardian comes straight from the Post-Truth playbook: ““Corbyn’s weak leadership [what weak leadership? Examples?] risks condemning Britain to a generation of destructive Conservative rule [why?]. Labour councillors are supporting Owen Smith because only he can unite Labour against the Tories [how?], and lead us back to power where we can transform the lives of working people for the better [how?].”

It’s drivel, isn’t it?

Owen Smith vacillates on policy ideas. He goes around in circles so often we should call him Roundabout Man. The reason: He’s a “weathercock”, as defined by Tony Benn. He goes any way the wind blows.

He is a follower, and would be exactly the kind of weak leader this letter’s signatories claim to oppose. From that, you can draw your own conclusions about them.

And let’s look at the way Mr Smith came to challenge Mr Corbyn:

The mass-resignation attempt to shame him out of his position, because the MPs who wanted him out knew they could not shift him with a leadership challenge.

The ‘no confidence’ vote, arranged in haste in order to ensure that Constituency Labour Parties could not direct their MPs to vote for Mr Corbyn (which failed in Angela Eagle’s case; she simply ignored the wishes of her fellow members).

The original letter from Labour councillors, condemning Mr Corbyn – and containing many signatures of people who actually supported him and didn’t agree with what was being said.

The dishonest stories about incompetence, unsupported by evidence, told by former shadow cabinet members who joined the so-called ‘Chicken Coup’ against Mr Corbyn.

The hypocritical attacks on supporters of Mr Corbyn, who have been accused of vandalism, intimidation, abuse, threats, homophobia, anti-Semitism, Trotskysim, Nazism, Maoism and more – all without evidence to support the claims. Meanwhile, the same Corbyn supporters have been subjected to exactly the same kind of abuse by supporters of the ‘rebel’ MPs, who don’t see any irony in what they are doing. This has given rise to a new catchphrase: “The accusers are the abusers“.

Add it all up and we’re looking at a corrupt attempt to deceive Labour members and supporters into voting against their own interests.

Leaving behind any concerns related to Mr Corbyn, perhaps we should ask one pertinent question about Mr Smith:

How can anybody vote for such a man, and the movement behind him, in good conscience?

More than 1,000 Labour councillors have signed a letter of support for the Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith, representing more than 200 local authorities.

The letter, signed by representatives from England, Wales and Scotland, says the councillors do not have faith in Jeremy Corbyn’s “weak leadership”, warning that the country faces an existential threat from the vote to leave the EU with a potential second Scottish referendum looming.

The letter, which follows a separate piece from 246 councillors endorsing Corbyn, was organised by the Nottinghamshire councillor Michael Payne and the Westminster councillor Tim Roca. There are about 6,000 Labour councillors in the UK.

Source: More than 1,000 Labour councillors sign letter backing Owen Smith | Politics | The Guardian