Labour councillors’ new anti-Corbyn letter – are all the signatures genuine this time?

Last Updated: August 19, 2016By
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].

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].

Another letter from Labour councillors? Really?

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

20 Comments

  1. Kanjin Tor ™ (@xugla) August 19, 2016 at 11:29 am - Reply

    yes it is drivel… and it will get much much worse Mike

    • Mike Sivier August 19, 2016 at 11:41 am - Reply

      I know.

  2. Jeffrey Davies August 19, 2016 at 11:46 am - Reply

    owen who

  3. NMac August 19, 2016 at 11:56 am - Reply

    Whatever they say, whatever they say I believe Corbyn will be re-elected. Don’t they understand that?

  4. Susan Brookes August 19, 2016 at 12:08 pm - Reply

    Unless we see the list of names, which is not available, it is difficult to tell. Also, we need to know what proportion this is. I would guess that it is still a minority, even if it were true. Judging by by local authority and CLP, the majority back Corbyn. Very few are enthusiastic about Smith, more are neutral than passionate about him. Those that support Smith only repeat mantras rather than discuss policy, so it is a top down propaganda campaign.

    • grahamhanks August 19, 2016 at 11:30 pm - Reply

      assuming the signatures are all real this time (dubious about that) there are over 7,000 Labour counsellors, so 6,000 didn’t sign. In doncaster (my home constituency) there are 40 labour MP’s – only 4 signed apparently.

      • Mike Sivier August 20, 2016 at 11:22 am - Reply

        Quite right – so a minority of councillors have signed a letter of opposition, and this is supposed to be a huge blow against a man who gets 10 times as many people at his rallies!
        I don’t think so.

  5. paulrutherford8 August 19, 2016 at 12:22 pm - Reply

    Has anyone seen this letter? No sign of it on the Guardian piece. I bet there’ll be some nervous councillors about now. Ours take very little interest in our CLP. It seems they go off into a void where they believe they, like the PLP are unaccountable.

  6. John Spencer-Davis August 19, 2016 at 12:29 pm - Reply

    Where’s this letter? Let’s see it.

  7. Zippi August 19, 2016 at 12:46 pm - Reply

    This is becoming tiresome. If they really don’t like it, that much, why don’t they just leave? How can they possibly have the energy for this? Is anybody actually doing any work?

  8. Cllr Chris Burke August 19, 2016 at 12:56 pm - Reply

    As a Labour Lincoln City Councillor I will vote for Jeremy Corbyn. I call on all our MPs to support the leader after the vote.

    • Jacqui Killick August 19, 2016 at 3:26 pm - Reply

      Can you check the legitimacy of the signatures? or some of them that you suspect might not be genuine?

      • Mike Sivier August 19, 2016 at 4:01 pm - Reply

        No, it’s down to the people named in the letter.

  9. rupertrlmitchell August 19, 2016 at 1:27 pm - Reply

    I find this sort of underhand lying about a decent man absolutely disgusting and the people behind it are certainly not genuine Labour people and need to be sacked and, if possible, prosecuted for spreading false rumours once Jeremy is re-elected. I am all the more behind Corbyn every day and admire his stamina both physical and mental for not letting these lies bother him and we must follow suit.

  10. Lin Wren August 19, 2016 at 9:09 pm - Reply

    These people do need to be stripped of any ‘authority’ & sacked. If people find their name on that list they are obliged by law & parliamentary law to report the fraud. What is happening in their CLPs. Do they agree with this sort of nasty politics?

  11. plhepworth August 23, 2016 at 8:16 am - Reply

    ‘Weak leadership’ has become a mantra, unsupported by evidence. Corbyn comes across in public as calm and assured (good leadership qualities). What do the PLP rebels want from their leader? Tantrums, abuse, inconsistency, duplicity?

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