Angela Smith: The message from Mosborough is very clear | LabourList

Last Updated: September 12, 2016By
Jeremy Corbyn addressing thousands in Sheffield in August. But the local Labour Party fielded an anti-Corbyn candidate in the Mosborough by-election - and lost.

Jeremy Corbyn addressing thousands in Sheffield in August. But the local Labour Party fielded an anti-Corbyn candidate in the Mosborough by-election – and lost.

Here’s another post in support of This Blog’s article speculating that the broken office window at the Labour regional office for Yorkshire and the Humber is about the Mosborough by-election in Sheffield.

Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith said Labour’s candidate – who lives almost as far away from Mosborough as Doncaster is from the Sheffield ward – was “brilliant” and inspired Labour members to help her campaign.

But her inflammatory comments about Jeremy Corbyn may have angered one or two too many people. She said “traditional Labour” voters refused to vote for the party with Mr Corbyn at its head, because he was “weak”, and “out of touch”, and untrustworthy.

This Writer has an opinion on some of these words. For a start, Mr Corbyn’s policies are the most “traditional Labour” that the party has put forward in decades. It seems inconceivable that he should be attacked on those grounds.

So they are strong words. Strong enough to spark vandalism in Wakefield?

We had a brilliant candidate in Julie Grocutt, a former police officer and trade union rep. She’s a town councillor in Sheffield with a well-deserved reputation for community service. She’s a phenomenal campaigner too, putting petrol in her car to campaign across Sheffield and Barnsley for Labour.

Her years of hard work meant Labour members came out to help her campaign. We knocked on more doors and delivered more leaflets than in most council by-elections I can remember.

Anyone who knocked on doors in Mosborough will tell you very clearly why we lost. Traditional Labour voters refused to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. I knocked on door after door and heard the same message. Even yesterday, as we were knocking up to get people to the polls.

Too many residents told me they thought he was weak. They think he is not capable of leading the Labour Party, let alone the country. They can’t imagine him on the doorstep of Number Ten welcoming an American President – let alone negotiating with Putin.

Others told me he was out of touch on issues like welfare or immigration and that they wouldn’t trust him with the economy or the country’s defences.

Source: Angela Smith: The message from Mosborough is very clear | LabourList

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4 Comments

  1. mohandeer September 13, 2016 at 1:42 am - Reply

    If she was “brilliant” why did Labour lose and why are Labour anti Corbyn spouting rubbish about him not representing “Traditional Labour” when traditional Labour was sidelined by right wing elitist entryism only 15 years ago. Labour was a democratic socialist party many more years before that!

  2. Evan Dovey September 13, 2016 at 7:05 am - Reply

    Wow this sounds like one of the Right win papers.
    “he was out of touch on issues like welfare or immigration and that they wouldn’t trust him with the economy or the country’s defences”
    Either the “labour” supporters canvases have been reading too many right wing papers or this is another case of repeating something over and over until it becomes truth coming out of the mouth of a Labour candidate.
    It’s pretty obvious that they are making a big deal over ONE by-election loss, but there have been MANY MANY wins so it’s all pantomime

  3. Andy September 13, 2016 at 8:18 am - Reply

    Funny how some in the party accuse JC of being weak and not able to stand up top the US or Russian Presidents; as he has shown remarkable fortitude in dealing with elements in his own party who seem more concerned with attacking him than the Tories

  4. Roy Beiley September 13, 2016 at 1:45 pm - Reply

    Seems to me that those people “doorstepped” were actually referring to Owen Smiths credentials but it has been skewed to look as though the comments were about Jeremy Corbyn. Nice try you rebels but nowhere near a convincing narrative.

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