Former Labour rebels need to rejoin the rest of the party – here’s why
![Baroness Chakrabarti spoke in support of Mr Corbyn [Image; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160924-Baroness-Chakrabarti-Chip-Somodevilla-Getty-Images.jpg)
Baroness Chakrabarti spoke in support of Mr Corbyn [Image; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images].
Baroness Chakrabarti has spoken out against claims that Jeremy Corbyn should make concessions to his opponents, like allowing the Parliamentary Labour Party to elect shadow cabinet members, in order to demonstrate the sincerity of his call for unity.
She pointed out that it is not Mr Corbyn who now needs to demonstrate his sincerity, but those who plotted against him and are now claiming to support him again:
Former Shadow Communities Secretary John Healey warned that Corbyn had to now give MPs a say over his Shadow Cabinet to prove “he means what he says about unifying the Party”.
But Baroness Chakrabarti, a strong supporter of Corbyn, said that the onus was on Labour MPs to change their conduct and get behind him.
The Labour peer said she did “not approve” of a 67-year-old man “being mugged in broad daylight, in cold blood, by people who don’t see that it is time for a change”.
And then there’s ‘Project Anaconda’, an alleged plot to crush the life out of Mr Corbyn’s leadership by forcing him into concession after concession that leaves him powerless.
Deputy leader Tom Watson is allegedly behind this, although he has denied it.
The best denial, of course, is not to request any concessions at all but to buckle under, accept Mr Corbyn’s leadership, and follow it.
Can we look forward to that, please?
In a further sign of the distrust in the party, HuffPost UK has been passed extracts from internal party emails claiming that the deputy leader has been operating a so-called “Project Anaconda” with Shadow Cabinet reforms and wider NEC proposals.
“’Project Anaconda’…will involve isolating and weakening JC and ultimately crushing the life out of his leadership,” one email claimed.
“Every concession JC makes will be used to tighten the grip.”
Sources close to Watson said the claims were “ridiculous” and that neither he nor anyone close to him had used the phrase.
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“She pointed out that it is not Mr Corbyn who now needs to demonstrate his sincerity, but those who plotted against him and are now claiming to support him again:…”
With regards the “anaconda” report, much as I distrust Tom Watson, any further than I could throw him, the HuffPost has been taking a lot of flak on social media sites for their unsourced and lying propagandist op eds, so I won’t out too much store in it – yet.
What in heavens name is wrong with these people? Why can they not accept an overwhelming democratically run election result! Silly yakking by biased Huffpost. “Crushing the life out of JC by opposing him at every opportunity”. They do like their dramatic rhetoric I must say. Do they have a unified view on Brexit? Will they seek to overturn that result by “crushing the life out of Theresa May by opposing her at every opportunity”? That’s what they should be focusing on instead of all this intra-party backstabbing. Let’s hope that there is an outbreak of common sense amongst the majority of Labour MP’s who will isolate vengeful ones until they are got rid of by de-selection.
Of the 170+ quitters, some will have been leaned on by Blue Labour. If they can demonstrate that, they can safely be treated with. The rest are just too likely to be getting behind Mr Corbyn because that’s the place to be if you want to stab someone in the back.
You do realise that those “quitters” were elected by MILLIONS of people, as opposed to the few hundreds of thousands of Labour members, BEFORE Jeremy Corbyn became leader and have been mandated by their voters to represent THEIR interests in parliament. Ditching democratically elected MPs at the behest of a very much smaller party membership is NOT democratic. You people seem to believe that a majority of Labour members trumps a much greater majority of votes amongst the general public when it come to who is and can remain Members of Parliament which is just about as undemocratic a thing as can be imagined.
No, those “quitters” were elected by a few thousand people each – many thousands fewer than elected New Labour into office in 1997.
Millions of people walked out on New Labour in disgust.
Millions of people are coming back to Labour now that Mr Corbyn is steering it back into the proper path – either as members or as voters.
I refer to the lack of democracy involved in getting these MPs elected in other comments so won’t go over it again – suffice it to say that you are deliberately trying to mislead This Blog’s readers.
In short, a majority of Labour members should certainly trump the small cadre of extreme right-wing sub-Tory MPs and NEC members who support the policy of ‘parachuting’ in unwanted candidates to ‘safe’ seats in order to bolster the neoliberal elite in Parliament. That’s where your failure of democracy lies.
Now stop trying to mislead us. If I see another comment like this from you, I’ll trash it. You have been told enough times.
Absolutely agree with the lady. It is not for JC to be making any concessions to anyone to prove he was right & means what he says. He did nothing wrong. He has now been elected twice into office dispite the awful lies, threats n purges. The 171+ rebels now first have to face their own CLPs and answer to them. I sincerely hope some of them will be deselected. My thought all the way through this is how can you ever trust them again? The court cases have been started by members against the now infamous NEC. No. The onus is without any doubt on those MPs who started it all. I will leave others to discuss TW. (Twat)
The die is cast. Best to get behind Corbyn now and see how he does. May is so vulnerable viz Brexit attacking her should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Corbyn is better at PMQs than the lamentable Ed Miliband. The shadow cabinet and front benchers look like a bunch of losers to me, as far as I can see, and although I think the next election is lost at least let’s go down fighting and put up a spirited defence of the helpless and the innocent, while we can, opposing as many of the unenlightened and evil things Theresa May and her crew will try to do over the next few years.
Corbyn is unassailable now and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.
I’m sure he will be loved and revered by hordes of Labour members and affiliates even after he leads the party to defeat in May 2020.
After a year of their non-ending Tory type sneaky tricks I would not trust these nest of vipers with anything. Give them the full power of electing the shadow cabinet? They still do not get it. Once they have all their cronies in place singing to their hymn sheets it will only be a short time before JC will be out the door. They are the ones who threw their toys out in a strop because they knew better…..will be good to see how much they give ground which you will measure in milli metres……
Could this be classed as Corbyns masterstroke. Despite the NEC attempting to rig the ballot in the most dishonorable attack to date on the UK’s sovereign democracy, alienating thousands of members, he not only pulled it off, but increased his lead.
Detractors should now either lay down their swords or leave the party. The smell of their treachery may linger for a while yet, but unless they demand death at the ballot box, must now show unity. It’s to late to save some from their fate, and they know it, they will continue to gripe or defect until removed. Kuenssberg is still up-to her scaly tricks trying to put words into Corbyns mouth, but masterfully turned back. Things are back as they should be, almost. If one good thing has come out of this, it is the showing of true colours. The public now should recognize the hate and venom to which Corbyn has been subjected, and adjust their opinions away from the plotters mantras.
What about the millions of voters who supported Labour PPCs and got them elected to parliament? What right have a few hundred of thousands of Labour party members got to call for their dismissal? Corbynites seem to believe that all potential Labour voters are cut from the same cloth as the newer Labour party members and that replacing moderate Labour MPs with men and women slavishly loyal to the current leader and his regime will get many more Labour MPs elected than is now the case.
This isn’t so; honest to God it isn’t.
It’s like watching lemmings, convinced that the grass is greener and lusher over the brink, hurtling at breakneck speed towards the edge of an Arctic ice floe.
The right of the Labour members to call for MPs dismissal – as future candidates for the Labour Party, remember – is absolute.
Those MPs only became MPs through the efforts of their constituency party members.
Remember, nobody will stop being an MP if they are deselected by party members.
Most voters support the party first, and the person second (if they know anything about the candidate). They rely on the constituency party to choose somebody worth supporting.
Recently, in the Labour Party, that trust has been betrayed by a central party keen to ‘parachute’ inappropriate candidates in to ‘safe’ seats. That practice must end.
Oh, and your propaganda won’t work here: “Replacing moderate Labour MPs with men and women slavishly loyal to the current leader and his regime” is a lie and you know it. How about if I change that to: “Replacing rabidly right-wing, sub-Tory MPs with men and women of good conscience who recognise what Labour members and voters want”?
Don’t forget – New Labour haemorrhaged five million voters over its 13 years in office. To put that in context, that’s a whole ONE-THIRD of those who voted Labour in 1997.
Those people didn’t just drift away through lack of interest. They walked out in disgust.
If all the members who were kicked out of the LP, just to stop them voting for JC, were reinstated – they would far outnumber the few right winger leavers of today
The total Arrogance of the DL Watson, Carolyn Flint and the rest of the Traitorous Blairite B*****ds is breathtaking. JC won again with an increased mandate and still they are Warning JC and the Membership that we had better toe Carolyn Flints line. Watson is a lying sleazebag and should never be Trusted he is an unsavoury sneaky Character of the worst kind. Here is a wee warning from the membership show some humility join JC and the Labour Party in Demolishing the atrocious policies of the Conservative Party. If you feel you can do this great if you dislike JC and the Membership so much and feel you cannot back JC and us Resign Get out of the Party we cannot fight your Right Wing Policies and the Conservative Party On their mad Crusade to destroy the Welfare State, NHS, and Austerity so Join The Revolution or FO NOW.
Well, my two peneth (for what it’s worth), I also don’t trust Watson at all, but then I don’t trust the vast majority of politicians frankly. I reckon a large majority of them would and do lie out of their own backsides, just to further their own careers.
I’m not saying he’s perfect, but the only person I really have any respect for IS JC. He clearly IS a different animal altogether, and it’s hardly surprising that he’s got such massive support amongst the members.
As long as Corbyn doesn’t let anyone back into his Cab, who has REALLY backstabbed him (like Eagle for example), then I won’t think he’s lost his marbles.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Tony Blair, a man I have no time for, won the leadership of the Labour party fair and square and went on to lead the Labour party to three successive victories in general elections. Jeremy Corbyn showed Blair no loyalty, spoke publicly against him and official Labour policy continually and rebelled against democratically elected Labour governments throughout their existence.
Members of Parliament should behave like this and not act against their conscience.
So if it was fine for Corbyn to rebel against Blair it should be fine for anyone to rebel similarly against Corbyn when he/she believes that Corbyn is wrong or too flawed to win an election and is putting Labour’s chances of forming a government at even greater risk.
Fair is fair.
You are mistaken. Jeremy Corbyn did show loyalty to the Labour Party and voted alongside Mr Blair on many occasions.
Did you really, honestly think Mr Corbyn rebelled against every single matter New Labour put to the vote? I don’t think you did, so stop trying to mislead people.
Fair is fair – but there’s nothing fair about your comment.
If a person rebels against particular policy matters in a conscience vote, that is hugely different from trying to bring down his party leader in an act of spite against the vast majority of fellow party members, or trying to use the media to influence those members against that leader.
You are deliberately comparing two incompatible things.
Just because Watson’s acolytes say he ‘never used that phrase’ doesn’t mean he isn’t behind a plot like that. It’s geetting very difficult to believe or trust these people.
I seriously think they do need to go, to allow new, and hopefully better, people in to work for the Party.
Why are these people still in the Party?
Many times more people voted for these “people” to represent their interests in the Commons than there are people in the Labour party. MPs are NOT supposed to be puppets. Corbyn himself certainly wasn’t during the Blair/Brown years.
Not the point, as has been clearly explained here before. MPs get to be MPs through the efforts of their constituency party members. All the general public does is put a cross in a box on a piece of paper.
You’re right that MPs aren’t supposed to be puppets – they must use their own intelligence and initiative when matters arise suddenly – in order to vote in line with the wishes of the party members who got them elected, though, and not to depart from those wishes in any material way.
Whilst I believe the New Labour rump should have backed Corbyn from the start, making Labour a powerful united opposition against the narrow Tory majority and adding credence to Labour’s support for the Remain campaign, there is no excuse for not doing so now. The New Labour inspired internal conflict has wasted a year and alienated countless potential supporters, as is plain from the polls. The party membership will not accept an anti-Corbyn cabinet. Those who cannot accept Corbyn’s leadership and the centre-left socialist agenda supported by the membership should now do the honourable thing and leave the party.