Gwynne seeks to ‘lower expectations’ for Labour in local elections – because of Wadsworth expulsion?
Damage control: Andrew Gwynne.
Shadow Communities Secretary Andrew Gwynne has tried to reduce expectations of a Labour landslide at the local elections on Thursday, in the wake of a decision to expel a prominent black anti-racist campaign – for racism.
This Site reported that black and ethnic minority representatives had responded with outrage after Labour’s National Constitutional Committee expelled Marc Wadsworth – apparently on the flimsier-than-tissue-paper basis that anti-Semitic intent could be inferred if someone hearing what he said at the launch of the Chakrabarti Report in June 2016 felt that it was.
The Guardian reported:
“Gwynne also sought to lower expectations ahead of the local elections on Thursday. He said: ‘We’re predicting that because these were high watermark years when these seats were last fought in 2014, that it’s probably going to be difficult to get anything like that.
“’We’ve never ever held the City of Westminster, we last held Wandsworth in 1978. If we took those it would be a spectacular night.
“’I am confident that we will have a good night – I don’t think it will be anything like some of the opinion polls would suggest because we are already defending about 80% of the seats in some of those metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs – we’re already at a high watermark.’”
It seems clear that he is trying to manage expectations downward – and This Writer would suggest this is a rather desperate attempt to mitigate the effect of the NCC’s disastrous decision to turn BAME voters against the party.
His words also suggest – as I speculated in my previous article – that there is no mechanism available to the Labour leadership to reverse the NCC’s perverse and unjust decision before Thursday, thereby restoring confidence that the Labour Party still supports fairness and justice.
It won’t be enough. I wonder what the official Labour line will be tomorrow – and why aren’t right-whingers like Ruth Smeeth who prompted this disaster speaking up about what they’ve done? They seemed proud enough on Friday.
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I fear that racial tensions are being deliberately employed as the last gasp of a desperate government to divert attention away from the economic disaster that is of their own making.
Right wing Labour MPs are involved in trying to discredit the Labour leadership which of course diverts attention away from the Tories and risks spoiling our chances of taking large numbers of seats away from them in the local elections.
Time to seriously think about mandatory reselction as they are deliberately bringing the Labour Party into disrepute.
You must realise that the right whingers would love a disastrous result. They would then demand Corbyn’s resignation. They would actually hate it if Labour did well. Remember what happened after the referendum, and last year’s council elections? They are like a nest of vipers waiting for an opportunity to pounce.
There is an even bigger issue here. If those MPs keep on undoing all the work being done, it will be very difficult for Labour to oust the conservatives. But should that happen, they will forever vote against any changes which a left-wing Labour party would like to bring in. They are a liability in more ways than one. I, for one, am getting fed up of all their shenanigans. But maybe that’s the plan.
I think it is sensible that we play our expectations down. If we were to crow about how well we are going to do and we didn’t reach that target, then there are members within the party who would accuse Corbyn of failing and lead us into more civil war in the party.
So the Blairits have got there way to get rid of a good man, and now Labour will have to except the consequences of there damage, when the general elections come round these people could loose the election for Labour I for one feel let down.
I am pretty confident that the expulsion of Wadsworth was done specifically to hamper Labour’s progress. It is no coincidence that the people screaming “antisemitism” at every opportunity are embittered right-wing entryists who have to discredit the strides Labour are making under Corbyn.
I don’t think the expulsion will have any effect outside of the local area. It hasn’t made any national media so most have no idea.
Barry give over it was splashed all over EVERY TV news that night and every national news paper. So unless the people don’t watch tv, listen to the radio and read newspapers or online then maybe and only maybe will they not have hard anything about this case.
It was a left wing campaigner so of course it’s national news. While the muslim council of GB cannot get any hearing about islamophobia in the Torys wonder why the difference hummmm…