Alan Johnson has no right to criticise anyone’s leadership after his EU referendum non-performance
![Alan Johnson [Image unattributed - does anybody know who took it?]](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161008-Alan-Johnson.jpg)
Alan Johnson [Image unattributed – does anybody know who took it?]
Based on his record as leader of Labour’s ‘In for Britain’ campaign in the lead-up to the EU referendum, Alan Johnson should spend the next few months turning up to Parliament, voting according to party policy, and keeping his mouth shut.
Nobody is interested in his opinions on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership after his spectacular failure to get any news coverage of Labour’s campaign. It didn’t get any traction until Mr Corbyn himself took an active role.
Eventually, two-thirds of Labour voters and supporters voted ‘Remain’ – but a failure of Conservative supporters to do the same resulted in a wafer-thin majority for leaving the EU.
That doesn’t mean Mr Corbyn’s leadership was at fault. His supporters have had to keep reiterating this throughout the summer as it was the main pretext for the so-called ‘Chicken Coup’ by members of the Parliamentary Labour Party, most of whom were afraid to admit they were involved, in case their own party members punished them in some undefined way.
(The claim that Mr Corbyn’s conduct during the EU referendum campaign was the reason for the rebellion is false, by the way. The coup was planned at least as long ago as April, and probably as far back as his election as Labour leader in September 2015.)
As for Jon Cryer’s complaint about the shadow cabinet reshuffle – could anybody be more completely wrong?
Nobody was “kept in the dark” about it. Mr Corbyn made it perfectly clear that a reshuffle would take place after he was re-elected as Labour leader, and that it would take place in the week after the Labour conference.
The reshuffle doesn’t mean the possibility of shadow cabinet elections is off the table. At the same time as we all heard there would be a ShadCab reshuffle, we were told there would be a National Executive Committee “away day” to discuss several democratic reforms, including this.
So we’ve got one Corbyn critic saying he doesn’t show leadership, and another saying his leadership is too strong.
They clearly can’t get their story straight.
Perhaps they should stop trying to concoct fiction and go back to being Labour MPs.
Alan Johnson, the former Labour home secretary, has insisted that Jeremy Corbyn is not up to being opposition leader, as the party enters fresh infighting after a shadow cabinet shakeup.
Johnson’s damning assessment came as the chairman of the parliamentary party, John Cryer, condemned Corbyn’s changes to his senior team.
When it was put to Johnson by the BBC that he believed Corbyn was not up to the job of being leader, he said: “Me and many of my colleagues. Perhaps he’ll prove me wrong.”
As the backlash against Corbyn’s reshuffle intensified, Cryer complained that he and the sacked chief whip Rosie Winterton had been kept in the dark about the move, despite having held talks with the leadership about having some of the shadow cabinet posts elected by MPs.
The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, defended Corbyn, saying it was wrong to criticise him for being too decisive and insisting the issue of elected posts was still on the table.
Source: Jeremy Corbyn not up to job of Labour leader, says Alan Johnson | Politics | The Guardian
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“The PLP voted to abolish Shadow Cabinet elections at a meeting on 5 July 2011.[1] The decision was later approved by Labour’s National Executive Committee at the end of July, then at their annual conference in Liverpool in September.” (wikipedia)
“Delegates at the Labour conference have backed party leader Ed Miliband’s plans to scrap elections to the shadow cabinet …… The move is part of a project, known as Refounding Labour, that Mr Miliband hopes will revitalise the party…… The vote on Refounding Labour was overwhelming passed by delegates at the party conference in Liverpool, with 93.92% in favour and 6.08% against.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15054351
What part of, “The PLP is not in sole charge,” do some of the PLP not get?
Alan Johnson member of the Blairit gang and an as been and full of bull
I din’t even realise Johnson was a remoaner I would take issue with he claim that 2 thirds of labour supporters voted remain, because by a large margin the areas of the nation voting leave were traditional labour supporting areas.
We’ve had this conversation. You are mistaken. That is all.
I see Johnstone is keeping the faith with his Blairite New Labour Salute to us the Plebiscites “The Elite Rule” and don’t you Peasants forget it.
We would be plebeians, not plebiscites.
The EU referendum was a plebiscite.
What on earth has happened to Alan Johnson. He came from a poor family and became an MP through his Trade Union sponsorship. You would have thought that he shared the same socialist principles as Dennis Skinner. But no. Did the short whiff of power when he was Home Secretary warp his political leanings. I am disappointed in him but more so because he should not keep banging on about things which have been said and dispelled regarding Jeremy Corbyn. Like some old broken record he reiterates the same old bile. Does he know how stupid he is making himself look.