Labour NEC challenged to hold ‘no confidence’ vote against Keir Starmer
Smug: Starmer can afford to look complacent, despite the call for a ‘no confidence’ vote, because it seems unlikely that Labour HQ will allow it to happen.
It won’t happen, of course – the centrists are digging themselves in deep and won’t let annoying facts get in their way.
But it is definitely worth your while to know that Momentum members Camden – all members of the Labour Party – have demanded that the party’s National Executive Committee call a vote of ‘no confidence’ in party leader Keir Starmer – their own MP.
The motion, passed on July 24, states that Starmer:
- Took no immediate action against those former staff members whose racism, sexism, and ableism was exposed in the leaked report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
- Reversed the overwhelming vote at Conference against the occupation of Kashmir, giving free reign to Prime Minister Modi’s imposition of martial law and spreading persecution of Muslims in India.
- Downplayed the international Black Lives Matter movement as “a moment”, and labelled as “nonsense” the demand to defund the police in favour of greater community investment.
- Kept in his Cabinet Rachel Reeves who joined Boris Johnson and other Tories in praising Lady Astor, a well-known Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite, while firing Rebecca Long-Bailey for retweeting a reference to Israeli training of US police – a fact which he described as an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.
- Said he “supports Zionism without qualification” and called attacks on Apartheid Israel “antisemitic”. In so doing he links all Jewish people with the crimes of a particular state – the very essence of anti-Semitism.
- Refused to hold this Tory government accountable for its handling of the pandemic, making Labour complicit in a per capita death rate which is the second highest in the world and which has disproportionately affected people of colour.
This Writer expects the motion to get short shrift from the now-devoutly-centrist party hierarchy.
Starmer may find a procedural problem that means it can be dismissed as out of order.
Or, even if it comes to a vote, party apparatchiks may make excuses to disqualify hundreds of thousands of party members from voting.
What will happen? We’ll find out soon.
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I will be amazed if this is allowed to go forward,unless of course the right can ensure that it is heavily defeated.
Mike – I’m puzzled why on the day that Keir Starmer has yet another good showing in the polls you think that the most appropriate response is to dig up an irrelevant vote from 2 weeks ago by a small self appointed faction within the Camden CLP.
Thank you for your comment, Steve. It’s a textbook example of centrist self-entitlement. Starmer’s Labour has slipped back in the polls and is now almost 10 points behind the most inept Tory government in memory, but my article wasn’t even responding to that. I had already done so elsewhere. This article was merely reporting that Labour Party members, in line with party rules, have demanded a vote of “no confidence” in the leader, quoting their very good reasons for doing so. I reported it as soon as I was aware of it.
But you have taken it on yourself to falsely attribute motivations to me that simply are not there, in an attempt to undermine the very strong points that the article makes. Perhaps, before you comment again, you should take a good hard look at your own prejudices and remember that on this site, we can see them for what they are.
“Keir Starmer has overtaken Boris Johnson on the question of who would make the best prime minister, according to a new poll.
A YouGov study for The Times finds that 34% of those asked believe the Labour leader would do a better job than the current incumbent, against 32% support for Mr Johnson.
The figures mark the first time a Labour leader has been preferred as a potential PM since after the 2017 election that cost Theresa May her Commons majority.
Sir Keir has seen a three-point rise on the measure since last week, the data show, while Mr Johnson’s ratings have fallen by a point.
But the Tories continue to outgun Labour in voting intention, with the Conservatives polling at 42% in the YouGov study — down one point — and Labour gaining a point to poll at 36%.
The poll follows a series of clashes between the Labour and Conservative leaders over the Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sir Keir has taken aim at the help given to care homes, the Government’s school reopening plans, and the way the NHS test and trace scheme is being run.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/keir-starmer-overtakes-boris-johnson-as-voters-choice-for-pm-for-first-time-poll
Thank you for making my point for me, Steve. I quoted Survation – the most reliable political pollster in the UK at the moment – and you came back with YouGov.
And even that organisation puts Labour well behind the worst Tory government in memory!
I think we can dismiss its – and your – protests about Starmer.
It is worth noting that the Survation poll that you place so much store in also reports that Keir Starmer has a near 9 point lead over Johnson in their approval ratings and the popularity of Tory v Labour is only a 3% point difference from the latest YouGov poll and that there is only 1% difference in the popularity of Labour between the 2 polls (the other 2% being accounted for by a drop in Tory popularity).
Despite the close similarity between the results for the Survation and YouGov polls in question I do take your point that there are sometimes differences in the figures reported between polls so it is perhaps better to look at the overall trend from a wide variety of polls
If we look at the Keir Starmer’s approval ratings from all the polls it is immediately obvious that since becoming leader Keir has had positive approval ratings throughout his period in office as leader.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_approval_opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2020_2
If we compare the results for Jeremy’s approval ratings the contrast is really quite stark. Jeremy’s approval ratings are consistently highly negative with no positive ratings since 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_approval_opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election#Jeremy_Corbyn
If we now take a look at the current Tory party lead in the polls. It should be noted that when Keir took office the Tories were enjoying a 20%+ lead in the polls and that over the quite short period that Starmer has been leader he has reduced the Tory lead to consistently being in single figures. Given where the party was this is a positive result and I expect that providing we all work together then before the next GE the party will catch up and overtake the Tories. History tells us that infighting doesn’t go down too well with the voters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2020
Are you trying to troll this site?
It doesn’t matter where the pollsters put individual party leaders, if people aren’t going to vote for their party – and people aren’t going to vote for Labour right now.
This was supposed to be Starmer’s honeymoon period, when voters were most likely to support him. He’s blown it.
And so have you. Please stop trying to drip pro-Starmer propaganda into This Site. I have told you before – we can all see what’s going on.
Mike – It’s a little disappointing that you have refused to address the evidence above. Resorting to calling me a troll doesn’t really cut it as a reasonable response to my comment.
I’m a little perplexed why you totally dismiss that the approval ratings of the party leader has any impact on the overall result of a GE. One of the main reasons. given by voters for not voting Labour in the last GE was a dislike of Jeremy Corbyn and it should also be noted that at the 2017 GE (where we did reasonably well) Jeremy’s approval ratings were at an all-time high of -1 whilst at the 2019 GE when Jeremy’s approval ratings had dropped to –44% we gifted Boris an 80 seat majority.
Logically it must be advantageous for the party’s election prospects to have a leader who is popular with voters rather than actively disliked. Having an approval rating of +31% for Starmer (for 51% – against 20%) rather than one of –44% for Corbyn (for 24% – against 68%).
https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/political-monitor-satisfaction-ratings-1997-present
I am simply posting evidence that I believe shows up this ridiculous call for a vote of no confidence for the irrelevance it is. If you disagree you are more than welcome to address the evidence but please lets have less of the troll nonsense.
And what was Labour’s overall approval rating in the 2019 election? I’ll tell you: Labour was 10 points behind. I think that’s more relevant.
What about KEIR STARMER’S Brexit strategy that last all the so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats for the party?
You seem to love quoting sources selectively. It means you lack authority.
steve h – Getting his ‘arris handed to him on another platform.
Do us all a favour, and give it up, lad. Your deification of the slimy one has gone beyond cringe-inducing.
steve h says: ‘Rejoice! For stammer’s labour party is a mere SIX points behind in the polls…Having gained a whole point on the crappest government ever to blight these shores.’
I’m in such a good mood I could watch an entire episode of ‘citizen khan’ and perhaps find something to smile at…
Toffee – It is a considerable improvement on the situation immediately before Keir took office when the Tories enjoyed a 20%+ lead.
You really are trolling, aren’t you?
We all know that the Tory poll lead had been engineered in order to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street.