All nine – yes, nine – members of the ‘left slate’ in the elections to the Labour Party’s ruling National Executive Committee have won seats, confounding the attack dogs who tried to undermine support for Jeremy Corbyn with accusations of anti-Semitism against him and one of the candidates.

https://twitter.com/MattTurner4L/status/1036641918007107584

Jeremy Corbyn is still the bookies favourite to be the next Prime Minister.

You’re going to need yourself a bigger smear. https://t.co/t9B7hFPiXC

— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) September 3, 2018

Not only that, but the victory means that a review of internal party democracy is likely to see major changes including the introduction of mandatory reselection of candidates, meaning no sitting MP can expect to keep their Parliamentary seat without the support of their constituency party members.

Guys, the #JC9 just won every seat in the Labour NEC elections. This means we can likely get the Democracy Review through and return power to the party membership. The largely SOCIALIST party membership. This. Is. Huge.

Centrist meltdown in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… pic.twitter.com/pQfe5ajnJh

— Kerry-Anne Mendoza 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@TheMendozaWoman) September 3, 2018

Opponents of party leader Jeremy Corbyn were hoping to steal support away from the left-wing candidates who support him – most obviously with accusations of anti-Semitism against Peter Willsman, and claims that their support for the leader indicated that they must be anti-Semites (even though no accusation against Mr Corbyn – and there have been many – has been proved).

Supporters of Mr Willsman have pointed out that the accusations against him amount to a claim that demanding proof in support of anti-Semitism allegations is now considered to be anti-Semitism as well.

https://twitter.com/RickBlaine123/status/1036674039799054336

And his victory makes it clear that Labour Party members are entirely capable of making up their own minds about the facts.

Willsman taking the final place in the NEC race – despite his losing the backing of many – shows that despite media portrayals Labour’s membership won’t be told what to do.

I said that in the teeth of the 2016 coup. Power no longer rests with relatively small groups of people.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 3, 2018

His detractors have responded to his election by saying that many party members voted in the first four days of the election period, meaning they would have cast their vote before he was accused.

Too much NEC analysis ignoring that a decent chunk of Labour members vote as soon as ballot opens (i.e. four days before Willsman recording released).

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) September 3, 2018

But people like Mr Eaton forget that we can check this – many votes were made online and the dates they were made are likely to be easy to verify. I would like to see the Labour Party release a statement on this.

The result makes it clear that the anti-Semitism smear campaign is not working at all. In fact, it might be turning party members away from Labour’s right wing.

The Times reports that right-wing antisemitic smears against Jeremy Corbyn are not working

Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Blairites, Labour Friends of Israel and Campaign Against Antisemitism, are, in fact, boosting Labour Party membership

Thanks guys! 🌹 pic.twitter.com/Gckhu8fJRJ

— Socialist Voice (@SocialistVoice) September 3, 2018

Actor and stand-up comic Eddie Izzard, who won his position on the NEC by default after another left-wing member was forced to resign her position, was ousted.

And on a personal note, This Writer is pleased to record the abject failure of right-winger Gary Spedding, who contributed to a smear piece calling me an anti-Semite on an online magazine site called Prospect, and then called me an anti-Semite directly on Twitter. Read about it here.

It will be interesting to see the results of the next – Survation, as that company is the most trustworthy – opinion poll on voting intentions, conducted after the new NEC holds its first meeting (today, September 4) and makes its decisions regarding the democracy review and its code of conduct on anti-Semitism.

For now, the result is good:

The NEC results show

✅ Membership moving further left. Groups like Progress and Labour First were nowhere

✅ Izzard was 10th – as an independent

✅ Membership clearly unrepresented by parliamentary party and what media gatekeepers allow

✅ Corbyn never more in control

👍🏼

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 3, 2018

But the validation is yet to come. It’s not enough that those we consider the good guys won; now they must justify our faith in them.

Visit our JustGiving page to help Vox Political’s Mike Sivier fight anti-Semitism libels in court

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