Tag Archives: re-selection

Good riddance to Louise Ellman and her lies about Corbyn and anti-Semitism

Louise Ellman: Another viper removed from Labour’s metaphorical bosom.

Former Labour MP Louise Ellman has quit the party ahead of a ‘trigger’ vote on whether she should remain the party’s candidate in the Liverpool Riverside constituency.

It seems clear that she knew she couldn’t win. Why?

Perhaps it is because people in her Constituency Labour Party (CLP) are sick of her constant lies about leader Jeremy Corbyn being an anti-Semite (he isn’t) and her false allegations about localised anti-Semitism.

An example of the latter was raised in the roundly-debunked Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic?, broadcast in July.

Ben Westerman, who was the only Jewish member of Labour’s disputes team at the time (and is a member of the anti-Corbyn Jewish Labour Movement), was sent to Riverside to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism by members, and related a story that was immediately denounced as a lie by local party members. He related an account of an interview with a constituent that ended with that person asking where he was from: “Are you from Israel?” He said he assumed that this person was implying that he was “in cahoots” with the Israeli government.

There are recordings of the interviews he conducted. That particular interviewee (who was also Jewish) did not ask if Mr Westerman was from Israel, but in fact inquired as to which Labour Party branch he belonged.

Ms Ellman herself is vice-president of the Jewish Leadership Council and chair of Labour Friends of Israel (since August; she was previously its vice-chair under Joan Ryan – herself long-since exposed as a liar about Labour anti-Semitism). Both organisations have an anti-Corbyn stance, based on accusations of anti-Semitism.

She was proved a liar when she attacked Mr Corbyn for having attended a meeting in 2010 when Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer was a speaker. The claim was that Mr Meyer – a Holocaust survivor who was at Auschwitz, remember – was an anti-Semite because he criticised the behaviour of the current Israeli government in no uncertain terms.

Ms Ellman said she had been “appalled” to find out about the event. In fact, it was revealed, she attended it herself and was present during the whole of Mr Meyer’s speech, which was heckled shamelessly by a small but loud group of Zionists. It seems she sat quiet and unmoved throughout this incident and only spoke up about it when she saw a chance to damage Mr Corbyn’s reputation with a false claim.

The ‘trigger’ vote, on whether she would need to seek her constituency’s backing to continue as its Labour candidate, was set to happen in a few days. In light of this, a vote of “no confidence” in her was taken off the table.

Ms Ellman had previously refused to tell a CLP meeting whether she would support a Corbyn government. Her resignation seems an acceptance that her lies have caught up with her and she would not have survived a ‘trigger’ vote and the selection procedure that would have followed.

But she was not above piling more shame on herself. In her letter of resignation, she finally admitted that she would not support a Corbyn-led government, and launched an evidence-less stream of accusations against the Labour leader:

“Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, antisemitism has become mainstream in the Labour Party,” she continued.

“Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out.

“Antisemites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated. A party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish cannot be called anti-racist.”

And she stated that Mr Corbyn had spent decades “consorting with, and never confronting, antisemitism, Holocaust deniers and terrorist”.

In fact, anti-Semitism within the Labour Party is at a low point. Innocent members who have criticised the Israeli government – not Jewish – persecution of Palestinians, or supported those who were falsely accused, have been bullied, abused and driven out. I write from experience of such abuse.

It is people who support Israeli government racism against Palestinians who have been given space within the Labour Party, and it is they who have propogated any conspiracy theories – usually to counter genuine evidence against the Israeli government.

Mr Corbyn himself has been cleared of the accusations Ms Ellman levelled against him, many times.

And local views are summed up in this video:

Ms Ellman is a liar with an agenda. This Writer is glad to see the back of her. Now perhaps Liverpool Riverside can get a decent representative.

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Labour re-selection: De Piero quits – but her indignance at being called ‘right-wing’ is a nonsense

Gloria de Piero: Straight talking politics? More like weasel words.

Labour’s re-selection procedure has taken another right-wing – yes, right-wing – scalp.

Gloria de Piero announced her departure – she won’t be a candidate at the next general election – with a speech attacking critics of her fellow Blairites, claiming she found it “utterly offensive” to hear of people in the Labour Party being called “right-wing”.

But if being right-wing was an offence, she would have been among the worst offenders.

Let’s have a look at her record:

In July 2016, she wrote an article in ultra-right-wing newsrag The Sun, begging for people with views in line with that … periodical’s … politics to join the Labour Party in a bid to get right-wing entryists flooding into the party to vote Jeremy Corbyn – who is genuinely left-wing, although only centre-left – out of the leadership.

She wrote: “By signing up you can help choose a leader who recognises that the Labour Party was founded to be a Party of Government and implement policies to improve the lives of working people. A party of protest doesn’t help a single person.”

It attracted applications from people like the author of this: “I know that the current leadership of the Labour Party consists of the very worst people in this country’s political society… Originally I joined the Labour Party in support of their commitment to the removal of Saddam Hussein… Vanquishing Saddam Hussein showed the world that you couldn’t murder your own people by the thousands without consequence… Enabling the transformation of Iraq into a democratic country is one the United Kingdom’s greatest achievements since World War Two… The United States path to freedom should be the inspiration for the left, yet it is not. The documents that Americans hold dear – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – these should be our aspiration… And finally I know that Gloria De Piero is right, inspirationally so.”

Right-wing, certainly.

Ms de Piero was among the MPs who wrote a letter deploring the short-lived re-admission of Chris Williamson into the Labour Party, alleging anti-Semitic behaviour without providing a scrap of evidence, and provoking death threats against her left-wing colleague.

In 2015, she was among around 70 MPs who supported the Conservative government in authorising air strikes on Syria, under the pretext of attacking IS (also called ISIS or Daesh). This support was absolutely unnecessary because the Tory majority in Parliament at the time meant they could win the vote on their own, but it does reiterate Ms de Piero’s support for pointless military action in the Middle East and the resultant terrorism against the UK that it engenders.

Also in 2015, she was among a large number of Labour MPs who abstained from voting on the Conservative government’s utterly vile Welfare Reform and Work Act which imposed the benefit cap, reduced ESA rates to JSA levels, cut tax credits and froze working-age benefits. Then-leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn led the rebellion against the order to abstain (by Harriet Harman), proving to This Writer that he was the man to lead Labour out of the dark.

In 2016, she was among more than 100 MPs who defied the Labour whip to abstain on the party’s motion to withdraw UK support from Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. What can you say? She’s a warmonger.

That summer, she was one of the shadow cabinet members who resigned to trigger the so-called ‘Chicken Coup’. The claim was that Mr Corbyn had run a lacklustre “Remain” campaign in the run-up to the EU referendum. The Labour MP in charge of that campaign was, of course, Alan Johnson. In fact the resignations were triggered after Mr Corbyn heard that Hilary Benn had been planning a coup, phoned him and sacked him from the shadow cabinet on the spot.

Earlier this year (2019), she was among around 40 MPs who wrote to Jeremy Corbyn, demanding that he should not “torpedo” then-ongoing talks on Brexit with the Conservative government by insisting on a new referendum. Labour has since adopted such a referendum as policy, after it became clear that not to do so would be electoral suicide.

So Ms de Piero supported foreign wars, supported benefit cuts that harm the poor, and opposed Labour Party socialism by trying to recruit right-wingers into the party and trying to undermine and remove the party’s left-wing leader.

Her claim to be left-wing, and to reject the “right-wing” label, is nothing more than gaslighting and Labour should be glad to see the back of her.

Source: Labour shadow minister quits criticising party’s ‘lack of tolerance’ | Metro News

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If Angela Eagle or any other Labour MP is deselected, it’s because they’re NOT good at their job

Oh dear: Maybe Angela Eagle wishes she had spent a little less time falsely accusing Wallasey’s followers of Jeremy Corbyn of vandalising her office and more time standing up for the Labour Party.

Let’s get something perfectly clear: Labour’s reselection process is not about stabbing good MPs in the back; it is about getting the best possible election candidates.

If Yvette Cooper’s constituency party decides to let her go, then that’s the prerogative of the members.

That goes for Hilary Benn – he can’t dine out on his father’s reputation forever; Margaret Beckett; Jess Phillips; Margaret Hodge; Angela Eagle; Louise Ellman or whoever.

And if it means 70 sitting Labour MPs get replaced on the orders of their constituency parties, then that’s what will happen.

The fact that some Corbyn loyalists may also get the push shows that this isn’t some leftie conspiracy, despite what some of the sore egos in the party are telling the news-hacks.

Apparently, incumbents have until July 8 (Monday) to tell the Labour executive whether they want to stand for election again. One or two have already said they won’t – and it would probably be more dignified for some of the others if they did the same.

After Monday, the process moves on to the members; if one-third of a constituency’s branches vote to remove their MP, then the matter will be decided by a “trigger” ballot.

To be honest, many MPs who are “triggered” probably won’t lose their chance to be re-elected, because one-third of branches is not a majority of members; while incumbents may have to stand for re-selection, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

It seems some are trying to organise a way of manipulating the system to prevent de-selection. But in light of the above, this seems over-the-top.

So when the i online quotes MPs as saying

“It’s another example of how they [the Corbyn leadership]aren’t going to take their foot off our throats until they’ve choked us.”

or

“People are really angry about it. It could mean a lot of really good, hard-working MPs are affected.”

it’s likely to be hyperbole.

This is about clearing the wheat from the chaff – not about divesting Labour of talented representatives.

Source: 70 Labour MPs including Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn face deselection before next election

Craig Murray explains why every Labour member with a neoliberal Blairite MP needs to have them de-selected

Time to go: Keep your coat on, Tom Watson – you’ve had your day.

At a time when so-called ‘centrist’ Labour MPs – and party apparatchiks – are using the basest of false accusations to remove left-winger Chris Williamson from what they consider to be their party, Craig Murray’s words could not be more important.

We have tolerated these vipers in our midst for far too long and they have hindered the Corbyn project at every opportunity.

Principle among them, of course, is Tom Watson, who promised before his election as the party’s deputy leader that he would support any Labour leader to the hilt – until he realised that the new leader would be Jeremy Corbyn.

We’ve had four years of backstabbing and betrayal from this political pipsqueak – who has benefited hugely from right-wing media cheerleading that he did not deserve.

He doesn’t represent the Labour Party. He’s the spokesman for a tiny minority of members who happen to have found their way into Parliamentary seats via political patronage, the Blairite system of ‘parachuting’ yes-people into safe seats and other undemocratic methods.

I think a right-wing Labour MP who got their seat with the genuine support of their constituency members is an extreme rarity and the re-selection process that has been triggered this month is an opportunity not only to prove this, but also to get rid of them, once and for all.

You don’t have to be an Austrian Archduke to stand at the moment when your own small actions can have profound, indeed historical ramifications.

Corbyn supporters are at that moment of historic decision right now – and mostly do not realise it.

Jeremy Corbyn represents the only realistic chance the people of England and Wales have been given in decades, to escape from the neo-liberal economics that have impoverished vast swathes of the population. But he leads a parliamentary party which is almost entirely comprised of hardline neo-liberal adherents.

The majority of the parliamentary Labour party are the people who brought in academy schools, high student tuition fees, PFI, who introduced more privatisation into the health service than the Tories have, and who brought you the Iraq and Afghan Wars. They abstained on the Tory austerity benefit cuts and on May’s “hostile environment” immigration legislation. They support Trident nuclear missiles. Many hanker after bombing Syria, and most are members of Labour Friends of Israel.

They have spent the last four years in undermining Corbyn at every turn and attempting to return Labour to the right wing political Establishment agenda.

It is ESSENTIAL that every Labour Party member reading this blog acts NOW to try to get rid of those dreadful Blairite MPs.

Source: A Moment in History – Craig Murray

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No, HuffPost, it isn’t a ‘taste of his own medicine’ – Chris Williamson wants re-selection for ALL Labour MPs

Up for re-selection: It’s what Chris Williamson wants.


Paul Waugh at the Huffington Post really needs to rein in his anti-Corbyn sentiments; this is fake news.

He has published an article claiming that efforts to make Chris Williamson go through a re-selection procedure, after he campaigned to make re-selection of Labour Parliamentary candidates mandatory, may be considered a “taste of his own medicine”. Clearly, it is not. It is what he wanted.

Here are a few snippets from the HuffPost piece:

“One of Jeremy Corbyn’s most vociferous supporters – who has pushed for the deselection of MPs critical of the Labour leader – is set to face his own battle for reselection following anger at his attacks on trade unions.

“One fellow MP said he will “get a taste of his own medicine” after spending months campaigning for some members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to be effectively booted out.

“The left-wing backbencher is popular among many members of the grassroots Momentum organisation, not least for his Democracy Roadshow campaign for automatic reselection of every Labour MP.

“But what was seen as Williamson’s move to cut trade union members out of the process sparked a furious backlash, with both Unite and the GMB warning that it was an attempt to cleave Labour from its historic roots.

“The issue flared up at the party’s conference last month, with some Momentum supporters shouting “shame on the unions” after they blocked more radical attempts to open up every Parliamentary seat to automatic selection.”

This does not make sense.

The article attacks Mr Williamson for “campaigning for some members of the… PLP to be effectively booted out” and also for campaigning “for automatic reselection of every Labour MP”. Well, which is it?

Labour MPs who may be removed, if they have to go through reselection, can’t complain if it is Labour Party policy, as Mr Williamson wants. And a campaign for “every Labour MP” to face automatic reselection cannot target particular members “to be effectively booted out”.

As for the unions who are targeting Mr Williamson for re-selection – from the article, it appears they blocked an attempt to make the Labour Party more democratic, justifying it by claiming it was “an attempt to cleave Labour from its historic roots”. I understand tradition but there is a place for it and, if it harms democracy, that place is in the past.

Mr Waugh, and the HuffPost, have been upbraided for the misleading (in fact, confusing) report:

https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1049658150469681155

What do you think about Mr Williamson and his campaign for mandatory re-selection? You have an opportunity to make your voice heard, simply by Re-Tweeting the Tweet below:

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Grassroots Labour leads the way again – this time on rebellious MP Kate Hoey

It’s good to see grassroots members of the Labour Party once again showing their Parliamentarians where their moral compass should be pointing.

Kate Hoey, John Mann, Frank Field and Graham Stringer disgraced themselves and Labour when they supported the Conservative Trade Bill and propped up Theresa May’s rotten-to-the-core government.

Now Ms Hoey’s local Labour Party has reacted in the only reasonable way – expressing no confidence in her, calling for the Labour whip to be removed from her, and demanding that she be banned from re-selection as a Labour Parliamentary candidate.

As with many right-wing Labour MPs, it seems likely the only reason Ms Hoey was elected is the fact that she was representing the party. She can easily be replaced with somebody who more closely expresses the views of constituents.

I look to local Labour members who elected John Mann, Frank Field and Graham Stringer to follow Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party’s lead.

Kate Hoey was one of four right-wing Labour MPs last week whose decision to vote with the government on a key EU trade bill almost certainly saved Theresa May and propped up a Tory government that is inflicting misery on millions. The move outraged Labour members and supporters who know the UK’s most urgent need is an end to Tory government and policies.

A motion put this evening to Vauxhall CLP (constituency Labour party) expressing no-confidence in Ms Hoey and calling both for the Labour whip to be removed and for her to be barred from selection at the next general election passed unanimously.

Ms Hoey was not present at the meeting, as she is reportedly in Zimbabwe.

Source: Hoey’s CLP unanimously passes no-confidence motion | The SKWAWKBOX