Tag Archives: reselection

Even the BBC is publicising Labour’s victimisation of its own members

Yes: this is the only image This Site has of Ian Byrne.

The remarkable aspect of this story is not that Ian Byrne is being victimised by members of his own party, or that he is seeking advice from the police about how to deal with it – This Site and others have already covered those things.

No – the extraordinary part is that the BBC appears to have removed its blinkers and is now prepared to cover it.

The corporation’s article states:

An MP who wants to remain as a Labour candidate at the next election has said he will be “seeking guidance” from police over alleged intimidation.

West Derby MP Ian Byrne tweeted that he faced “shameful” intimidation at an event on Saturday and had blocked those “involved in this appalling behaviour”.

Mr Byrne is being challenged in the race in West Derby by Liverpool councillor Anthony Lavelle and Lancashire councillor Kimberley Whitehead, after losing a series of ballots in his local party.

In a week’s time, members of the constituency Labour Party will choose one of the three to be their candidate.

The process, which started in the summer has been described as “toxic” by Labour members.

Toxic. The fact that this is the word to which party members resort when describing the process imposed on them by their own leadership speaks volumes.

The article then focuses on an alleged incident between supporters of Byrne and those of Lavelle, when events were coincidentally (?) scheduled to take place at neighbouring venues. One has to question how that happened.

Considering the ill-feeling over this matter and the way the Labour leadership seems to be prioritising the other candidates over Byrne, it seems incongruous that this should have happened.

Who was responsible for it?

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Labour councillors complain their MP has blocked them – but is this the reason?

Ian Byrne: now it seems Labour members who unaccountably want to deprive their constituency of the MP of the Year are trying to intimidate him and his team.

Take a look at this tweet, and the reply it provoked, from a councillor in the constituency of MP of the Year Ian Byrne.

Despite winning the award for his excellent work, Byrne is facing an uphill struggle to be re-selected as the Labour candidate for Liverpool West Derby – because it seems the party’s leaders are deliberately trying to prevent it.

This Site reported on November 5 that

Labour has rescinded Mr Byrne’s access to Organise, the communication facility between the party hierarchy and its members.

His rival in the campaign – a shiny Wes Streeting-a-like from London – does have access to the tool and therefore has a huge advantage over Mr Byrne, who is reduced to trying to resource his reselection campaign on the social media.

Now this:

Nicola James makes a good point. Why would anybody think the MP of the Year is not worth re-selecting? That’s the first indication that something is amiss with Cllr Doyle’s complaint. As for the comment about abusive behaviour… well, here’s what Byrne himself has to say about it:

So he says he suffered intimidation from people including local politicians and will be taking up the matter, not just with the local authority but with the police as well.

This casts an entirely different light on Cllr Doyle’s words, it seems.

It also appears that right-wingers among the Labour members in the West Derby constituency are spreading what Byrne himself has described as myths about him, in a bid to persuade gullible colleagues that he’s not worth their vote. An astonishing claim about the MP of the Year!

Here’s his response, killing these claims with the facts:

For those of you who can’t read images, here’s what the text says:

Mythbusters

Sometimes during a campaign, facts get lost. Several West Derby members have made me aware of what they consider to be, at best, ‘odd’ conversations with representatives of other candidates over recent weeks.

In order to ensure there are no misunderstandings and that all West Derby members have access to the facts, I have put together this simple mythbuster to clarify a few points:

  • I voted Remain in the EU ref, not Brexit (as members inform me, they have been told by other campaigns). I also 100% respected the outcome of the vote.
  • My office was not closed for my first year in the role as MP. I set up a highly visible and accessible, brand new MP’s office in Tuebrook, one of the poorest wards in our constituency. Within the first few months of the role, I, like everyone, was subject to Covid-19 rules which I followed. My office was open 8am – 6pm durinq the pandemic but subject to the same lockdown and social distancing rules as everyone else.
    Myself and my team worked non-stop during the pandemic and supported West Derby constituents in so many different ways. I sadly had to close the office to the public again earlier this year as a security precaution, due to frightening death threats made against myself, team and family by a far-right extremist posing outside the office. This does not mean myself and my team are not working, we are, all day, every day, for the people of West Derby.
  • As the MP for West Derby I am responsible for many things, all of which I take very seriously. Councillors have primary jurisdiction over local council issues such as traffic, potholes, dog muck and street lighting. Within West Derby, each ward has three local councillors who I support and encourage to carry out their roles fully.*
  • I am not obsessed with foodbanks. I am however committed to ending the need for foodbanks, and I make no apology for that. Please look at my work on the Right To Food campaign to see how I am challenging the need for the very existence of foodbanks: www.ianbyrne.org/righttofood

Thank you for your time.

Ian Byrne, MP Liverpool West Derby*Please see separate statement issued 13. 11.2022 regarding intimidation

Looking at Byrne’s preface to his statement, it seems clear that he’s saying “fair play and integrity” are no longer part of the Labour leadership’s skillset.

Perhaps, instead of trying to remove MPs who have those qualities – like Byrne himself – party members across the UK should concentrate on ridding their organisation of the parasites that have infested its head office instead.

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Suspended Labour right-winger campaigns as if nothing has happened

Neil Coyle: he’s breaking Labour Party rules to get around his suspension as a Labour MP.

There’s something rotten in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party if this kind of rule-flouting is being allowed.

Here’s Skwawkbox:

In February, Neil Coyle was suspended from the Labour party after making a racist comment to a British-Chinese journalist. Under the party’s rules, while suspended he no longer holds the party ‘whip’ and is no longer a Labour MP – and is not permitted to use the party’s logo, attend ‘CLP’ meetings or stand for election as a party representative in any election.

Nonetheless, Coyle was revealed last week to be texting Labour members to ask them to support his reselection as a Labour candidate at the next general election, but the Labour right is going much further than that – allowing him to campaign with them and helping him deliver his own leaflets along with Labour-branded literature, essentially presenting him as a Labour MP despite his suspension.

With the typical arrogant impunity of the Labour right, Coyle tweeted a picture of himself out campaigning with Labour members, saying what a ‘good…delivery session on the doors’ it had been.

This person should not be campaigning with other Labour members, using material featuring the Labour logo or – in any way – seeking reselection as a Labour candidate, especially if he is using Labour data to do so.

The evidence is available for anybody to see (click the link to Skwawkbox below for more) and the Labour leadership should take appropriate action against Coyle immediately.

Source: Coyle, suspended for racist comment, out campaigning with Labour volunteers handing out his leaflets – SKWAWKBOX

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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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Labour’s treacherous wing hasn’t worked out their ‘work to rule’ is GOOD for the party

Labour’s Chief Whip, Nick Brown, whose speech at a Momentum conference forms the excuse for the latest tantrum from the party’s right wing [Image from LabourList].

Apparently Labour backbenchers who still oppose Jeremy Corbyn are threatening a ‘work-to-rule’ after the party’s Chief Whip, Nick Brown, spoke at a Momentum conference that called for mandatory re-selection of Parliamentary candidates.

With Constituency Labour Parties now dominated by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, the move could mean many Labour moderates’ (right-wingers’) Parliamentary careers could come to an abrupt end.

To muddy the issue, the backbenchers concerned have also complained about a perceived lack of disciplinary measures against three shadow ministers who did not support the party’s position in a Commons vote on Brexit last week.

But the simple fact is that these MPs are now badly out-of-step with the mood of the party as a whole, and their opinions are seen as abhorrent in many ways – so their ‘work-to-rule’ threat is in fact a gift to those of us who would actually welcome it if they shut up for a while.

But kicking this can down the road won’t stop the worms crawling out of it.

Look at the anonymous source quoted in the Huffington Post, who said, “If you feed the dogs at a Momentum meeting, all requests for loyalty go out of the window.”

“Feed the dogs”?

If that is the attitude shown by these so-called “moderates”, then they can be thrown to the real dogs quite merrily.

And it is hard to believe another anonymous source who apparently told the HuffPost the Parliamentary Labour Party had been “fairly” united since Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership victory in September, when we all saw Chris Leslie doing his best to undermine the leadership on the BBC’s Sunday Politics last weekend.

Grassroots campaigners have had enough of this silliness.

In a letter to Labour’s leaders, members have demanded a public show of support for the leadership and Labour’s 10 pledges to the people of the UK, from every Labour MP.

The letter states [boldings mine]: “Some members of the Parliamentary Labour Party are still working to a divisive and destructive agenda… MPs should rather be appearing in the media to attack the Government and to talk about Labour’s solutions to the country’s problems. That would be unity.

“When engaging with the public on doorsteps and in High Streets, we are finding that these MPs’ public declarations, showing lack of loyalty to both the leadership and to socialism, are confusing and alienating the electorate.

“We strongly request that the Leadership now ensures a declaration of support to the 10 pledges, to publicising them and to implementing them, and to the leadership from each MP.

“We fully endorse freedom of speech. However, we believe that the public actions of the MPs in question are causing such significant damage they simply cannot remain unchallenged. Their actions will that ensure the Party is never elected to government despite our huge membership base and its overwhelming endorsement of our party leader. In fact, we believe that this is their intended purpose.

“These deeply unsettling times require a strong, proactive declaration of unity from elected Labour MPs, councillors and other officials that reflects the will of the members. Only then will we, the Labour Party, re-engage the public and move forward to government.”

No elected representative can last long when they have alienated their support base.

That is what Labour’s right wing members have done, and their attacks on the principle of mandatory re-selection are simply attempts to avoid the consequences of their actions.

But the writing is on the wall – and it says: “Sort yourselves out, or get out!”

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