Interviewing Anneliese Dodds on GMB this morning, Piers went in hard on last week’s sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey, saying “it’s hard to imagine a more antisemitic trope than that”. Guido can think of something more antisemitic, Piers…
Herr Morgan also asked whether Becky should apologise, saying “she can’t seem to bring herself to say the word ‘sorry'”. Two weeks ago, the Campaign Against Antisemitism put out a statement in response to Guido’s exclusive photo of Piers’ party wear, saying:
Mr Morgan must clarify what exactly happened and, if the claims are true, make amends.
Over a fortnight on from Guido’s story, Piers is keeping stum…
There is nothing left-wingers like more than fighting amongst themselves. So far the number of people demanding the reinstatement of Becky Long-Bailey is equivalent to just over 2% of the Labour Party membership. Demanding that the party leader bends the knee to the left just as the public has begun to recognise him. Over at CCHQ they have put in a bulk order for popcorn…
With the fallout from yesterday’s Rebecca Long-Bailey sacking still blowing up, a now-deeply ironic video has emerged of Starmer calling for unity within the party, just 18 hours before causing the Labour left to reignite the ongoing internal Labour factional war.
“I strongly felt after the election that we the Labour Party lost in December, that we needed to unite our party. I could just see that the Labour Party… was taking lumps out of each other, was divided and that we’d just lost and election badly and we needed to pull together as what I think could be an unstopable political force if we stopped fighting each other.”
Starmer also said he was “really pleased I’ve got Becky and Lisa in my Shadow Cabinet”…
Corbynistas have now spent over 12 hours refusing to listen to Starmer’s request to stop taking lumps out of each other. Sir Keir has finally agreed to a meeting with leftwing backbenchers this morning, after point-blank refusing one yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, the usual suspects have joined the crowd vocalising their fury at Starmer, including Len McClusky, Ian Lavery, and Zarah Sultana. Momentum also sent out a membership email, saying:
“In the leadership election Keir promised to end factionalism and unite our party. Today he broke that promise.”
Skwawkbox is far-fetchedly claiming (praying) the wheels are in place for a left-wing leadership challenge. Didn’t they used to say it was disgraceful for members to be attacking a Labour leader with an overwhelming democratic mandate…
The question remaining is who will be Long-Bailey’s replacement, and will they be from the party’s right or left. Starmer’s pick will be the truest indication of whether he wants to mollify or crush the Marxist left…
A spokesman for Keir Starmer says…
“This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the Shadow Cabinet. The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory. As Leader of the Labour Party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority. Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.”
Sir Keir Starmer has taken action this afternoon, after his Shadow Education Secretary and former leadership rival Rebecca Long Bailey tweeted praise for an article containing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
“This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the Shadow Cabinet. The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory. As Leader of the Labour Party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority. Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.”
At 10am, Long Bailey tweeted out an Independent article, adding her own commentary that “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond”. In the article, Peake had claimed that Israel was to blame for the killing of George Floyd, stating:
“The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
UPDATE: Long-Bailey has responded in a fiery statement, accusing Starmer of already having made up his mind. Read it in full here…
Private polling commissioned by Rebecca Long-Bailey back in February finally emerged in full this week. This comes as her comms chief Matt Zarb Cousin discussed some of the not-great-for-RLB numbers on a YouTube live stream. It gets worse…
Delving into the numbers, it becomes pretty obvious why Team Long-Bailey didn’t release the YouGov findings, with loyal party members giving the prospective Labour leader fairly dismal ratings, ranking her bottom on issues like being able to unite the party, being a good media performer and being able to appeal to ‘Red Wall’ seats.
Despite party members avoiding the obvious continuity Corbyn candidate, the polling found that members both backed Sir Keir in almost all personal attributes including “Shares my values“, and overwhelmingly back Corbynomics:
This doesn’t look to Guido like a changed party…
