Brilliant scenes on Peston last night as baby Corbynista Nadia Whittome found out she’d been forcibly resigned by the Labour Party from her PPS role after voting against the Overseas Operation Bill. Labour had put in a one-line whip to abstain on the bill, however Nadia voted against it along with her pals Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, other hard-liners and two fellow PPSs.
The Mirror’s Oliver Milne was correct that, as Nadia was being interviewed, she’d been removed from her post. When Labour said the three frontbenchers had “resigned”, they in fact meant sacked or ‘forcibly resigned’ – as opposed to the three submitting letters of resignation prior to breaking the whip. If you thought Nadia finding out was funny, the reaction of the TrotsApp crowd on Twitter was even more funny…
UPDATE: Read Nadia’s full statement on her sacking below:
This morning the Leader of the Opposition’s office called me to confirm that I have been stood down from my role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth following my vote against the Overseas Operations Bill. I opposed the Bill because it effectively decriminalises torture and makes it harder for veterans to take legal action against the government or for war crimes to be investigated.
The decision to break the Labour whip is a difficult one and I understand many of my colleagues came to a different conclusion and decided to abstain on this bill in the sincere hope that the Bill can be amended at later stages. I hold out no such hope given the how flawed and damaging this Bill is.
It is important that MPs are able to vote in line with their conscience in consideration of all the facts and in good faith – all of which I am confident that I have done.
This Bill flatly contradicts the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) – a treaty which the UK has ratified – which states that all victims of torture or ill-treatment, regardless of when the violation occurred, must be able to access their rights to remedy and to obtain redress.
It often takes years, or even decades, to properly process and come to terms with abusive and traumatic experiences and to then find the courage and resource to come forward. I cannot, in good conscience, vote in a way that would make this process even harder for someone in such a terrible situation.
It strikes me that if a piece of legislation has had concerns raised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the British Legion, Amnesty International and other organisations on the front line of supporting veterans and defending human rights, we need to stop and ask ourselves why.
This Bill flatly contradicts the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) – a treaty which the UK has ratified – which states that all victims of torture or ill-treatment, regardless of when the violation occurred, must be able to access their rights to remedy and to obtain redress.
It often takes years, or even decades, to properly process and come to terms with abusive and traumatic experiences and to then find the courage and resource to come forward. I cannot, in good conscience, vote in a way that would make this process even harder for someone in such a terrible situation.
It strikes me that if a piece of legislation has had concerns raised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the British Legion, Amnesty International and other organisations on the front line of supporting veterans and defending human rights, we need to stop and ask ourselves why.
