Giving his Hartlepool post-mortem, Lord Adonis has come out to argue Sir Keir is not an election winner, lumping him in with the last 14 years of “weak or terrible” leaders post-Blair. When asked whether the party needs new leadership, Lord Adonis opined:
“I don’t think my Labour colleagues should be restricted to people who are currently members of the House of Commons in looking at the next leader. What they should look at is a person, a leader, who can really articulate a bold, credible, exciting and popular vision for the future…”
Does he have a particular Lord in mind?
Yesterday European Movement UK Chair and Labour peer Andrew Adonis shared details of his new eurofederalist conference taking place later this month – describing his event as having a:
“Great line-up in support of our campaign ‘step by step towards Rejoin’.”
Curiously, second on the billing is none other than Keir Starmer’s own Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland – Ian Murray. A Shadow Cabinet Minister on a “Rejoin” platform is a clear endorsement, suggesting that under Starmer Labour’s position in government would be once again in favour of EU membership, whatever their official policy in opposition…
This morning on LBC Sir Keir said “we’ve left the EU, we’ve got a deal we’ve got to make it work and we don’t want to rejoin. That’s the position of the Labour Party, we can’t go on fighting yesterday’s wars.” Someone should tell his own Shadow Cabinet…
A low-energy debate in the House of Lords resulted in this feisty interaction between Lord Adonis and government minister Lord Callanan, in which the BEIS minister slammed the remainiac, telling him to “get on with his life” and accept he’s lost:
“I give some advice to the noble Lord: he just needs to accept that we had a referendum on this subject as well as a general election that was mainly devoted to it. He really needs to use his considerable talents in other areas and get on with his life. The issue is settled; we are leaving the European Union. I respect his advice and opinions, but he lost.”
If only London’s premier retirement home was always this combative…
Labour’s leadership contest was in full swing last night after the PLP hustings, with almost all contenders taking to Strangers bar to lobby fellow MPs. Parliament’s bar’s veterans were amazed to see the likes of Starmer, Long-Bailey, Rayner, Thornberry and Phillips – almost never been spotted there – getting merry. Damian McBride, no stranger to Strangers, was seen pressing the flesh on behalf his mistress, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, in the forlorn search for a single endorsement. Burgon almost found his way to Strangers, instead he ended up having his dinner in the Commons canteen with Cat Smith instead, in turn missing a few votes…
After staying until closing in the newly inclusive Strangers bar (now allowing staff in as well as MPs) – an elite group of the Shadow Cabinet headed off to Players bar – where the resentful attitude of attending Labourites towards the Shadow Cabinet members for losing the election made things decidedly less merry. Ashworth, Louise Haigh, Chris Bryant and Lord Adonis still managed to enjoy themselves, dad-dancing and loudly singing along to apropos lyrics, “Losing everything, it’s like the sun going down on me”. Sad…
In the end, a row erupted after a singer in the bar adapted the lyrics of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ to say “the record shows, we took the blows and we lost ’cause of your way”. Chris Bryant shot back with “no we didn’t” eventually resulting in the singer calling the Shadow Cabinet “c**ts”. Singing truth to the powerless.
Expect Labour MPs to be getting on the booze a lot over the coming months…
The New Statesman is reporting that after spending a lot of time on the streets campaigning and putting out a few high-production campaign videos, Andrew Adonis has failed to make Labour’s long list for the Vauxhall seat. Failed to become an MEP, failed to become and MP and failing to reverse Brexit. Perhaps the unelected Lords is his best hope after all…
Nutty anti-Brexit rants from Andrew Adonis are nothing new, however he’s even managed to appal #FBPErs with his latest offering. Labour’s shadow mental health minister Barbara Keeley has refused to comment…
It’s still up 7 hours later, he’s even doubled down on it in the mean time. A far cry from last October when he said suicide prevention was “so serious a health and social issue, we should confront it openly as a central challenge of public services and society at large.” Helpfully he’s already provided the appropriate response to his own deranged behaviour:
Johnson’s behaviour a political condition called ‘outrage spiral’, where the attention-seeking patient makes statements each more outrageous than the last until metaphors of suicide or murder become the norm. Only known treatment is BARRING FROM RESPONSIBLE OFFICE FOR LIFE
— Andrew Adonis (@Andrew_Adonis) September 9, 2018
Will he follow his own advice..?
