Change UK MP Joan Ryan tells Change UK’s South West ‘rally’:
“Can everyone look at their hands please?”
*everyone holds out their hands in front them*
“That’s it, it’s there, the future is in your hands.”
An video has emerged of an extraordinary rant by hardline Corbynista MP Chris Williamson about anti-Semitism at a Momentum meeting in Sheffield. In the video unearthed by the Yorkshire Post, a visibly angry Williamson shouts about how Labour is being “demonised as a racist bigoted party” before going on to say Labour has been “too apologetic” about anti-Semitism:
“I think the Party’s response has been partly responsible… we’ve backed off on too much, we’ve given too much ground, we’ve been too apologetic”.
Incredibly, this triggers rapturous applause from the audience and his fellow panel-members. If any further evidence were needed of the depth of Labour’s institutional problem with anti-Semitism this is it…
Williamson then goes on to joke about how he sang “Celebrate good times, come on!” outside Chair of Labour Friends of Israel Joan Ryan’s office after she left the Labour Party. It comes on top of further revelations yesterday that he booked a room in Parliament to screen a new film by disgraced suspended Labour member Jackie Walker entitled “Witchhunt”. You can guess what it’s about…
Labour MPs have heavily condemned the event, Stephen Doughty has called for “urgent action” to be taken while Shadow Brexit Minister Matthew Pennycook called it “absolutely disgraceful” and said “the reaction from the audience is just as, if not more, disturbing”. Wes Streeting called it “stomach turning” while predicting no action would be taken. Corbyn ally Williamson has been given a free pass by the leadership for too long, now they will surely have to act…
UPDATE: Tom Watson is writing to the Labour chief whip calling for Chris Williamson to have the whip removed.
Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, and Anna Soubry are said to be on the verge of leaving the Conservative Party today. Rumours are swirling that the three could jump ship to join the Labour splitters’ ‘The Independent Group’ as early as in time for the start of Prime Minister’s Questions today.
This morning none of the three are responding to requests for comment about joining The Independent Group. Soubry, normally a prolific Twitter user, hasn’t tweeted since Monday morning. Tory whips last night told Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt that the three had gone “very, very silent” and yesterday Soubry failed to vote in three Commons votes, without telling her whips and despite not seeking a pair.
Wollaston and Allen have never fitted in to the Conservative Party, rebelling against the leadership since they got in to Parliament on a wide array of issues. Wollaston opposed tax cuts that even John McDonnell supported. Soubry on the other hand is aligned with the Tory Party on everything bar Brexit. Her leaving would not be something to celebrate…
Labour MP Joan Ryan’s defection last night took The Independent Group’s numbers up to eight. Three more MPs joining would make their Parliamentary group as large the Liberal Democrats…
Pro-Jewish Labour MPs Joan Ryan and Gavin Shuker have been targeted with menacing farewell cards outside their parliamentary offices, from anonymous self described “Trots, Stalinists, Commies, and assorted hard-left.”
Both Ryan and Shuker had been vocal in their support of the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, and both lost votes of no-confidence in their CLPs last week.
The purge rolls on…
Momentum’s purge of moderate Labour MPs has begun in earnest with two losing Momentum-backed votes of no confidence last night. Luton South MP Gavin Shuker suffered defeat two days after criticising Corbyn over the party’s anti-Semitism crisis on BBC Newsnight, while Labour Friends of Israel Chair Joan Ryan was narrowly defeated in Enfield North amid a flurry of Twitter abuse. Gloating Corbynistas piled in on the #WeAreEnfieldNorth hashtag, with one accusing her of “using her Jewishness as privilege”:
Incredibly, Corbyn’s old friends at Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster banned by Ofcom, were invited in to film the CLP meeting, jubilantly tweeting out news of Ryan’s defeat and joining in on the #WeAreEnfieldNorth hashtag:
#Enfield North Labour members cheer and celebrate the news of the successful no confidence vote in rebel MP #JoanRyan.#WeAreEnfieldNorth #Labour pic.twitter.com/V5HOZbPLRd
— Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) September 6, 2018
Joan Ryan hit back against “Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left” and insisted that she would not be resigning. Tony Blair told the BBC this morning that it may never be possible for moderates to take back control of the Labour Party from Corbyn’s supporters. This is a watershed moment. Moderate Labour MPs cannot turn a blind eye to what is going on in their party any longer…
In an extraordinary letter to former Labour voters in her Enfield North constituency Joan Ryan admits that having spoken to many of them she realises they “have more confidence in Theresa May as Prime Minister than they would have in Jeremy Corbyn.” Going on to say “Realistically no one thinks Theresa May will not be Prime Minister, or that she will not have the majority she needs to negotiate Brexit.”
Guido happens to agree with Joan and he has heard other Labour figures say the same in private, it is something else however to say the truth openly in letters to electors. The words of a sitting MP are a reality check to some in the media’s wilder speculation on the prospects for Prime Minister Corbyn…
Download Joan Ryan’s letter in full.
