It looks like some Labour officials haven’t got the memo about keeping their shadow ministers away from disgraced Rotherham councillors implicated in the mismanagement of the child sexual abuse scandal. Shadow defence secretary John Healey and Rother Valley Labour parliamentary candidate Jake Richards went out leafletting on Sunday with councillor Sue Ellis. Ellis is reportedly standing down “voluntarily” over her presence on the council during the scandal and at the notorious 2005 meeting in which details of abuse were supplied and ignored by the council. She’s already stood down from the Parish Council. Labour HQ has been purging the councillors in waves as it looks ahead to the local elections, though it seems as though they’re still happy to send out shadow ministers to canvas with them. Locals might not be too pleased to see them at their door…
Rotherham Tory leader Simon Ball gets in touch with Guido:
“Survivors I speak to are sick of seeing John Healey smiling next to these same councillors who everyone knows stayed silent while they were raped and abused. While Starmer is busy deselecting those councillors who are not retiring into the sunset, his Shadow Defence Secretary is out campaigning with them. I know they are short of volunteers in Rotherham Labour – but this is desperate“.
Not a good look for a changed party…
10 of Starmer’s frontbenchers resigned last night to vote in favour of a ceasefire in a symbolic vote organised by the SNP. The King’s Speech amendment calling for “all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire” was defeated by a majority of 168. Performative, pointless…
Labour’s front bench resignations were:
A total of 56 Labour MPs – over a quarter – rebelled. Starmer’s statement reiterated his support for Israel and added – “I regret that some colleagues felt unable to support the position tonight“. John Healey said this morning that Labour is “acting in these very difficult circumstances as if we were in government“. Oh dear…
Given Sir Keir spent most of PMQs trying to hammer the government over tax benefits for private schools – “trickle-down education” is apparently the soundbite of the day – Guido thought it was worth taking a look at those sitting on Starmer’s own frontbench. After all, the parents of 600,000 kids struggling to pay fees might be entitled to think it is some cheek to put VAT on the schools they themselves attended…
The backbenches are also packed with those more than familiar with private education: John McDonnell skirts over his days at St Joseph’s College. Jeremy Corbyn, the independent Member for Islington North tries to forget he went to a prep school until he was 11. Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry and Shami Chakrabarti in the Lords all sent their children to independent schools. Still, “trickle-down education” is a nice headline…
