Rosie Duffield has reported fellow Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle to the party’s chief whip after he told her he planned to attend a bin worker strike picket line in her Canterbury constituency. According to LabourList, Duffield “rais[ed] concerns” about Russell-Moyle’s visit after he contacted her about his plans in advance, as per parliamentary convention. While Duffield isn’t commenting on the exact nature of her complaint, the pair have history…

Earlier this year, Russell-Moyle shouted and jeered at Duffield during a Commons debate on gender identity, and later apologised for going overboard in “an emotional debate”. Last Sunday he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, where he claimed that Duffield had “supported people who have abused [him]“, and insisted things had gotten “too heated” – as though he wasn’t the one to explode in the Commons in the first place. Clearly there’s still no love lost between them…

Tory MP Paul Bristow just made a point of order in the Commons rightly condemning the behaviour of Lloyd Russell-Moyle on the green benches last week. While Russell-Moyle has already apologised for failing to control his “passion” during his screed at Miriam Cates last week, his decision to then sit directly next to her on the Tory benches has also sparked outrage. Surely just a coincidence… 

I’m so glad this creepy weird behaviour has been called out today. Not content with screaming abuse at my friend Miriam Cates after her speech on Wednesday, @lloyd_rm plonked himself onto the Conservative benches to intimidate her pic.twitter.com/cI7kFCRhI1

— Laura Farris MP (@Laura__Farris) January 20, 2023

Deputy Speaker Dame Rosie Winterton also responded, although hedged her bets a bit by claiming “it is very difficult for me to know what was in the honourable gentleman’s [Russell-Moyle’s] mind” when he sat a yard away from the woman he’d just screamed at. Doesn’t seem that difficult to Guido…

This morning, Lloyd tweeted:

It is not uncommon at the end of a debate for people to sit at different seats while waiting to enter the chamber or the lobbies.

I had no concept that this was making any member feel awkward and would never do anything to deliberately intimidate anyone in or out of the chamber.

Guido will let observers decide whether Russell-Moyle’s seating decision was a mere coincidence…

While the parliamentary authorities continue gathering evidence against professional nuisance Steve Bray, Marco Longhi has lost his patience and suggested a new solution for making Whitehall a No-Bray Zone: locking him up in the Tower of London…

Speaking in the Chamber yesterday afternoon alongside Bray’s arch nemesis Lee Anderson, Longhi said:

“I will not dignify his existence by tarnishing Hansard with his name, but there is a noisy man outside who dresses up as a clown and harasses and chases Members of Parliament and our staff from his little camp on the crossing island on Parliament Street. He is someone else who serves no public benefit whatsoever… This person needs to have his loudspeaker system confiscated and to be moved on. Personally, I would like to see him locked up in the Tower with a loudspeaker playing “Land of Hope and Glory” on repeat at maximum volume. The Met really should deal with him.”

Labour’s Lloyd Russell-Moyle intervened to offer swapping offices with Longhi so that “there will be no problem and we will not need to shut down free speech either”. For once, Guido’s almost inclined to agree with Russell-Moyle – putting up with Bray’s squawking is a sign we’re a tolerant democracy. Besides, there are other effective ways of dealing with him…

Labour’s hard-left MPs have already launched vocal attacks on Keir Starmer’s leadership, following the party’s record-breaking humiliating defeat in Hartlepool. Lloyd Russel-Moyle was first out the gates before the result was declared, slamming Starmer’s tactic of “valueless flag waving and suit wearing”

Good to see valueless flag waving and suit wearing working so well... or not?

— Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP🌹🏳️‍🌈 (@lloyd_rm) May 6, 2021

Fan-favourite Richard Burgon has tweeted “Labour’s leadership needs to urgently change direction”  and return to championing Corbyn’s 2019 election promises, something Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed instantly rejected on the Today Programme, saying Hartlepool must “absolutely not mean” a return to Corbynism.

Momentum is warning if Starmer doesn’t change direction he will be “out of a job”. Diane Abbott is also joining in, deludedly bragging about Corbyn’s two victories in Hartlepool and saying it is not possible to blame the former leadership for the result:

Crushing defeat for Labour in Hartlepool. Not possible to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this result. Labour won the seat twice under his leadership. Keir Starmer must think again about his strategy #HartlepoolByElection

— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) May 7, 2021

Former Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson is ignoring Abbott’s interpretation, telling LBC this morning that “the overhang from the Corbyn-era is still there.” 

Does Dr Paul Williams have any thoughts? He turned up the Hartlepool count 30 seconds before the announcement and being filmed running away immediately after, refusing to give a concession speech or talk to the press. There will be weeks of fall-out from this for Labour, with one official telling the hard left making leadership threats, “bring it on”…