Former Labour MP Mike Gapes has returned to his political home four years after giving up his membership over Corbyn. Writing in the Times, Gapes reveals he’s finally rejoining the Labour Party thanks to Sir Keir’s “firm, purposeful leadership”:
“Watching from the outside, I have been incredibly impressed by the way Keir Starmer has relentlessly focused on making it once again a patriotic, serious party of mainstream Britain.
It was essential for Starmer to promise action to root out antisemitism. But the way he has taken personal responsibility for chasing it out of the party speaks to the firm, purposeful leadership he has shown.
Similarly, the way he has returned Labour to its roots, with a strong, patriotic and pro-Nato position has been very impressive. Thanks to Starmer’s leadership, Labour has stood shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people against Russian imperialism. […] On the big issues facing the country, Labour is once again aligned with the British public, rather than special interests.”
How moving. Gapes is right, Labour has changed a lot since 2019… although judging by his own assessment, presumably most of those changes happened in the last eight weeks or so. Here’s what he had to say about Labour and its dear leader in January:
Trot Twitter is going into meltdown again over “Keith” Starmer “betrayal” of the ten pledges he made to get elected in 2020. They have a point.- the honest answer is that Starmer would never have won a members ballot without genuflecting to the Corbynite left.
— Mike Gapes ⚒🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@MikeGapes) January 8, 2023
So that “firm, purposeful leadership” involves breaking all his own political pledges in a cynical move to grab power. He goes on to say that, had he had a vote in 2020, he “wouldn’t have voted for Starmer” in the first place…
It transpires it wasn’t only Jesus who used Easter to come back from the dead, as Mike Gapes tells Times readers today that the “Story of the Independent Group is far from over.” Most worryingly of all for Keir Starmer’s attempted rebrand of the party, Gapes finishing the op-ed by threatening a return to his former party, once his five-year ban comes to an end:
“I welcome what Starmer has done so far, but it is too early to say whether I could re-join the party. I stood against Corbyn’s Labour at an election, so I am excluded for five-years, unless there is a special dispensation for those who left and campaigned against Labour antisemitism.
I will certainly not apply to re-join the Labour Party unless I’m welcome, and I have had no indication of that yet.”
Don’t get your hopes up, Mike.
The purpose of the article is to alert the public to a new book by him and four fellow members of the Independent Group: Ann Coffey, Anna Soubry, Chris Leslie and Joan Ryan (the few that didn’t jump ship to the LibDems in fruitless attempts to hold onto their seats). Gapes promises their book – which, in keeping with their party’s launch, doesn’t appear to have a name yet – will be the “highs and lows” tale of “as series of unfortunate events”. Guido presumes the “highs” portion can be covered in the forward, before moving onto the substantially more meaty “lows”…
UPDATE 15/04: The book design is as naff as could have been expected
Hat-tip: @LabourDesign
Jeremy Corbyn has finally made a move of sorts on Brexit, in the form of a letter to various MPs which is less about stopping no deal and more about making himself Prime Minister. Corbyn says he will “seek the confidence of the House for a strictly time-limited temporary government with the aim of calling a general election, and securing the necessary extension of Article 50 to do so.” In the same way the dictatorship of the proletariat is only meant to be temporary…?
Funnily enough opposition MPs haven’t been buying it, most importantly including Jo Swinson, who now leads 14 MPs after serial defector Sarah Wollaston finally joined the Lib Dems last night. Swinson says Corbyn is “not the person who is going to be able to build an even temporary majority in the House of Commons for this task”. This is a serious electoral headache for the Lib Dems, back Corbyn and they’ll be seriously tainted by his toxic brand, fail to back him and they’ll be accused of allowing no deal to happen. Choices, choices…
The reaction from other non-Labour opposition MPs was even less positive:
1/4 I am disappointed Jeremy Corbyn did not include me in his letter especially as there are five MP members of our party.
Our exclusion and the preference for a General Election rather than an immediate People’s Vote leads me to conclude this is nothing more than a stunt.— Anna Soubry MP (@Anna_Soubry) August 14, 2019
Ultimately Corbyn’s letter changes nothing, we are still fundamentally stuck in the position where Corbyn will not back anyone else for ‘temporary’ Prime Minister while there isn’t even close to a Parliamentary majority of MPs who would back him. Pundits and commentators have got a whole two weeks left of August silly season to fight out amongst themselves who the best alternative would be, the bottom line is that it’s simply not going to happen…
Mike Gapes tells Kay Burley…
“We may end up a footnote in history…”
Mike Gapes with one of the most damning condemnations of what the Labour Party has become under Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of The Independent Group…
Seven Labour MPs have announced their resignation from the Labour party and the formation a new group called “The Independent Group”. The seven are Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Anne Coffey. They have released a full ‘Statement of Independence’ explaining their decision…
