Stories of potential further Tory MP defections continue to emerge, despite clearly coming from Labour – the only party to benefit from spreading such claims. Last night, following a Telegraph story of five more potential defectors, a senior Conservative source got in touch to totally reject the claims, calling out Labour’s briefings and saying it doesn’t tally in any way with their intelligence. Meanwhile Labour’s sent hacks on a wild goose chase trying to track down these supposed defectors…
One such MP, North West Durham’s Richard Holden, was approached by journalists last night, one of whom was being “nagged by someone in NW Durham [constituency Labour party] who says you are defecting. Can you confirm that this is total bollocks?”. Richard characteristically replied:
You’d think the local party would leave it there. This afternoon, however, branch chairman Pat Glass – the former Labour MP and Shadow Europe Minister best known for calling a voter a “horrible racist” during the EU referendum – is now accusing Holden of some bizarre and pointless game of 4D chess. She claims he himself is spreading the absurd rumour:
Really @RicHolden? Our Chair, Pat corrects the record:
— NW Durham Labour 🌹💙 (@NWDurhamLabour) January 20, 2022
"This is a non-story made up & put out by Richard to generate a local story & publicity for himself. He should get on with his job which is working for the people of North West Durham & not himself.”https://t.co/tO5pfDIOwO https://t.co/4KRtZvezFW
Guido gently suggests that accusing Holden so overtly of this, despite no evidence, may not prove a clever strategy…
Labour are on a three line whip to vote for Pat Glass’ private member’s bill seeking to reject boundary changes and keep the number of MPs at 650. It goes without saying that the bill is a vain attempt by Labour to prevent their own seats from disappearing, despite the massive cost to the taxpayer of ignoring the Boundary Commission and not cutting the size of parliament. Labour MPs facing deselection battles with Momentum will gladly vote for it. Guido is told that Tory MPs have gone home to their constituencies and are not looking to kill the Bill today. The Tories are relaxed, they expect Labour to win today’s vote and say they will let them have their moment, before killing it at a later date. “Don’t worry, the idea of Pat Glass getting anything into law is for the birds,” a Tory source assures Guido.
Pat Glass has resigned as Shadow Education Secretary after just two days on the job. Got to be a record…
Whips office are mutinous and there are rumours Burnham is considering changing his mind. LOL-tastic.
UPDATE:
Today I'm stepping down as Shadow Minister heartbroken at state of Party & recent events so sorry things have came to this, statement later
— Emma Lewell-Buck (@EmmaLewellBuck) June 29, 2016
Burnham says rumours untrue. For now.
UPDATE II Ever-loyal Harriet Harman is no longer publicly loyal.
I urge Jeremy corbyn to stand down as Labour leader. https://t.co/pJ092XEnXm
— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) June 29, 2016
UPDATE III Labour MEPs call on Corbyn to quit
Labour MEPs call for #Corbyn to resign "with a heavy heart" following #EURef #Brexit vote pic.twitter.com/D084vijXvk
— Georg von Harrach (@yourmeps) June 29, 2016
UPDATE IV Tom Watson will not run as leader if Corbyn stands down.
Last week Shadow Europe Minister Pat Glass called a voter a “horrible racist“ for talking about immigration. Today the mask has slipped again. At a Remain rally, Glass told voters to “speak to your mother, your grandmother. Don’t speak to your grandfather, we know the problem are older white men.” Older white men like Major General Julian Thompson, who fought for Britain in the Falklands and says we should leave because the EU weakens our defences. Or Col Richard Kemp, who is backing Brexit because he says an EU army is “inevitable“. If you’re over 60, white and a man, Remain don’t want to speak to you…
Pro-Remain Labour MP Pat Glass, the Shadow Europe minister no less, has called a voter a “racist” for airing concerns about immigration from Eastern Europe:
“The very first person I’ve come to is a horrible racist. I’ve never coming back to wherever this is.”
Evidence of just how out of touch Remain is…
UPDATE: Glass says sorry:
“The comments I made were inappropriate and I regret them. Concerns about immigration are entirely valid and it’s important that politicians engage with them. I apologise to the people living in Sawley for any offence I have caused.”
Corbyn supposedly used the reshuffle to mould the Shadow Cabinet in his image by appointing a unilateralist as Shadow Defence Secretary, to go with his vegan Shadow farming minister and commie City spokesman. Yet he also quashed once and for all any lingering chance that the PLP might be dictated to from the leader’s office on Europe.
New Shadow Europe minister Pat Glass is as Europhile as they come. She founded the pro-EU PLP group and works closely with the Labour Yes campaign. Glass is also chair of the APPG on the European Union, the secretariat of which is British Influence, the pro-EU lobbying group backed by Peter Mandelson, Danny Alexander and Ken Clarke. We know where Jez’s heart is on the matter, he voted to stay out of the European Community in 1975 and holds the traditional Bennite view that the EU is a bosses’ and bankers’ union. A view on which he has sold out completely…
