Laura Pidcock has come out to offer the Labour Party, and Keir Starmer, advice on how to win back the ‘Red Wall’. Her unwarranted tactics come just one week after resigning from Labour’s NEC, partly over the party’s decision to allow Christian Wakeford to cross the floor, thereby actually winning back a red wall seat. She also threatens a political comeback, completely undermining her claims she wants Labour to win back the red wall…
Pidcock’s advice, surprise surprise, consists of telling the leadership they need to offer more of a “strong and aggressive opposition” to Boris Johnson, as well as offer “radical” policies on the cost of living crisis. Both strategies that worked very well for Corbyn and McDonnell. Einstein’s definition of insanity comes to mind…
Asked if she personally would be standing as a Labour candidate in County Durham at the next election, Pidcock told the Northern Agenda podcast, “I think I’ve got a bit I thinking to do before I make any kind of commitment.” Given this is Laura Pidcock, that makes County Durham’s doorsteps safe until at least the 2030 election…
The left’s latest efforts to get the whip restored to Corbyn failed again last night, as a Labour NEC motion to bring him back into the fold fell massively short: according to LabourList the final tally showed 23 votes against, 14 in favour, and one abstention. Commiserations, Laura Pidcock.
The motion, proposed by union rep Ian Murray and local party rep Nadia Jama, claimed that Sir Keir’s suspending of Corbyn’s whip in November 2020 was “deeply divisive” and “disrespectful”. They then begged Labour Chief Whip Alan Campbell to see sense and bring the old boy back into the fold. Campbell reminded everyone Corbyn still hasn’t sufficiently apologised for the rampant antisemitism that arose within the Party under his leadership.
Speaking after the vote, Corbyn himself put out a statement:
“I am very thankful to the members of Labour’s NEC who will raise the issue of the removal of my parliamentary whip today. I was elected on a Labour Party mandate by the people of Islington North […]
Today’s NEC vote and Keir Starmer’s ongoing decision to bar me from sitting as a Labour MP is disappointing… The struggle for peace, justice and sustainability goes on.”
“The struggle for peace, justice and sustainability goes on”. Almost sounds like a party slogan…
Nine NEC members voted against proscribing Resist, an organisation that promoted George Galloway instead of Labour’s Kim Leadbeater in the Batley and Spen by-election. The group also claim that accusations of antisemitism in Labour were politically motivated.
Laura Pidcock, Yasmine Dar, Gemma Bolton, Nadia Jama, Mish Rahman, Jame Taylor, Andy Kerr, Mick Whelan, Andy Fox, Ian Murray, and Andy Kerr also voted against expelling Labour Against the WitchHunt, and Labour in Exile. Interestingly Laura McNeill, NEC Youth Rep, broke rank and voted for proscribing Labour Against the WitchHunt, and Labour in Exile…
A further 12 NEC reps voted against proscribing Socialist Appeal. In spite of the rebellion all four groups were banned from the Labour Party….
A statement signed by nine of the left NEC members and incoming rep Amy Jackson claimed that considering the matter is:
“a continuation of the destructive, factional behaviours from the leadership of the party which have marked the last year. This isn’t just about the organisations we are being asked to consider on Tuesday it is about setting a precedent; proscribing these organisations as a forerunner to proscription of more and more groupings on the left of the party, to ultimately expel large sections of the Labour left.”
Guido encourages co-conspirators to listen to the people Starmer is trying to expel and decide whether they think these people and groups are “toxic”…
Labour is now officially heading towards bankruptcy, according to General Secretary David Evans. At a meeting of Labour staff this morning, Evans said the party’s poor financial state is due to “lost members and dealing with antisemitism cases.” It’s always someone else’s fault, eh Keir…
According to Labour List’s Sienna Rodgers, Labour’s financial reserves are now down to just one month’s payroll, with voluntary severance being offered to all NEC-funded staff. For a Labour-party announcement about potential redundancies, sources claim there was “no mention of staff welfare”…
The left is furious about this financial state: Bywire News claims “Labour were the richest party in Britain under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”; self-proclaimed “Marxist” Labour councillor James McAsh says the fall from being “the richest political party in Britain” is “so sad and so scary”. Surely for a Marxist, wealth reduction is exactly what McAsh would want to see…
A report from Labour’s last NEC meeting reveals that Wendy Nichols, the NEC chairwoman, having to shut down discussion of the “crisis” in Labour. The 5-hour-long March meeting – described by NEC Unite member Howard Beckett as “the most depressing” he’d ever attended – saw 4 of the 22 motions submitted by local branches describe Starmer’s Labour as “in crisis”; all of which were ruled out of order in an extreme intervention by the NEC chair. Nichols claimed debating the motions would distract from winning elections…
Despite this speech clampdown, some NEC members rebelled, and it was later claimed the refusal to debate the motions makes the NEC process itself “a pointless waste of time for local parties to send motions at all”. The NEC meeting didn’t need any motions to prove Labour’s crisis in the end, as it was the same meeting that saw Laura Pidcock storm out after being called a “cow” by Margaret Beckett…
Left-wing MP Shabana Mahmood was elected chair of Labour NEC’s disputes panel this morning – the sub-group of Labour’s national ruling body responsible for adjudicating internal complaints and disciplinary cases. Mahmood will now oversee Labour’s overhaul of its disciplinary process promised by Sir Keir after the findings of the EHRC antisemitism report last December. Will she be up to the job?
Given the role the chair will play, it’s lucky Labour electors gave the position to someone with comprehensive experience of ill-discipline:
Even with this less-than-glowing track record, Shabana is a step up from the committee’s 2019 chair, Claudia Webbe – whatever happened to her?