Labour membership numbers have dropped by a whopping 10,000 in just two months, with nearly 50,000 members fleeing the party in total since last August. According to NEC member Luke Akehurst, Labour now has 385,324 paid-up members, down by 138,000 since Sir Keir became party leader three years ago…

The good news for Sir Keir is the party took in £5,893,841 in donations for Q1 (still less than half of the Tories’ takings), and their big business schmoozing means they’re unlikely to have the bailiffs knocking at the door despite declining membership numbers. Although they are still moving into a “cheaper” head office in Southwark later this year, having only set up base in their current HQ last October…

Speaking on GMB this morning, Diane Abbott took a principled stance against Keir Starmer’s chicanery. The former Shadow Home Secretary questioned Starmer’s decision to block Jeremy Corbyn from standing at the next election:

“Keir Starmer put a motion in front of the NEC to bar Jeremy as a candidate, but that motion said nothing about antisemitism. It said that because Jeremy had lost the 2019 election he couldn’t run. Well, really, if you stop people being MPs because they lose elections, why is Ed Miliband still an MP?”

She also claimed that if Corbyn decides to stand as an independent in Islington “he will win”.

Diane’s comments on Ed Miliband come in the context of Labour’s legalistic justification for blocking Corbyn put forward at the NEC – based on his electoral performance and not antisemitism.  Starmer’s motion states that the party’s “standing with the electorate in the country, and its electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a parliamentary majority and/or win the next general election, are both significantly diminished should Mr Corbyn be endorsed”.

As Ann Black points out for Labour List, “the motion was fundamentally dishonest, because the reasons given for blocking Corbyn’s candidacy were not the real reasons”. It’s one rule for Comrade Corbyn and another for Red Ed…

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…