Labour’s Chief Whip, Alan Campbell, will only decide after Saturday’s strike action what, if any, disciplinary action he will take against members of Labour’s frontbench team who defy Starmer’s instructions not to picket today. As per Guido’s morning story, at least two shadow PPSs have already broken the edict, as well as the constituency Labour Party of the Shadow Transport Secretary herself. It’s seemingly not just the rail unions and Labour’s chief whip on strike today; credit to PoliticsHome for getting this line – Guido asked Labour’s press office the exact same question two and a half hours ago to blanket silence…
On LBC this morning, Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green refused 5 times to rule out backing a strike of teachers as Britain approaches re-opening schools. Responding to footage that emerged yesterday of militant teachers boasting of strike threats to keep schools closed, Green claimed it was all speculation, and “there’s no plan for teacher strikes”, despite being given multiple opportunities to disavow the so-called “rumblings”. Yesterday The Sunday Times revealed Starmer’s allies are warning certain members of the shadow cabinet are under-performing and “near invisible” – Kate Green was one of those named. This should shine some attention on her for a bit…
“What has happened to @jeremycorbyn that he can’t answer a straight question?” asks @AndrewMarr9 #marr pic.twitter.com/SwDWwxMX4C
— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) September 24, 2017
Think that was 10 times Corbyn refuses to answer if he supports illegal strikes. A frustrated Marr responds: “What’s happened to Jeremy Corbyn that you can’t answer my questions?”
UPDATE: If anything Corbyn suggested he does back illegal strikes:
“I will be with those workers demanding a decent pay-rise” – @jeremycorbyn tells @MarrShow https://t.co/foLmOyFo92 pic.twitter.com/vccpzjCupU
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 24, 2017
Guido spies Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign director Sam Tarry flying the red flag on the Tube strike picket line at London Bridge station this morning. Tarry, who ran Corbyn’s re-election campaign in the summer, is the national officer of the militant TSSA union. Sadiq Khan has been working all morning to distance himself from the strikers, despite the Mayor receiving £10,000 from the TSSA and using their office as his HQ. The truth, as you can see in the photo above, is Labour support today’s strike…
UPDATE: Tarry speaks to LBC from the picket line:
Promise: ‘I want to be crystal clear – no ifs, no buts – what you’ll pay if I’m elected Mayor in May 2016 is what you’ll pay at the end of my 4 years in office’
Reality: Daily and weekly caps are rising by an average of 2%, Travelcard season ticket prices are rising by an average of 2%.
Promise: “Sadiq will set a target for 50 per cent of all new homes in London to be genuinely affordable.”
Reality: His new policy is that he hopes to convince developers to voluntarily meet a target of 35% affordable housing.
Promise: 32,000 police officers on London’s streets.
Reality: Now only committing enough funds to maintain force’s current strength of 31,000 officers.
Promise: “plant two million trees by 2020”
Reality: “No tree planting has been funded since the beginning of this administration”
Promise: Make London run on 100% green energy by 2050.
Reality: Sadiq’s team admit they have no idea what the percentage was when he took over, let alone today, because energy generation is apparently now a matter for central government.
Strikes
Promise: “Make sure there are zero days of strikes”
Reality: Tube strike travel chaos for commuters today.
Sadiq cleverly getting the broken manifesto promises out of the way in the first year…
