Do Labour MPs think this campaigning was legitimate?
Do they need to put a lid on their fury – and quick?
I’m travelling at the moment and have only just caught up with the reports of what happened at last night’s meeting of Labour MPs.
According to the BBC’s John Pienaar the comments by Harriet Harman about Woolas have provoked what Labour MPs and ex-ministers call a “mutiny” against the Labour leadership at Westminster.
You have to ask are they crazy? For their defence of Woolas can only be seen that they are condoning one of the nastiest election campaigns of modern times.
Their actions make it look as though they approved of the “make the white folk angry” strategy that was specifically designed to win the seat for the former immigration minister.
Over the weekend I went through the campaign material of every contentious by election of the last 25 years. I could find nothing that got close to what went on in Old and Sad last May.
Labour MPs just need to step back and ask what else the leadership could have done.
All this took place in a town that only nine years ago saw an eruption in racial violence – something that Woolas and his team were fully aware of.
On a general level it’s always said that the public hates seeing parties that are split. All the MPs are doing is adding more focus to the Woolas campaign which is hardly going to help their party.
It ain’t rocket science.