Surely Labour MPs won’t go quietly with deselections set to become a reality
Joan Ryan is chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Tonight local party radicals passed a vote of no confidence in her, 1st stage of deselection. Tough to think of a worse look for a political party that aspires to govern. https://t.co/7Pqyg6TPvL
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) September 6, 2018
Another moderate and Corbyn critic @gavinshuker has also just lost a confidence vote tonight. That’s 4 Labour MPs in total now, after Hoey and Field. The purge has begun.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) September 6, 2018
Boris Johnson’s divorce proceedings may dominate the news but the most important political news in the last 24 hours is the first step in the deselection of two Labour MPs by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. I expect these two won’t be the only ones.
What makes this rather surreal, if not the feeling of a The Day Today sketch, is that Press TV from Iran covered the events in Enfield North. Given Corbyn’s former associations with Press TV, their covering this story makes for a fascinating subplot that people like Tom Watson have picked up on.
We are awaiting the results of a no-confidence vote by #Enfield North #Labour members in their pro-Israel MP #JoanRyan. pic.twitter.com/btbBX7NWhm
— Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) September 6, 2018
#Enfield North Labour members cheer and celebrate the news of the successful no confidence vote in rebel MP #JoanRyan.#WeAreEnfieldNorth #Labour pic.twitter.com/V5HOZbPLRd
— Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) September 6, 2018
This vote is considered a major success for #JeremyCorbyn supporters in Enfield.#JoanRyan has attacked Corbyn since being elected as leader.#WeAreEnfieldNorth #WeAreCorbyn pic.twitter.com/cEwEwt0vmo
— Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) September 6, 2018
Surely this is a tipping point for Labour MPs, or will they just quietly go into the night? If they don’t go quietly then I’d expect mass resignations/defections from Labour to the much discussed new centrist party. The revelation today about ‘Labour stands accused of failing to tell MPs when they have been threatened with violence’ won’t help either.
I think Joan Ryan has summed it up beautifully. Whilst the government is screwing up things like Brexit to Universal Credit this is what Labour are focussing upon, whilst the mantra is that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose elections, oppositions might need to put some effort in.
Very strong words from Joan Ryan after her local Labour party passed a motion of no confidence in her last night. pic.twitter.com/108xQ1Iegw
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) September 7, 2018