Wednesday 29 June 2016

How the Parliamentary Labour Party is showing its contempt for the Labour Party membership

Over 250,000 Labour Party members voted for Jeremy Corbyn as party leader last September (2015). He stood on a ticket of change, of returning to a society where everyone will be treated fairly and decently, and where the privileged few will not prosper at the expense and suffering of the majority of the citizens of the country.


The Parliamentary Labour Party which consists of 229 Labour MPs has decided by a majority that they do not want him to remain as leader despite the wishes of the membership. Some of those same Labour MPs have referred to the members supporting Jeremy Corbyn as "dogs", which shows their contempt for the membership. This is the membership who, come every election, works their socks off to get said MP's elected to Parliament.

By attacking the democratically elected leader in this manner they are also attacking all of the membership who support him. We will not forget those who took part in this coup against democracy. Evidence has come to light that this has been an orchestrated event carried out with the collusion of the mainstream media, whose constant attacks on Jeremy Corbyn have been aimed at undermining his leadership in the eyes of both the membership and the country.

There is a proper and accepted method of challenging an elected leader under the Party Rule Book but the way the PLP has acted this week is not it (Labour MPs retain the power to trigger an extraordinary or "special" Labour Party Conference to choose a new leader if they lose confidence in their existing leader). Their actions have no legitimacy under the Rule Book and are, quite frankly, disgraceful behaviour on the part of those PLP members who took part in the orchestrated resignations and coup against Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour Party members voted overwhelmingly for change by electing Jeremy Corbyn as the party leader. We do not expect that vote, that mandate, to be ignored or overturned by careerist politicians in Labour seats. Any attempt by those MPs opposing the democratically elected leader will be resisted by the membership.