In a week when the Labour party sent out its ballot papers to party members, the leadership challenge will certainly get interesting. The two contenders for the party leadership have urged members to back them as ballot papers begin to be sent or emailed to nearly 650,000 people. The Labour party said the voters are made up of about 350,000 members, out of which 129,000 people paid £25 each to be registered supporters, and 168,000 people from the unions and other organisations.
It has emerged that thousands of party supporters might face suspension or even be expelled as allegations of abuse and antisemitism have surfaced. Some 6000 members have been reported to the Party’s NEC in a bid to stop bad behaviour.
A few weeks back we reported about the mutinous atmosphere within the party. Now a few party members are thinking of setting a rebel group to co-ordinate a mass defiance of Jeremy Corbyn’s polices should he succeed retaining the leadership. This ‘party within the party’ is structured on the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs. Rebel ministers believe the creation of this new group will enable them to appoint their own whips to help co-ordinate rebellions against Corbyn, to sign up over 100 MPs to Labour’s ‘sister party’, the Co-operative party, using it as an official opposition, and to change the rules on appointing the Labour front bench to “Surround and Smother” Corbyn.
Since 1927, the Co-Operative party has had an electoral agreement with the Labour party to put forward joint candidates during elections. there are some 25 MPs from Labour who are also members of the Co-op party, including Stella Creasy, Jonathan Ashworth, Gareth Thomas, John Woodcock and Louise Ellman.
In an unexpected move, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, broke his stance of neutrality and publicly endorsed Owen Smith for the party leadership over the weekend. The mayor writing in the Observer said that Corbyn “failed to win the trust of the people and respect of the British people” and claimed the leader “proved that he is unable to organise an effective team.” This new support has raised hopes with the Smith camp of his chances of becoming the new leader. Another leading figure backing Mr Smith is Labour’s Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale,
In another development, Chi Onwurah, a shadow culture and business minister along with another female MP has claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s disastrous management has made it impossible for the ethnic minority MPs to do their jobs. She urged her fellow members not to re-elect Corbyn.
The result of the leadership contest will be announced on 24 September.
