MP for Ashfield Gloria de Piero was the recipient of a kindness from Jeremy Corbyn in his post-election reshuffle, in the form of an appointment to the front-bench position of Shadow Minister for Justice.
She is also standing for re-election to the CAC (Conference Arrangements Committee) and is supported in that endeavour by the intractably anti-Corbyn pressure group Labour First.
Yet in spite of this, as Labour First’s latest email shows, she is aligning herself with Corbyn in her updated campaign statement, in order to attract the votes of Corbyn supporters:
Corbyn’s generosity toward Ms de Piero should not be allowed to distract Labour members from her recent history or to lead them to believe she has suddenly become a reliable Corbyn supporter.
The original version of her campaign statement did not mention Corbyn at all, let alone mention supporting him:
But the recent huge majority of CLPs supporting pro-Corbyn candidates may have pointed to a change of approach.
In 2016, Ms de Piero was already a front-bencher – and was the second to resign in the series of resignations carefully orchestrated to try to force Corbyn to resign in the aftermath of the EU referendum:
A short time later, as Owen Smith’s ill-judged leadership challenge foundered, de Piero went to the S*n, the worst of the Murdoch rags and the enemy of the Labour Party, to literally beg right-wing readers to join the party in a desperate attempt to recruit voters to vote against Corbyn:
Thirdly, Ms de Piero is seeking re-election to the CAC, as is her running mate Michael Cashman. Which means they were both on the CAC when it facilitated one of the most scandalous anti-democratic power-grabs in the party’s history.
At last year’s Conference, party rules and procedures were ignored in order to force through a set of rule changes that put two additional, unelected, anti-Corbyn members onto the NEC (Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee) – to the huge detriment of the party and the vast majority of its members.
Last, but far from least, the mere fact that she is supported by Labour First – a group founded and led by a man who crowed over the anti-democratic move described just above – is in and of itself enough to mean that no pro-Corbyn member should even think of casting a vote in her favour, whatever she has in her campaign statement.
If you support Labour’s leader; if you want a democratic Labour Party; if you believe in the party’s vision and direction since Corbyn was elected to lead it – then there is only one way to cast your two votes this week when your ballot papers arrive:
One for Seema Chandwani.
One for Billy Hayes.
And one in the eye for Labour First – with a big blow in support of democracy.
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