Jolyon ‘Jo’ Green is a and former head of press for the Labour Party and centrist former Labour member . In May last year, a couple of months after leaving the Labour party, he wrote an article for the Conservative Spectator warning of disaster for Labour at the ballot box:
A month later, the ‘Corbyn surge’ took Labour to its biggest increase in vote share since 1945.
Green’s recent Twitter feed includes digs at Labour’s current leadership and policy, as well as at Unite’s Corbyn-supporting General Secretary Len McCluskey. It would not be unfair to say his centrist colours are firmly nailed to the mast.
Last night, Jennie Formby – a Unite representative on Labour’s NEC (National Executive Committee) – who has today declared her intention to apply for the position of Labour Party General Secretary following the announcement of incumbent Iain McNicol’s resignation, was the target of Green’s ire:.
Green also ventured further than merely tweeting screengrabs of some of Ms Formby’s old tweets. When the Huffington Post’s Paul Waugh tweeted about the desperation of right-wing members of the NEC to prevent the appointment of Ms Formby – who has the backing of both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell – Green responded:
Jolyon Green was contacted for comment, but responded only to point out that he is no longer a Labour member and to confirm when he left the party.
Comment:
It’s safe to say Jo Green does not want Jennie Formby to become Labour’s new General Secretary.
But tweeting her comments against Tony Blair, Blairites and the Iraq war – comments made long before she had any intention of applying for an important party officer position – will in fact underline her integrity and her suitability for the position in the eyes of the Labour member majority who voted overwhelmingly for Corbyn in two leadership elections, as well as for the left slate in the recent election of additional NEC members.
It may be an accidental endorsement – but for many members it will be a resounding one.
Full disclosure: Mr Green is decidedly not a fan of the SKWAWKBOX.
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“Jolyon ‘Jo’ Green is a […] and former blah blah blah..
So many expletives to choose from … how about you pick one for us, Steve? 🙂
Thank you Mr Green for endorsing Jenny , any shit from Blairites and Tories like you simply adds to the support for , in this case , Jenny and in general the Labour party .Keep it up , wankers like you and in the MSM still don’t get it , every word of crap just increases our support.
Thank you .
We often hear what centrists like Jolyon Green are against but never hear what they are actually for.
That is because he is an empty vessel.
I am very pleased he is not in the Labour Party.
“Jolyon”? Seriously? Not Tarquin?
I have to admit, I know very little about Mr. Green and his political views, but ‘centrist’ he is definitely not. To paraphrase Corbyn on his New Year’s Eve message: The new centre ground has been staked out in British politics. Mr Green is definitely to there. So to call him ‘centrist’ is a bit generous. The amazing thing is not how these right-wingers managed to infiltrate the party – right up to it highest echelons! The amazing thing is how they were so brazen about it. Time to clean out the Augean stables. McNicol down, a number – quite a number – of PLP members to go…