‘Labour’ MP Jonathan Woodcock is no stranger to finding himself on the wrong side of issues, having rebelled against the Labour whip to vote for the Saudi bombing of Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and for the continued supply of arms to Saudi Arabia for it – not to mention promising his constituents he would never support Jeremy Corbyn as PM, just before becoming almost the only Labour MP to fail to ride the ‘Corbyn surge’.
Today, he joined the unenvied ranks of Labour MPs to attack their own leader in the House of Commons, alongside the ‘thuggish‘ Ian Austin – and in the process made a fool of himself by being completely wrong and got himself stared into embarrassment and told by his colleagues to ‘cross the floor’ and join the Tories.
Watch as Woodcock wilts under the prolonged stare of the excellent Lincoln MP Karen Lee and gets a very clear message from Derby North’s Chris Williamson, before receiving a lesson in dignity from his party leader:
Woodcock’s embarrassment was not yet complete, however – as he had gone out on a limb only to cut it off with an axe of factual incorrectness.
The ever-excellent EL4C Twitter account pulled no punches about the ‘confused Conservative’, to humorous effect:
Jeremy Corbyn politely deals with an unhelpful intervention from John Woodcock, the confused Conservative MP for Barrow and Furness, who has somehow found himself sitting on the Opposition benches. pic.twitter.com/tBaz3imALS
— EL4C (@EL4JC) March 26, 2018
But the ‘ToryFibs’ account drove a stake through the heart of his intervention by immediately pointing out just some of the times Corbyn has spoken out, on the record, against Russia by signing parliamentary condemnations:
Here is a slightly more comprehensive list, thanks to excellent work by sociologist Andrew Bartlett:
Sergei Magnitsky
LGBT rights
Detention of Greenpeace activists
LGBT rights in Russia (again)
Death of Natalya Estemirova
Gay pride protest
Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
Treatment of a Russian prisoner
Russian presidential elections
Russia’s international obligations
And here, thanks also to Mr Barlett, is a BBC article about a Corbyn-led anti-Russia protest from more than eighteen years ago:
Woodcock disgraced himself, not for the first time. We’ll just leave you with the image of the ‘confused Conservative’ wilting – and hopefully even ‘considering his life-choices’ – under the laser-stare of a Labour MP worthy of the title:
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Did you catch Stella Creasy (accompanied by Chuka) theatrically turning on the waterworks on their way into tonight’s PLP meeting.
No – got a link?
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4-news/on-demand/67676-085
at 40:23
NB: This Ch4 News catch-up video is only available for 1 day.
Not again !!
It’s high time that the Party bit the bullet and acted against these parasites. They’ve fed off the labour Party for far too long. If they had a shred of integrity, they would cross the floor. They will NEVER accept that this is a Socialist Party, and we’ve taken it back from these entryists. We should expel them now, and replace them with honest, decent, local candidates, who will truly represent the needs of the people. Not like these self-serving careerist chancers.
Spot on Sean 100% agree , but it takes the relevant CLPs to do it and right now I don’t see a willingness or drive to kick this off. I wish that were not the case , it would only take one to start the ball rolling perhaps
Wallasey or even better go for head snake Umunna
God I really dislike Woodcock. Wish he had some honor and would do the right thing. He has none so he won’t.
There goes Woodcock’s political career down the pan.
I am sure there is a job waiting for him after politics as a lobbyist for an arms manufacturer or a private healthcare company.
He has served his masters well so I am sure they will reward him,
If they don’t look after him then he’ll be stuffed because it’s obvious that he’s so incompetent that he is incapable of carrying out even the most basic research
Never been a great fan of deselections but after the local elections that is what must happen. There are around a dozen confused democrats who think they are socialists that need to be ousted. It’s time to bite the bullet Jez! I could make a list but you all know who they are!
Or he might even be offered a job at the BBC.
I think you can safely say, Woodcock has officially joined the Tories. Jeremy needs to be strong and withdraw the whip from him ASAP. Calling your leader out as a liar in that fashion is just plain wrong.
I trust that comrades in the Barrow and Furness CLP will censure Mr Woodcock for his outrageous behaviour and demand he personally apologises to Mr Corbyn for his baseless and unfactual attack.
Furthermore, the Labour Party will expect the Cooperative Party to discipline its MP, John Woodcock, for this outrageous attack on the leader of the Labour Party.
It is not in the interests of the Labour Party to fund and campaign to return Cooperative Party MPs only for those MPs to plot against the Labour Party Leader.
A good start on a clear-up could be made by the Labour party withdrawing from all arrangements it has with the Cooperative party and then fielding actual Labour candidates where appropriate.
A fell swoop.
Something’s got to be done in time for the next G.E., we really can’t go on like this or have even the most deluded hope of governing with these outrageous creeps on the Labour benches.
Wearing his arse for a hat must be one of woodcock’s obsessions.
What a complete nuckfugget. This fella’s just gotta be based on him
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UKxbhMCIw4E/T-RjJ_WmNvI/AAAAAAAAGOE/a8rOLz37xxA/s1600/scaled.jpg
LAST THROES ‘GREAT MEN AND WOMEN’ (?)
Oh how the Barbarians falter.
And falls the gold plated fence.
Smashed by the light of argument.
And slaughtered by evidence.
I had a dream….
And 350 Socialist Labour MPs were elected.
Solidarity!
I must admit that I feel deep anger and resentment at these pernicious right wing MPs that have no place in our party.
Sadly we do have to contain ourselves as they will call it abuse if we really tell what we think of them, the membership must now wake up fast and hopefully those CLPs whose MPs are guilty of bringing our party into disrepute are deselected at the first opportunity.
This is a deliberate act of sabotage and we should act, whatever the consrquences, because they will stop at nothing.
It is very sad that he and Ian Austin did not lose their seats at the last general election.
After seeing this no wonder I have an utter loathing of Woodcock, the sooner Barrow and Furness CLP wake up and deselect the weasel for his insurbordinate behaviour the better and hopefully they will select a socialist to fight the seat.
The sooner that people like Austin, Umanna,Mann, Phillips, Bradshaw,Cooper,Berger are dealt with in the same manner by their respective CLPs the better,their rank disloyalty is a boil that must be lanced!
He is really asking for trouble
He,Mann,Creasey,Berger,Leslie and others are members of the Cooperative party,10,000 members 38 mp’s who have a large number of right wing troublemakers. Momentum have 30,000 members and no mp’s. Perhaps they should put up candidates against the pink tories??
That could open a few eyes and minds.
Or all join the COOP Party Ha! Ha!
An excellent article from 18mths ago entitled “Defeating Labour’s manufactured anti-Semitism crisis” that puts these latest ‘accusations’ into perspective
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/defeating-labours-manufactured-anti-semitism-crisis
Chris Williamson
Is much balder in real life
than his press photos
Shameful plonker. About time he joins the Tories. How dare he. Corbyn has a long well documented history of condemning Russia as you show. I’m sick to my back teeth of lies about Corbyn, and to have Labour MPs join in?!?!