On Friday night, ‘centrist’ Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith received a 27-20 – a good turn-out for a delegate-based CLP – vote of no confidence from her CLP (constituency Labour party) – and took to Twitter with a sour dismissal of the vote as the work of a hard-left ‘cabal’. Fellow right-wing Labour MPs – and the odd Tory – predictably expressed their outrage at the democratic expression of the opinion of Labour members.
Below is the full text of the motion passed against her, including an appendix also written by the proposers of the motion:
This CLP notes that
1. Angela Smith has represented this CLP since it was created in 2010. Before that she was MP for Sheffield Hillsborough from 2005 to 2010. (1)
2. In 2015 Angela Smith voted against greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas in National Parks, the Broads, areas of outstanding natural beauty, World Heritage sites, and near points where water is abstracted for domestic and food production purposes. (2)
3. Angela said earlier this month at a water industry conference in Manchester that Labour’s plans for the return to public ownership of the privatised water industry were “undeveloped, uncosted and should not be a priority among so many post-Brexit challenges”. She denounced the proposals, promoted by John McDonnell, as ideological and founded in “the politics of the past”. (3)
4. Angela Smith has written in the press articles that undermine the leadership and the wider Party. (4)
5. Angela Smith tweets and retweets criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. (5)
6. Angela Smith was invited to the Annual Dinner in February. However, she advised the organisers that she would not be attending the Annual Dinner, but she would in fact be attending another event that was being held at the same venue, Wortley Hall.This CLP believes that:
• Angela Smith has by her conduct, her actions, and in articles she has written demonstrated that she no longer represents the views of the CLP.
• She has been a persistent and visceral critic of Jeremy Corbyn and through her divisive attacks on him she has damaged the Labour Party locally and nationally.
• Her articles and comments on Fracking and Privatised Water Companies that are contrary to the Labour Party Manifesto commitments demonstrate that she has lost touch with the Party and the constituents she was elected to represent.
• She has snubbed this CLP very publicly at an event to raise funds for her election campaign.
• The relationship of trust and respect that is an essential and fundamental requirement between an MP and their Constituency Party has broken down, perhaps irrevocably, and as a result this CLP has no confidence in Angela Smith to represents its members as our MP.This CLP resolves to:
1. Propose a vote of ‘no confidence’ in Angela Smith at the CLP General Meeting on 16 November 2018.
2. Write to the Chief Whip and ask that she has the whip removed.Appendix:
1. Angela Christine Smith (born 16 August 1961) is a British Labour Party politician and former lecturer. She has represented the parliamentary seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2010. Before boundary changes she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hillsborough from 2005 to 2010.
2. Angela Smith voted against greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas in National Parks, the Broads, areas of oustanding natural beauty, World Heritage sites, and near points where water is abstracted for domestic and food production purposes. A majority of MPs disagreed and voted for greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas in National Parks, the Broads, areas of oustanding natural beauty, World Heritage sites, and near points where water is abstracted for domestic and food production purposes. 296 for, 259 against, 0 abstained, 91 absent.
3. ‘Labour MP savages party’s water policy’, The Times, 17 April 2018
4. ”Car crash’ Jeremy Corbyn under pressure over foreign trips’, Daily Express, 20 August 2018
5. https://twitter.com/angelasmithmp/status/980930274405085184
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Thew sooner she is gone the better.
She clearly doesn’t belong in the Labour Party.
Well with all this evidence I don’t know what the CLP membership is waiting for , just start the de-selection process , get a new candidate lined up ready for the imminent GE .
As shown with Frank Field , removal of the whip means nothing to these conceited Blairite MPs and , he is still a member of the party , even tho he no longer adheres to the whips,,,, why the hell is this allowed to go on.
Hard working MP?
F**k me, that’s an oxymoron on a par with ‘police intelligence’.
Name and address please… (licks pencil)
Thx for that…🤣
What impresses me is the specific, detailed nature of the CLP motion, which provides a clear rationale for the censure. The sloganising has been left to Smith, who condemns herself out of her own mouth.
I think that is an object lesson – no doubt many of us have experienced ‘motherhood and sliced bread’ CLP motions that are fuzzy and unfocused and make as much of an impact as a soft banana.
It is time that MPs recognised where they come from. I would be the last to wish an MP to simply be a delegate of the CLP, but they have to keep the confidence of the constituency party and answer for their decisions.
Burned in my memory is an instance in the good old Blair years, when the ‘local’ MP (actually a London tourist) refused the *unanimously* supported formal request of both Constituency and District parties to oppose the development of Academy schools. Of course, subsequent events have shown how rooted in principle and reality was the wider view of the Party that the consequences of this policy would be dire. But the MP remained without ever having to make a justification.
No. I don’t want puppets, but such instances are a blatant mismatch. Time for change.
MPs that do not represent Labour should do the honest thing and resign, before being pushed. Anyone that thinks the private sector provides better service than the public one, has been walking around with their eyes and ears closed over recent years.
Yet another MP that rather than face the fact they are in the wrong goes off on a rant. Your CLP biting is a democratic process to attack this process indicates an absolute disrespect of democracy and if you dont respect democracy how can you do your job as an MP properly?
If you get summoned by the boss over discipline you don’t rant at them about how unfair they are & how they need to change their position because their work ethic is clearly rooted in the past, you stand there accept you were wro g & agree to improve.
If she doesn’t admit she was wrong there’s no scope for improvement & the CLP should seek immediately to deselect
Hard right MPs should not be referred to as ‘centrists’.