The ‘Remain Labour‘ event in Liverpool last Saturday was set up with high expectations – as a joint event with ‘Liverpool for Europe‘ – as a demonstration of the scale of support for a so-called “people’s vote” and preventing Brexit.
Liverpool is routinely quoted by remain campaigners looking for justification for their campaign – particularly for MPs opposing the Labour leadership’s intelligent fight for everyone, as opposed to 48% or 52% – as an example of a northern city with strong remain sentiment and as a free pass for those trying to manoeuvre Labour into supporting a new referendum.
But it appears only a handful of people turned up.
This development was noticed by Twitter account “The Left Bible“, which challenged the event’s organisers to provide evidence for its claims that ‘at least 100’ attended:
In response, Remain Labour responded with a snarky comment and photo that showed ten audience members, as well as the panel of speakers:
We don’t answer to you. But because we’re feeling generous, here is one below. That’s it, we’re not going to waste anymore time with an organisation making false claims. We have more important things to do.
Remain Labour Twitter account
Unfortunately, Remain Labour were did not have a monopoly on the photos posted to Twitter – and the few others posted did not suggest an audience of ‘at least 100’. The images are only partial – significantly none at all appear to have been posted from the back of the room at the Quaker Meeting House in Liverpool One – but empty seats in the audience are highlighted below with yellow arrows:
The absence of any images from further back in a meeting room large enough to hold 130 people in ‘theatre layout’ certainly suggests there were no people sitting further back in a room that could accommodate at least a dozen rows and probably more:
The bleak faces of panellists in a number of images as they stare out across the sparse audience when not speaking supports this conclusion.
Remain Labour is run by Andrew Lewin, a former LibDem parliamentary candidate and now listed as a speaker by the right-wing group Progress. The SKWAWKBOX has been unable to find contact information for him or his campaign.
The campaign’s ‘contact’ page contains no contact details, but states that it will not support ‘any…exit deal that might be proposed‘. It therefore has no pretensions to try to represent the whole population.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Claims that only eight people turned up look to be unkind. However, an audience of 20-25 people in a city region of 1.4 million or so people that voted heavily in favour of remaining in the EU is hardly stellar. There appears to be no evidence to support the campaign’s claim of ‘at least 100’ attendees, although even 100 would hardly be compelling.
It appears that Liverpool – a stronghold of Corbynism as well as a strong remain area – recognises that a Labour government is a far higher priority and that this goal would be damaged by any attempt to prevent the implementation of the 2016 referendum result.
A fact that may, of course, not be entirely unrelated to the attempts of Corbyn’s opponents to create an impression of ‘pressure’ for him to back such efforts.
In this case, with a spectacular lack of success.
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