At the beginning of this month, an array of female Labour MPs were prominent on social media to defend pregnant MP Ellie Reeves against potential deselection by local members.
This week Tom Watson – technically if not in practice the deputy leader of the party – launched an unconscionable public attack on Labour general secretary Jennie Formby, who is battling cancer. The Labour parliamentary women who stood in public solidarity on social media with Ms Formby against Watson’s shameful conduct are shown below:
Diane Abbott
Laura Smith
Laura Pidcock
Emma Dent Coad
Rebecca Long-Bailey
Karen Lee
Ms Lee has a personal history of loss to cancer and knows how hard it is.
Danielle Rowley
Margaret Greenwood
A number of women on Labour’s National Executive Committee have also made their support clear:
Claudia Webbe
Ms Webbe was one of the first – but not the last – to speak out. She also called for Watson to resign over his bullying:
Ann Henderson
Andi Fox
If your Labour MP is a woman who has also publicly shown solidarity with Ms Formby, please put a note in the comments so the article can be updated.
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And if your (female) MP HASN’T expressed support for Ms Formby as of now – DO feel free to shame them.
But not if they are pregnant or Jewish.
I find your reference to ‘Jewish’ highly offensive Rita.
One interesting thing is that Jewish members have been prominent amongst those expelled on fake grounds.
The BoD nexus has a clearly discriminatory view of who is the ‘right kind of Jew’ – and are quite happy to smear anyone who isn’t in their eyes.
Indeed, Danny. Quite right. Have a think about your careless post, Rita. Radical Left Jews have very often been the victims of the current “anti-Semitism” Right Wing witch hunt within Labour. The attacks on Jeremy and the Left aren’t from Jews, as Jews, but from anti Left Wing individuals and groups who are on the political Right, and are united only in their Right wing politics, and directly related uncritical support for each and every action of the Right wing Israeli government. This anti Corbyn alliance , using “anti-Semitism as an anti-Left smear, has far more non-Jews in it than Jews, and as we know from umpteen Skwawkbox reports, huge numbers of Jews, in fact most of the Orthodox Jewish community in the UK and elsewhere, are very supportive of Jeremy, and reject the entire “Labour is institutionally ant-Semitic” narrative carefully manufactured by the MSM and the Labour ight and Tories.
Too many posters here, and elsewhere, bung in careless comments, and unexplained highly ambiguous dog-whistle-encrusted terms like “Zionist” (when they should use terms like “uncritical supporter of all the actions of the Israeli government”), which only serve to feed the bogus MSM narrative that the Left as a whole is riddled with anti-Semitism.
Sorry if you have seen this but … Len Mc says it all ,,,
https://twitter.com/i/status/1150089526917906432
Watson has consistently revealed himself to be an egomaniac without an unselfish thought in his head. He must know he’s due for the chop the minute members get a vote on the issue. Presumably he’ll want to join Chuka etc. But what Party would be so foolish as to have such an unprincipled disloyal ‘colleague’? He might even suggest he should lead the LibDems rather than Chuka. It’ll be a great scrap but at the moment Labour just has to get rid of this snake slithering around our feet.
why can’t he be deselectd?
Every time the twat opens his mouth, the change.org petition demanding he be removed gains increasing pace. Keep it up Twatson, you’re not superman (even though you think you are)
Anyone seen mouthpiece phillips’ twitter page?
The bollocks about feminism on her homep;age picture and her pinned tweet is all about buying her new book.(Available from all good poundshops, a month after publication)
But I AM gonna say that I wouldn’t contaminate my sphincter by using pages from your new book to wipe my ‘arris.
Go on phillips – f**k right off.
Jess Phillips leader of the Womens parliamentary party is characteristically silent when a woman with whom she disagrees politically is maligned – witness her lack of support for Diane Abbott – even if that woman is receiving chemotherapy for what is essentially womens’ disease – breast cancer. Jess is some feminist.
Likewise Yvette Cooper who was loud in her defence of Laura Kuenssberg but is disgustingly silent when it comes to Jennie.
There are others – Ellie Reeves who was so vigorously defended earlier this week but clearly does not feel the need to defend Jennie. Unlike Ellie, Jennie is not joyfully pregnant but is instead facing a cruel life threatening disease .Where is Stella Creasy that defender of womens rights or Harriet Harman whose alleged feminist credentials go back years?
I have to say that I thought nothing that certain MPs could do would surprise me but this is a new low even for them. More than people like me ,they know the workings of Southside, the various committees and the Leaders office . They know Jennie did nothing wrong – she was the officer in charge and had duty to oversee the work of her staff, point out errors etc. They know that Seumas Milne was the victim of a very dirty trick – editing his email to alter the meaning. Why are they not speaking out?
It is also interesting that Seumas hasn’t had to take a quarter of the flak that Jennie has had to take from Tom Watson in relation to this and other issues. Maybe a bit of sexism/sexist bullying raising its ugly head there? No doubt some of the “feminists” mentioned above will put me right on that one.
Good summary, Smartboy!
That post is from the heart Timfrom. I have never been more sickened politically than now.
Aye, me neither. With you, mate!
We must but hope good will eventually prevail. Preferably with pitchforks!
Oh, arn’t most of these female MPs you mentioned the same ones who sat on their hands o n the vote for the welfare bill, the bill that cut single parent benifit and other cuts that disproportionately effect women?
Interesting how the left wing canary hung back and waited to see which way the wind blew before the editorial commented..Much contrast in the squawk box pro active approach to the situation in the Labour party.and actually suggesting solutions to the fight back.Not to suggest though that we are incapable of throwing in a few ideas of our own.Help is most definitely welcome as very little has come from the HQ ….NEC..and the PLP.Things should now start to happen as it finally sinks in that unless we the Labour party take action on numerous fronts we are doomed as a democratic socialist Labour party.
”It is also interesting that Seumas hasn’t had to take a quarter of the flak that Jennie has had to take from Tom Watson”
I couldn’t possibly think why watson hasn’t gone after a bloke, like.
That’s to say a bloke that isn’t already down like Williamson was/is. 🤔
Watson has form. Take his treatment of Leon Brittan (Lord Brittan) for instance
I never had a political thought in common with Leon Brittan and disliked him intensely when he was one of Thatchers ministers but I will never forget the look of despair and anguish in his eyes when, in the last months of his life and suffering from terminal cancer, he was surrounded by the press on his doorstep and hounded because of false sex abuse allegations made by a fraud and fantasist and pursued by Watson.
The police had already determined that Leon Brittan was a totally innocent person but Tom Watson was adamant that he was guilty ,went over their heads and they were forced into reopening the case. Tom Watson pursued Leon Brittan relentlessly and publicly called him “evil”.
Brittan went to his death an innocent man, his reputation in tatters and his family doubly heartbroken by his death and by the destruction of his character by Tom Watson.
Watson subsequently apologised to Lady Brittan for his behaviour after her husband’s accuser had been exposed as liar. I don’t know whether or not this helped her but it certainly didn’t do Leon any good – he had died an innocent but broken man largely due to Tom Watson.
I don’t know how Tom Watson ever lived that down but he did and to the eternal shame of our party was subsequently elected our Deputy Leader. He is now attacking Jennie Formby during her treatment for breast cancer which is not surprising given his form in this area.
The man is a total disgrace
There is something seriously wrong with this man. He has to be got rid of. Regrettably he is incapable of recognising his own faults, therefore he will not go without massive humiliation.
Ceridig………You presume that Watson can be embarrassed and he certainly cannot be shamed.Like most bottom feeders he attacks the sick and vulnerable. Most people with Watson’s destructive tendencys usually end up in prison or a secure ward.Hopefully we can nail him on a criminal offence ?Good post ceridig!
When he was heavier and wore those heavily framed glasses he was the spitting image of Ronnie Kray. He still has the same murderous look and clearly thinks he’s a Hard Man. Or bully as many would say.
Regrettably he is incapable of recognising his own faults”
I doubt Watson sees his expertise in political shenanigans as a fault or faults. Didn’t he work/plot against Blair towards the end? A self serving political opportunist of the lowest moral and ethical ranks.
lets not forget ruth smeeth, she always gets missed of shit lists! should be top of them!
The Labour party as it stands is too familial. Tom Watson’s partner Stephanie Peacock, is a Labour MP. Then there are the Eagle sisters, Angela & Maria, then the Reeve sisters Rachel & Ellie (Who is married to Labour MP John Cryer), then Harriet Harman & Jack Dromey, Hillary Benn & niece Emily Benn, Yvette Cooper is married to ex Labour MP Ed Balls. I’m sure there are may more, but it seems to me it’s a gravy train for several families.
The Kinnocks are another example of a family ties in the party
Linda ,Don’t doscount worse with that bunch of degenerates ,
Linda I am posting from France, but please excuse my computer it’s got a mind of its own .doscount should read discount.Good mooning sounds all a bit hello hello!but my French is on a par with that comedy series!
Did I say incestuous? Must be my computer senile as me.Any way thankyou squawk for the help with my computer spellchecker malfunction!
Nepotism and cronysim is rife in the Labour party, not just at Westminster, but at every level, local councils, CLP and BLP. New members with new ideas are pushed to one side by the in favour of the old guard, each protecting their own little fiefdom. Does anybody in the party try to stop this? No.
Regional Offices know the score. But they too are stuffed with their own cronies, most of them friends or family of the local councilors or the PLP.
I give up.
Sorry to be off topic again – but, dear readers, you might wish to delay your evening repast until after 8pm tonight.
Couple of clips on BBC News of Andrew Neil interviewing Hunt and Johnson suggest it’ll be one you won’t want to watch while sipping tea.
I won’t spoil it for you 🙂
BBC One 7pm
1 minute in: Hunt = Theresa in trousers 🙂
51 minutes in, Neil to Johnson:
Do you [even] know what’s in paragraph 5C?”
Johnson: “No”
Trap set by Neil because Boris harps on about GATT Article 24 Paragraph 5B as if he’s conversant with the whole thing and Neil knows he’s parroting it like a poem 🙂
The criticism from women MPs underlines that the time has come for disciplinary action against Tom Watson. His behaviour constitutes conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Party. He has after all exposed the Party to legal liability
There cannot be one rule for the Left and another for the Right, nor one standard for racial complaints and another for complaints regarding gender. He needs to be suspended forthwith and an NCC hearing convened to consider his expulsion.
I’ve been wondering if any Labour Party Deputy leader has ever been suspended/had Whip withdrawn? Anyone know?
Could a suspension of Watson possibly open a door to a similar move against the current leader, Corbyn?
Just pondering.
Perhaps all the ‘anti-semitism’ crap might have one useful outcome : it will sort out those who are either too devious or too stupid to warrant a position as a Labour MP.
Outside parliament, it distinguishes those too bent, too ill-informed or those too naive to have their judgment taken seriously..
It’s really quite a good filter.
I use foreign policy as my filter and that includes allegiance to Israeli state and its actions apart from the odd verbal condemnation of a particularly egregious act. The anti-Semitism witch hunt aligns nicely with my foreign policy filter funnily enough…
Rh I have been compiling a list of mps who are loyal and trustworthy .started off with a good many on my list approx 180 members who could be described as positive.Since the second chicken coup I am down to 105 .My judgment will not be perfect but my criteria was based onlyn !loyalty to the leadership and the party……naturaly brexit was not a consideration for judging loyalty..Can we survive and rebuild with so few loyal mps and a destructive majority within the PLP.Yes we can and I am hoping for a clearout soon. with retiring mps and deselection.
“loyalty to the leadership and the party”
Trouble is, Joseph – that general criterion is double-edged and tends to the subjective. Think about it : at one time it might have excluded Corbyn!
Just looking at double barrel long baileys support and the statment she sent in support of jenny.Sympathy for jenny but don’t be fooled we have another ambitious mp with beliefs in nothing but herself and leadership.Do we really need support from such people.They just might be panicking a little after no meltdown and jeremys still leader.Get the bottom feeders out.I have just posted my membership renewel so I have confidence that our membership will see us through!
Not just me seen through double barrel Rebecca then? I come from the same CLP as she.
You are not wrong.
Nemtona,…..If you look carefully you will notice another fence sitter in amongst the genuine mps.Shocking really 2 amongst half a dozen mps still playing games when offering sympathy for the cancer but NO can do on watson. …gutless carreerists and enemys of the people. Get rid ,any chance on double barrel Bailey at constituency?
Sadly the younger MPs can be easy prey for the smooth opinion changing (‘career advising’) operators in and around parliament. This is why the British Parliament is such a toxic place… hundreds of years of keeping the political power and wealth flowing in one direction with only a slight post world war 11 hiatus.
He is still the shadow culture secretary. He should at least be sacked from that even if it is difficult to sack him from being deputy leader.
Even if there is a rule saying the deputy leader should be in the cabinet he should be given a crap portfolio or isolated as much as possible. If he is still in post by the end of the weekend then he has won. He will know he is untouchable.
Keefer..culture Secretary? Tom bully boys Watson’ ,someone’s has a sense of humour when he got that label.Can we not send him to N.Ireland,maybe we can encourage him to join the DUP.or send him into the bogside so he can debate is version of democracy with PIRA..
Next trick for Watson…….victim…..need security at conference against attacks by extremist left wing.Tom doesn’t do victim but it must be used soon,he’s running out of roles to play for the media?Please NEC do your job and get him out of the party.!
The problem is getting enough MPs to nominate anyone. A rule change is the only way.
Jess? JESS? Anyone home???? Jesssssss!!!!
Yet another excellent piece published on the JVL website. It’s leading the way on cogent rebuttal in a clear and forensic way. It really is the go-to site for accessing such coverage. One hopes that the NEC can learn :
https://skwawkbox.org/2019/07/12/the-labour-women-mps-and-nec-members-who-showed-solidarity-with-jennie-formby-against-watson/#comments
That’s a link to this Skwawkbox article. I’ll go and have a look at JVL site. I agree JVL is doing valuable, brave and careful work.
Just read the ,comments and we should be offering a full time job to help set up and run a rebutal team. ….of JVL members who could surely help with dealing with AS propaganda and day to day bias and lies from the media!.They certainly are punching above their weight with calling out smears and half truths.Only wish we could copy them in the media savy and speed of rebutal…thanks for the info invaluable!
Len McCluskey brands Tom Watson a “Fucking Disgrace” at miners gala
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1153073/labour-party-antisemitism-len-mccluskey-tom-watson-jeremy-corbyn-jennie-formby-cancer
All very well tweeting support ,but have they made an official complaint ?