‘Moderate’ MPs brief against Corbyn to media for missed meeting – but Labour leader was visiting terminally-ill Labour member
When Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn missed a meeting with Labour’s ‘parliamentary committee’ (LPC) – made up entirely of so-called ‘moderates’ from Labour’s back benches – earlier this week, members saw it as an opportunity to brief to the media that it demonstrated a lack of leadership.
Kevin Schofield of PoliticsHome duly quoted the predictable insult in a tweet:
The tweet earned Schofield a rebuke from a Labour member, who related Corbyn’s contact with her terminally-ill friend that day:
However, it was not clear whether that visit had been the reason for Corbyn missing the meeting with the petulant back-benchers. The SKWAWKBOX can now confirm that it was why he was absent.
The ill member in question was Jayne Rae, who featured on the BBC earlier this month and was the subject of a moving tribute by Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby, who is also fighting cancer:
Kevin Schofield was contacted for comment.
Update: Schofield responded after publication, saying:
Jeremy never told the committee why he wasn’t at the meeting and no one from Labour has complained to me.
Here is his tweet again:
SKWAWKBOX view:
The lack of character among some of Labour’s laughably-termed ‘moderates’ is appalling – and has been exposed by their all-too-predictable rush to use Corbyn’s absence to attack their party leader, who still enjoys huge support from Labour’s members.
They have been shamed by their lack of interest in finding out why he was missing – and even more so if the anonymous MPs knew why he was not there, as seems extremely likely.
Kevin Schofield’s decision not to check the reason before inflicting their petulance on the public was a failure all too illustrative of the level of ‘mainstream media’ coverage of Labour and it’s leader.
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