Pattern of regional roles as fall-back needs to end
Mike O’Brien is a former Labour MP and front-bencher under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who consistently voted for the Iraq war, lost his North Warwickshire seat in 2010 and tried, unsuccessfully, to regain it in 2015.
He now hopes to become Labour’s candidate for the position of West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – to replace another former Blair minister, departing PCC David Jamieson.
O’Brien has begun mailing local Labour members to ask for their support for his candidacy and his letter makes a point of his history as a front-bench MP.
The West Midlands has a history of selecting ex-MPs for regional positions. Former Birmingham Erdington MP and close friend of Tom Watson Sion Simon stood for Labour in the last contest to be the region’s ‘metro mayor’ – in spite of having stood down as an MP after an expenses controversy. Simon lost, shockingly, to Tory Andy Street. Simon’s campaign was marked by data breaches involving Gerard Coyne’s attempt to dislodge Corbyn supporter Len McCluskey as Unite general secretary.
O’Brien is not the only former Blair minister hoping to become a regional candidate. ‘Moderate’ MP Liam Byrne has announced that he wants to be selected as Labour’s candidate for the next mayoral election.
The West Midlands can no longer be a safety net for the Labour right. It’s time to choose a grassroots candidate there – and beyond.
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Good for Squawky telling it like it is.Jobs for the right wing boys?How much longer will our party funding be used to prop up right wing fanatics destroying the Labour party!Let these parasites go to the Daily fail or the sun 🌞 for funding and activists……..No more scum traitors please……Socialist……or …..out you go!
Labours favourite pastime . Making rods for their own backs . I wonder if there is a left candidate ? Even a non centrist would do
I’ve not had an email from O’Brien. Simon Foster is the momentum supported candidate. He’s had the funding to send out a leaflet to members by post last week.
Simon I have donnated to momentum,but now I am extremely cautious regarding the Lansman fiefdom,and that must unfortunately apply to the candidate’s.I am very quickly becoming convinced that the Labour party should not allow any affiliated organisations other than the unions that helped to make the Labour party… Sad but look at the examples of our Trojan horse candidate’s……right wing fanatic and members of affiliate bodys….. LFI,Labour first,progress,Coop party,various Jewish groups and uncle Tom cobly and all.
Skwawky highlighting that nowhere – Not even in the toerag party – is the sense of entitlement and cronyism so prevalent as within the bliarite ‘left’.
Blairite networking cronies…….a sign of the times.
Nobody tops the Tories on entitlement but there might be marginally less cronyism in the tribe – due only to their backstabbing natures inculcated by Tory mothers.
The Labour mother gently explains to her three-year-old that it’s wrong to steal the new baby’s milk while the Tory mother swells with pride at his entrepreneurial spirit.
The fundamental difference being, David, that the toerag sense of entitlement and their avarice is generally inherited; it’s almost genetic, and only to be expected from them.
With the bliarites it’s acquired. They go into parliament promising virtue and leave having amassed nothing but vices.
Labour is a Party with the strongest and most persistent deference. The best we can hope for is at least a candidate to stand against the entitled ones.
I am especially agitated by Liam Byrne’s seduction of McDonnell, who as a former lonely figure in parliament had to learn to take what support that he could get within Labour. We now need a new generation to take the reigns from McDonnell who can now only chair the Lefts’s advance rather than lead it from the front. We only get this one chance and it is having the feel of starting to blow it.
Very interesting post.,John is socialist in his blood,but I wonder what game he is playing lately…..contradiction in his support of Corbyn and policy….right wing friends?….appeasement and backing away from a fight is not the MCDonnell I know and trust?…..cultural Catholic…..? when like me attends mass regularly.After a lifetime of solid reliability…maybe old age is getting to him.He should choose his friends carefully?