Birmingham Yardley MP tweets news – then confirms it
Jess Phillips, Birmingham Yardley MP and fan of Jacob Rees-Mogg, has stated publicly that she will not vote to bring about a general election before the 31 October deadline for the UK to leave the EU. Boris Johnson may put a vote to Parliament to call an early general election and probably faces a no-confidence vote in an attempt by the Labour Party to prevent the no-deal Brexit toward which he is steering the country.
To call an early general election, Johnson would require a two-thirds majority of MPs in a vote to trigger it. Phillips stated, during a Twitter discussion of the possibility that Johnson might table such a motion, that she would not vote for it:
When one of the others in the discussion asked her specifically, she confirmed it:
Boris Johnson is taking the UK to a no-deal Brexit that most commentators consider would be hugely damaging. Jess Phillips wants to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
Yet, in her own words and in spite of the millions suffering hardship and anguish under the Tories, she would not trigger a general election – realistically the only way a ‘hard Brexit’ can be prevented – because she feels she can predict that the result would be another hung Parliament and doesn’t properly ‘understand[ing of the] point’ of giving the public a chance to remove them.
Presumably, although she did not say so explicitly, Ms Phillips would also support Boris Johnson – or at least not vote against him – in a no-confidence vote if Jeremy Corbyn brings one to attempt to force a general election before the otherwise almost certain no-deal Brexit occurs at the end of October.
The question has been put to her directly.
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If ever a trigger voted is needed it’s needed now to get rid of the likes of Jess Phillips, assuming her CLP would take advantage of it. Phillips is never going to support JC so what the heck use is she? Even a ‘baby’ MP who supports JC would be better than her.
I’d vote for a know-nothing, self-confessed lobby-fodder candidate who’d volunteer a legally binding promise to stand with Corbyn come what may and to stand down gracefully when a better candidate appears – if such a thing were enforceable in law.
No shame in being a loyal placeholder to get rid of a Blairite.
I’d canvass on that basis and be proud to do so.
im really struggling to see how holding a GE after No Deal kicks in gives Tories best chance of success,
both cheap and nasties and brexit would be wiped out in the chaos
tories only chance is to do a deal with brexit party before 31st October,
then go for No Deal v Bollocks Brexit GE
Time for Corbyn to enforce discipline within the PLP.He might be surprised to find some of our usual suspects support him for a general election.We can hopfuly then offload them .. To announce voting with Johnson to stop a general election campaign Will almost certainly see an end to jess Philips influence even amongst the Labour traitors.hope we can finally get rid of her……..?
Phillips is another one who seems to ‘do something each day’ to undermine Labour and keep the Tories in office, and in her downtime hob nob with Murdoch etc.
I really wish she’d just piss off and join Boris the fool.
Of course Jess won’t help trigger a General Election – she is facing deselection and turkeys don’t vote for Christmas!
Can’t stand Jess Phillips but I do worry about our chances with an election before Oct 31. Lets get the deselection process done first and get rid of the likes of Phillips and Watson. I have no faith whatsoever that the Brexit Party will stand (They are just another Tory party) and will allow Johnson a free run for the brexiteer voters – an election framed as people vs the establishment. We should bide our time and wait for the French customs officials to do their jobs properly after no deal, wait for the delays, shortages and chaos to happen including Tory infighting like we’ve never seen before.
Somebody writing something other than knee-jerk dislike of Phillips.
I doubt any of us here have any time for ‘The Mouth’.
But the timing of a general election, and how best to scupper the Tories is an issue that needs a clear strategy – and isn’t within Labour control.
At the moment, the Party isn’t doing very well, is it? And the Tories are riding on a bouncing Boris – not massive, but significant. Labour votes are leeching to the LibDems and Greens, whilst official policy is to spend energy trying to nurture ‘Leave’ votes from Conservative/Brexit Party voters in an exercise of vain hope.
So, I’m not particularly interested in a self-publicist beloved of the Groan. I’m more interested in how the Party extracts itself from an unfavourable quagmire.
Comrades should curb their enthusiasm. Save in the minds of a diminishing and increasingly quasi-religious band of Corbynistas, Labour has not got much hope of winning an election in the near future. Having capitulated on the ‘Second Referendum plus Remain’ the Party is less likely to win the 70% of target Labour-Tory seats which voted Leave.
Recourse to national opinion polls does not help much – it is rather like the consolation of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote in the US whilst being defeated in the electoral college. What counts in Britain are the target seats which will actually win Labour a Commons majority – and these are overwhelmingly Leave-voting.
https://www.thefullbrexit.com/labour-brexit-capitulation
Hey, long time no spew, Dannybot.
You’d serve your interests better if you didn’t resort to sneering terms like “quasi religious” “Corbynistas”. It’s just tedious and makes you sound like Luke Akehurst.
Danny N = a bot / like Luke Akehurst. Come on guys, would it be possible to engage with the analysis rather than resort to dreary internet-speak?
For example, the article linked to cites Corbyn’s inability to mobilise members as a central factor in the likely end of the ‘Corbyn project’ – looking from where I am (east midlands) I concur. I see no evidence that Corbyn has a grasp of the significance for the left project of mobilising the membership and hence mobilisation is dwindling at best.
John, there is still no one like Corbyn for being able to mobilise members. CLPs all over the country are gearing up to have an unrivalled number of activists out in the community to challenge Boris The Clown and his suicidal Brexit ‘strategy’.
You are just asking for what I am asking for John.
Sounding like Luke Akehurst isn’t internet speak, it’s pointing out a prime example of an individual who does not get listened to anymore precisely because of conduct like Danny’s.
Therefore no matter how cogent the points might be, it’s drowned out by the hackle raising “drearyness” at the start.
Jack T, might we be thinking about different meanings of ‘mobilise’?
Of course, Corbyn (or the idea of ‘Corbyn’) has been very successful in being part of the massive increase in membership, the staging of big rallies and (maybe in a limited number of CLPs?) getting members out on the doorstep. However, there’s a school of thought going back to the 1980s and Tony Benn that believes that for socialism to come to power parliamentarians aren’t by themselves powerful enough to bring about change. Rather, it’s only through the membership engaging with the wider electorate, bringing more people into the Party who then become part of the movement, that real change can happen. In short, the power of the elite can only be challenged by a mass of people in an ideas-based movement.
In the Bennite sense, mobilisation is about much more than being a good foot soldier (e.g. doorknocking). For glimpses of the ‘mobilisation’ critique of Corbyn see, for example, Corbyn ‘outrider’ Aaron Bastani becoming more sceptical in saying “Four years after Corbyn took power it’s unclear to most newer members precisely what they can do to help… Progress with political education, which should go hand-in-hand with party democratisation, is glacial.”
https://novaramedia.com/2019/08/02/with-boris-johnson-the-rules-have-changed-now-labours-leadership-must-step-up/
John, I take your point and also the point made by RH. It’s no good just mobilising members and it’s even less effective if there is no clear strategy. We have the troops on the ground but those troops need to have a coherent voice to be able to enthuse the public which is where we get our votes.
The problem with MPs such as Phillips with their own agenda is they will never come on board with Corbyn and therefore because they attract so much attention from the MSM they destabilise what is already a shakey situation and make our job much more difficult.
I’m guessing that most of us have a good grasp of the solution, which is two-fold and in that respect the Leadership of the Party needs to catch up!
Gobshite at the centre of attention once again , its all she wants and craves .Her constituents deserve so much better from a Labour MP but don’t see any trigger ballot coming from her CLP yet , does anyone else know what is happening there ?
I don’t think your assumption that Phillips would vote against or abstain on a VONC is warranted.
There is a major difference between fighting an election on Boris’s chosen terms and fighting one on the basis of a no confidence vote; and a no confidence vote could lead directly to a Corbyn-led Government, or a Government of National Unity, without an immediate general election.
So they are completely different scenarios.
I’m all for castigating Phillips for some of the terrible things she has said and done. There is enough material to work with there without inventing things.
There will be no government of national unity. We are not in a war. Last time Labour co-operated with one outside of war, and even led it, it destroyed the party for a generation.
As we saw before the last GE right wingers in the LP don’t really want to fight elections they just want it to be a party of protest.
Why is this continually attention seeking woman even in the Labour Party.These self serving individuals are not Socialists.
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Jess seems to have slept though the last ten years of Tory policies. Either that or she now employs so many girlfriends at our expense that she doesn’t have mingle with the “trash” in Yardley any more. Because she clearly doesn’t see the damage the Tories are doing.
Think Dominic Cummings think how he thinks
How the hell do you get Tories out of this monumental shitfest
In pre 31st October GE straight fight between No Brexit or Pure Brexit, Either Tories do a deal in Midlands and North with Brexit party or Farage merges Brexit party with Tories,
Labour will be painted as remain and revoke party,
Hate to say it but this Tory psychodrama has years to go if they win,
Time to get rid of the problem once and for all, when they lose next GE they are finished, irrelevant in the modern era,
Just the small matter of breaking up the class system and financial system that feeds them,
That’s the fun bit, been waiting 40 years, FFS
Without a routine ballot of members to endorse or select a candidate before each election this situation will go on, it is very difficult to organise a trigger ballot.
The interesting question is for whom Jes would vote, if there is a General Election. Would she stand herself for Labour but vote for a candidate from another party as a safety measure so that if the electorate does not vote for her, they might at least vote for a like minded candidate. I wonder which party it would be.