Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman has quit the Labour Party, days before she was due to face a ‘trigger’ ballot by local members on whether to make her face a selection contest.
Members were confident of a successful trigger vote after Ms Ellman refused to answer when asked at a member meeting whether she would support a Corbyn government.
Although she refused to say so in front of members, Ellman’s letter announcing her decision says that she would not.
A recent motion of no confidence in the MP was taken off the table in order not to mar the trigger ballot meetings due to be held next week.
Ms Ellman is held responsible by many members for a regional Labour decision to put Riverside CLP (constituency Labour party) into ‘special measures‘ two years ago, forcing members to switch from all-member meetings to the more easily rigged delegate-based meeting system. Left-wing Jewish members in Riverside suffered bullying and false accusations by her supporters.
Ellman notoriously attacked Jeremy Corbyn for attending a Westminster meeting at which a holocaust survivor was the speaker. She told television viewers that she was ‘appalled’ to find out Corbyn had attended the meeting, but the SKWAWKBOX revealed that she had also attended the whole event herself.
Riverside will now join the other twenty CLPs to hold open selection processes following the defection or retirement of a Labour MP.
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