Labour star joining campaign will rattle rivals
Labour deputy leader hopeful Richard Burgon has today made an announcement that will shake up the contest and worry his rivals. The front-bencher has tweeted that Laura Pidcock is chairing his campaign for the deputy position, commenting:
I’m delighted to announce that the Chair of the #Richard4Deputy campaign is the inspirational Laura Pidcock.
Laura is one of my closest friends but more importantly we share a passionate commitment to a campaigning, socialist and democratic Labour Party.
Pidcock lost her seat in December – a casualty of the suicidal push by ultra-remainers such as Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry for Labour to switch to a referendum-and-remain position – but remains massively popular and trusted among the party’s grassroots. Had she still been an MP, she would have been a ‘shoo-in’ for the party leadership if she wished to stand.
Pidcock’s backing makes Burgon an even more serious contender and – along with his campaign-launch statement, which stood out a mile from that of any of the other’s pitching for deputy or leader – will have a huge part of Labour’s membership looking seriously at his candidacy.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here for a monthly donation via GoCardless. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
🙂
So pleased to hear this. Laura’s defeat was the shock of the election for me. Well, hers and Denis Skinner’s, obviously!
good man for a difficult job for the only socialist on offer.Wonder how the PLP let him through..Obviously will not be welcomed by any of the moderates.
They tried not to let him through. When Richard Burgon applied for Rotherham in a by-election, he wasn’t even shortlisted by then NEC members (IIRC Keith Vaz, Angela Eagle, Tom Watson)… in spite of being backed by 9 unions. The final candidates were a wing commander and Sarah Champion who’d only joined the LP a few years before and worked in the charitable sector. It was a classic example of putting up an unsuitable option to steer the selection that the RW wanted. As it was, many CLP members walked out in protest and Sarah Champion was selected by 11 votes to 9.
Yes Laura & Richard would have been great.
Read somewhere Tories had particularly targeted her seat?
RLB and Burgon comrades, or “The dream is over.”
Ultra-remainers? That’s news to me. I do, however, recall that KS changed position over the months of EU negotiations…. Shifty. Very. No second Referendum to the wholly principled “people’s choice”….reasons which were never properly explained by leaders like, well, him, actually.
Most of the contestants don’t really impress me. At all. Long-Bailey, so far, is the only one that doesn’t talk out of both corners of her mouth.
” Long-Bailey, so far, is the only one that doesn’t talk out of both corners of her mouth.”
Oh no, no,no. One corner is very happily sucking up to the Board of Deputies and the Israel Lobby..
Burgon, to his credit, hasn’t done this amongst this cacophony of capitulation.
Pidcock/Burgon would have been the dream ticket, without question, but this is the next best news regardless. I’ve just received the result of the laughable momentum “ballot’ (do you agree with Jon Lansman that his private company should be against sin/offer no choice on a ballot) as Clive Lewis quickly identified when comparing Lansman with Kim Jong-Un, although I think the latter is more transparent. The ballot blew up in his face though when only around 18% of momentum members voted and almost half of them refused to back his choice for deputy leader, Rayner. Go Richard, go Laura – let’s have a deputy that will keep RBL honest and hopefully free of Lansman.
RLB/Burgon
The importance of changing the Labour Party to make it the Party of the working class is underlined in this seminal contribution:
https://www.thefullbrexit.com/working-class-anger
The full dogshit again? Ffs, don’t you read anything else? No wonder you’re such a bore!
“the Party of the working class”
What the f. do you actually mean beyond empty second-hand onanistic rhetoric and irrelevance – and disinterest in actually changing anything except words?
Please do elaborate – starting with your definition of ‘working class’.
Wonder if Laura could go for one of the Left NEC vacancies plus another Leftie who lost and a BAME leftie who lost too. Come on Lefties, talk to each other and forward planning!
A good team.