Right-wing Labour MP Neil Coyle strongly objected to a statement of support for Jeremy Corbyn issued by the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) of Labour MPs – and particularly to the fact that one of the signatories is a former Labour MP.
Coyle was so offended he even went as far as using a phrase normally reserved for socialists, in a tweet that was thoroughly ‘ratioed’:
Katy Clark was a Labour MP for ten years and is now a Labour peer.
However, Coyle’s delicate sensibilities were apparently not offended by the prospect of meeting suspended Labour member Ian McKenzie at the bar on the House of Commons terrace in 2018. Coyle and fellow Labour right-winger Graham Jones were seen with McKenzie, a trainer for right-wing pressure group ‘Labour First’, and a Labour staffer on the iconic terrace.
McKenzie, at the time, was suspended for tweets about the rape and beheading of then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry:
McKenzie, who had just resigned from a job with Newham’s Labour mayor because of the comments, had also tweeted about using antisemitism to topple Jeremy Corbyn, about shooting Syrian girls in the head and offensively about Labour’s first black woman MP Diane Abbott and working-class woman MP Angela Rayner:
None of these, nor McKenzie’s resulting suspension, prevented Coyle from meeting him for a drink and a chat. But if an ex-MP and current peer signs a letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn, it’s ‘hold my pint’ and ‘no pasaran’.
Coyle was contacted for comment about his meeting with McKenzie in May 2018. He did not respond.
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