Starmer unlikely to be thrilled at the likely rockstar welcome for his predecessor
Rumours have been circulating today that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s CLP is sending him to the party’s annual conference next month as a delegate, representing members in their votes on any policy changes – and on the confirmation of the appointment of Keir Starmer’s henchman David Evans as general secretary.
Although Corbyn is not currently sitting as a Labour MP, he is still a Labour member, having been restored to his membership when the spurious complaints against him for his response to the EHRC’s thin conclusions from its investigation into the party were found by Labour’s national executive – a Starmer-run national executive – to merit no further action.
Starmer subsequently ignored the party’s rules to remove the whip from Corbyn, but as an ordinary party member he is in good standing and perfectly entitled to stand for election by his fellow Islington North members as a delegate.
While such a move would have been a perfect nose-thumbing at Starmer’s cowardly war on Labour members, sadly the rumours are not true. But Corbyn is going to conference nonetheless.
Corbyn told Skwawkbox that while it’s untrue that he’s going as a delegate, he is still attending as a visitor – for the first time in more than forty years. Corbyn is also scheduled to speak at the World Transformed fringe event.
Keir Starmer’s ‘leadership’, meanwhile, is limping toward a speech for which his aides are desperately trying to manage expectations so that anything less than a disaster can be portrayed as a success.
So it’s a safe bet that Corbyn’s successor is unlikely to be thrilled by the ‘rockstar welcome’ Corbyn will almost certainly receive, despite months of rigging of conference delegate allocations by the Labour right.
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