Attempts to rig Labour systems in favour of unelectable right were even bigger than already clear, according to parry sources
Keir Starmer’s assault on Labour party democracy included an attempt to switch the threshold for a leadership challenge to half or more of Labour MPs backing a challenger, Skwawkbox can reveal.
Current rules require 20% of MPs to nominate a would-be challenger to trigger a contest, but Starmer and his allies tried to raise it to more than half, which on Labour’s current numbers in Parliament would mean more than a hundred.
Even if more than a hundred MPs were unhappy with the party’s leader they would almost never Unite behind a single challenger, so this would have amounted to making the leader unchallenged unchallengeable.
Such is the extent of Starmer’s unpleasant mix of Insecurity and arrogance.
However, his minions backed down during discussions with the Labour-union liaison group TULO after it became clear what kind of reaction it would get, in the hope they might still get enough backing to push through a move to Rob party members of a meaningful say in leadership elections – and for changes to party rules to make Starmer’s sidekick David Evans judge and jury over members’ right to be in the party.
Labour has already been desperately purging party delegates in the hope of getting these rule changes through.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to without hardship, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.