Photo tweeted by deputy leader Rayner, combined with emails begging for help, betray lack of enthusiasm for Starmer’s Establishment Labour – and for former Coyle aide his opposition-averse party has picked. Failure to at least match Labour’s 22.1% in 2019 will expose the Starmer disaster again
Keir Starmer’s candidate in the North Shropshire by-election used to work for anti-Corbyn MP Neil Coyle, who once earned himself a humiliating telling-off by local members and a neighbouring MP for his negativity and counterproductive comments after they had worked hard to get him re-elected in the 2017 general election campaign. It would appear that what remains of Labour’s membership is scarcely more enthusiastic about the by-election than they were about Coyle’s conduct after it.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has tweeted a picture of Mr Wood with his campaigners – an obligatory image in most campaigns – but it shows a total of only nine people, including two MPs and Mr Wood himself:
Such pictures may be obligatory and a bit trite – but they also usually show a lot more people, for example in this picture showing Lancaster and Fleetwood MP Cat Smith and some of the people who turned out to campaign for her under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership:
Lest anyone should think that the lack of enthusiasm is because Mr Wood is trying to win a Tory-held seat, here’s a picture of the team that came together for Labour candidate Anne Rouse – – in dyed-in-the-wool Tory Guildford in 2019:
Labour’s desperation at the lack of ‘boots on the ground’ in North Shropshire is evident from the flood of emails it has been sending out to Labour members – and even ex-Labour members who have not been in the party for years, as well as at least one Liverpool councillor it’s just expelled – begging for them to go to the Midlands to help.
But Starmer’s drab party, his longstanding collusion with the Tories and his war on Labour’s members and democracy do not make for a groundswell of enthused candidates giving up their time at their own expense to campaign, as they did when they had a vision of actual real change under Jeremy Corbyn.
And if Labour does any worse in the by-election tomorrow than the 22.1% the party scored in 2019, it will expose the idea that Starmer is any threat even to the worst Tory government in history as the fevered fantasy of Labour-right machinists.
Bookies recently had the LibDems as favourites, with Labour trailing far behind them and the Tories on 50-66/1, despite the huge Tory scandal that prompted the by-election. Starmer’s spokespeople have already started making excuses. In 2019, the LibDems achieved less than half of Labour’s vote share.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and 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 doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.