Numbers tight with reinstatement possible after Starmer welcomes Tory with open arms, but Unison’s right-wing reps may be bar
On Tuesday this week, Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is set to vote on a motion by the NEC’s left-wing minority to restore the party whip to former leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn has sat as an independent MP since Keir Starmer broke Labour’s parliamentary rules and the EHRC’s strictures to withdraw the whip from Corbyn after even a right-dominated NEC panel had voted to reinstate Corbyn as a Labour member.
And contrary to what outside observers might expect given the right’s domination of the NEC under the new regime, the outcome is on a knife edge, with the result dependent on the swing votes of a handful of NEC members whose intentions are not easy to predict, even more so now after Keir Starmer threw his arms wide to welcome unrepentant Tory defector MP Christian Wakeford into the party.
Ian Murray, the Fire Brigade Union’s NEC representative, told Skwawkbox:
This week we have seen a right-wing Tory become a Labour MP while boasting that he has not changed his political views. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP for 37 years, remains unjustly suspended. This is an insult to every Labour Party member.
Jeremy Corbyn went through the party’s discipline process and it was found that he’d breached no party rules: at the moment Corbyn has had the whip removed on the whim of the Chief Whip and Starmer, and they should respect the NEC’s disciplinary panel outcome and restore it so he is once again a sitting Labour MP, this motion seeks to address that.
Centre-left Ann Black is one member who might baulk at the idea of keeping Corbyn out while putting out the red carpet for Tories. Black has previously described the ‘impasse’ keeping Corbyn out of the parliamentary party as ‘regrettable’ but seems to support the idea that Corbyn owes some kind of apology for making comments about the EHRC report and the extent of antisemitism in Labour that even the EHRC report says he has a ‘protected’ human right to make.
Former Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones is still on the NEC as Welsh representative. A right-winger, Jones may be likely to side with Starmer but his views on the idea of keeping Corbyn off the Labour benches while welcoming a Tory defector with open arms are unknown.
The Unison union vote could in principle get the motion very close to the line, but even though Unison now has a left-wing president and a left-dominated NEC and left parity on its ‘Labour Link’ committee, this does not mean that the Unison reps on the NEC will vote in line with the expected wishes of the left majority as the reps on Labour’s NEC were appointed under the union’s right-wing management. A Unison insider told Skwawkbox:
The Labour NEC reps are constitutionally separated within UNISON’s Labour Link structures. In addition, technically the two reps Unison nominates to the Labour Party NEC are technically not even accountable to the Labour Link section – they are nominated as ‘trade union’ reps.
They would need to give due regard to Unison Labour Link policy but have a pretty free rein as Unison has no policy on Corbyn because Unison Labour Link structures have been dominated by the right and they use standing orders committees to block motions to discuss Corbyn’s suspension from the PLP.
Lastly, since Lilly Boulby was expelled from Labour just after being elected to the Labour Link, voting on the Unison national Labour Link committee is tied 11:11 Left v Right – but the chair with the casting vote is a right-winger – they were elected when Paul Holmes was suspended from Unison so the right won the vote for chair by one vote.
Key to the outcome of the motion on Tuesday, then, is the GMB union. The GMB has sided with the right when it suits the union’s perceived interests, but new general secretary Gary Smith has recently fired a number of warning shots across Keir Starmer’s bow, with GMB withdrawing funding from London Labour entirely and Smith promising a total review of all GMB’s donations to the party.
Tuesday’s vote is set to be a cliffhanger, but as long as the left holds its nerve it has a chance of getting the motion over the line and putting Keir Starmer in a tough position if he continues to keep Corbyn out of the ‘PLP’ in defiance of Labour’s rules, the EHRC and Labour’s own national executive. Readers who are members of union should make a point of contacting your union’s NEC representatives and asking them to vote for the obviously correct reinstatement of Corbyn as a Labour MP.
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Is the Forde report on the agenda? If so, it could (should?) affect the debate.
More chance of smeeth waking up to find she’s a supermodel than Corbyn getting reinstated, I’m afraid 😕
Just thinking about that Heffer makes me feel sick!
The may come a point when even the bone-heads who are running this shit-show can see that they are making themselves look utterly-ridiculous.
Solidarity with Corbyn !!
We all know that Starmer has no respect for the Rules or the membership but has painted himself into a corner where Jeremy is concerned and therefore he will in my opinion support Jeremy’s reinstatement to get himself out of the situation he, Starmer, created due to his own stupidity and spitefulness.
He is well aware that the voters of Islington North vote for Jeremy personally, not the party as is the norm in most constituencies. Starmer knows that if Jeremy is forced to stand as in Independent he will hold the seat no matter how many PLP wooden tops (like Lisa Nandy, Owen Smith’s campaign manager)flood into the constituency to campaign against him.
Jeremy’s election as an Independent would leave Starmer with egg all over his face. To avoid this he will have to reinstate Jeremy which again he doesn’t want to do as it will expose the fact that he justification for withholding the whip in the first place so he’s slyly passing the buck to the NEC.
If THEY say restore the whip to Jeremy they are letting Starmer off the hook. Starmer can say ” I was right to do what I did have listened to the NEC etc” Come the next election Jeremy will stand ( and win) as a Labour candidate and Starmer ( if he’s still leader which I doubt) will have saved face.
The whole thing is disgusting and is evidence of the depths to which Starmer is willing to sink, his stupidity and arrogance.
typo – 3rd paragraph should read
( Starmer) had no justification for withholding the whip in the first place
I doubt that Jeremy will stand at the next GE, why would he?
SteveH 23/01/2022 at 4:03 pm
Said more in hope, than conviction.
Why wouldn’t he stand, at the next GE?
Why do I get the feeling that you’re obsessed with making sure he doesn’t stand at the next GE, SteveH?
Look…you and Starmer have got everything you wanted…Labour has totally repudiated socialism, disempowered socialist- no one who actually personally identifies as a socialist supports what he’s done on that- and the party is virtually a socialist-free zone.
Isn’t that enough for you?
Can you not, at long last, admit that Corbyn and his supporters never came close to deserving the absurdly vindictive treatment Keir has inflicted on them, and that Labour didn’t HAVE to abandon everything Corbyn and supporters want to be “electable”? Can you finally admit the party didn’t have to lower itself to the 1997 manifesto to win?
And yes, I’ve looked at the so-called “policies”- most are identical to Blair’s and on defence and policing the party is to the right of the Tories, which is something nobody was demanding of it.
Can you admit that none of that had to be imposed? That Labour didn’t have to be made into a party with no ideals, no passion, and no radical vision of change? That it should never have disowned the poor by using Thatcherite phrases like “working families” which imply that those who are out of work are scroungers?
At long last, can you admit that none of the ugliness was needed?
kenburch – All I said was “I doubt that Jeremy will stand at the next GE, why would he?”
I’m amazed by how much you have managed to extrapolate from just 14 words.
There was nothing at all complicated about my few simple words, they were intended to be taken at face value. Perhaps you should have taken them as such instead of desperately trying to hang your twin obsessions about Starmer & Corbyn on them.
Why is it that whenever I try to imagine all of this mob in a row, one description comes to mind. A horde of social workers etc getting ready to forcefully kidnap children and ease them into care homes for later enrichment. I’m serious. Corbyn is better off keeping his distance from this bunch.
SH israeli bot is back spewing again. Go on run along, go play with your toys silly little bugpie
If Jeremy IS reinstated – which I doubt somehow – prepare for the fraudulent screaming of the BoD and the CAA and the JLM and Austin and Hodge et al. In a word, the Fascists – ie the democracy-subverting hate-mongering Jew-scaring anti-semitic Fascists. ALL of whom are TOTALLY evil. And I mean really EVIL psychopathic EVIL!
And I of course include Starmer and Evans and mass murderer Blair!!
Alan, they are evil. Their agenda is beyond belief.
AS mentioned above – we were promised the release of
the Forde report at the next NEC meeting –
….
plus the examination of what it means to “support”
proscripted organisations
So what will happen?
Well they say 🐷might fly?
I really would feel deeply offended if Jeremy goes to That Neo-Labour TORY SCUM Party that did nothing but belittle him, treat him like some kind of disease, etc, etc, etc NO! If Jeremy goes back I would not be able to forgive him!
If we VOTE OUT all The Neo-Labour TORY SCUM Party MPs and Block all their Candidates from Seats and The Party returns to The People and along with the other exiles and The PAL moves in as an Umbrella Group, fair enough, but I feel we fought long and hard 2015/2020 and going back in there with those Hyenas and Vultures would start it all over again, I am not sure that I have the strength for all that shit all over again!
Oh how things (because of the Labour Right) have gone terribly downhill since we had a dream with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017, when we got 12.8m votes and would have got over the line if not for, as some suggest, sabotage by some Right Wing members of staff (Forde Report) and Right Wing Labour MPs?
I think most of us on here would hope JC is reinstated but then what?
The Right Wing Labour Leadership just ignores the small number of Left Wing Labour MPs and they are marginalised.
And come the next GE the NEC could simply just omit them from the PPC shortlists.
But should the Right, by that time in total control, stick or twist?
Perhaps they may feel they need to give the remaining Left members the illusion that they can make a difference and perhaps also they may feel they need such experienced leafleting and canvassing grafters to work for THEM whilst at the same time disempowering the members.
Wonder if PPC shortlists is the last Left Red Line?
Perhaps as Ibsen may have said: Is this what they have done to us?
“we had a dream with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017, when we got 12.8m votes”, 12.8m votes that some at the top of Labour did not want and were evidently horrified by. 12.8m who ‘did not share Labour values’ , no doubt they were all racists, antisemites and ‘trots’ like Hillary Clinton’s ‘deplorables’.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K8QIpOHovF0
We would be so much better off if our Corbs stayed out of this vile fucking party and started a new movement and party, all of uss across this country could make a new party for the workers bloody massive.
If he goes back we will be set back another 30 years. Labour cannot be trusted again.
Andrew, what do you think would happen if Jeremy formed a new party? Yes, all the smearers would start their smearing and demonisation again full blast, wouldn’t they, or did you somehow miss what they did during the time he was leader, and SINCE!. So to assert that ‘we’ would be set back thirty years is just pure bunkum. The PTB are never-EVER going to relinquish their power and let the left take control.
If I work for Labour at the next GE (and that is a BIG IFF), I shall not be campaigning for my own current MP or any other of the back-stabbing right-wingers..
Starm-Trooper and the right wing have taught us a lot with their back-stabbing treachery.
A new Party of the left may yet be the answer – – – although not an easy answer.
We have to vote The Neo-Labour TORY SCUM Party OUT and prevent any of their Candidates from taking a seat then we have to decide how we play it if we have a Democratic Socialist MP/Candidate/Exile, no matter what Party/Croup, etc if they are Democratic Socialist vote them IN! Where we don’t have a Democratic Socialist MP/Candidate/Exile we have a big decision to make, The Green Party are Neoliberal and not very pleasant, but out of the lot they are probably the more likely to speak up for the People! Gods and Fairies what a mess! If only people listened to Corbyn instead of going berserk on the Remoan and Brexiteer Bandwagons! What a world of difference Britain could have been! Anyway that is my main Priority vote The Neo-Labour TORY SCUM OUT vote Democratic Socialists in if none vote for Ugh, yugh, yuk… The Green Party
nellyskelly – Do you think the NHS will survive another Conservative term in government.
No! that is why we NEED to get RID of BOTH Thatcherite Neoliberal TORY SCUM Parties! The Damage that Neo-Labour TORY FILTH and Conservative TORY FILTH did and will do to the NHS is devastating! We must get the Thatcherite Neoliberal Conservative and Neo-Labour Party TORY SCUM OUT! ASAP!
nellyskelly – ….and you propose to do all that at the next GE. You are living in La-La-Land. Thanks for confirming that my assessment of you was spot on
Awww look he has no argument so he turns to petty childish insults!
Just like he told those 5/6/7 year old students, to make his Macho Man feel mighty and strong!
nellyskelly – I am quite happy for others to judge whether your plan is credible or not,
You do whatever you want, I really do not care!
Nedskelly – Do you think the NHS will survive a Right Wing Labour Govt when it’s Shadow Health Sec says he wants to use more of the private sector?
And it was the Blairites who started that process, continued by the Tories and now £15b (and growing) of NHS services are in private hands!
And guess who will win all the future NHS services when the new NHS organisations put services out to tender?
The privatisation of the NHS in a salami approach ….drip..drip..drip.
And some of the Left may think this is just another Labour Right but perhaps they are the Blairite Neo-Liberals on steroids!
Read in the Sunday Times how the Tories subsidise the private sector, they have just given private sector hospitals £270m re Covid and that’s even if they don’t take one patient!
Kick the private sector out of the NHS, fund it properly and give communities a say, end private health tax reliefs, have a new publicly owned pharma to save the NHS billions on the drugs bill and to research rarer conditions which are not profitable enough for Big Pharma!
Right Wing Labour will not challenge the current status quo and I believe the NHS is not safe in their hands!
ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY! 100%!
The thing that frightens me is that so many People worship MSM, and I can see many voting out of sheer desperation for the same TORY SCUM BASTARDS who snatched their HOPE from their hands 2017/2019! We need The PAL to announce their candidates and get out there with our I USED TO BE LABOUR, BUT……!/Ask me about The NEO-LABOUR PARTY PARASITE TORIES! TOPS AND CAPS. We’ll work our Constituencies like those Red Wall Retirees and Austin Types, did their Anti Corbyn Game, only to Positively bring HOPE BACK to the Table!
nellyskelly….Starmer is funded by Private Health Investors. He has no intention of ‘Saving’ the NHS.
I can well believe that, probably the same people who funded the Shifty Slimy Hancock. The thing with a Two TORY SCUM main Party Lead, similarly to the Americans, is that they don’t care who leads, in fact it is probably more beneficial and more profitable not to be in Government for all those delicious under the table deals without the added spotlight of being Government!
But Starmer said in the leadership campaign, and shortly after, that Corbyn was his dear friend and colleague, and that he’d been unfairly demonised and smeared by the press.
Surely Starmer wasn’t brazenly lying, was he? *Shock*
The real question is why Corbyn even wants back in on this nest of Blairite vipers?
Jeremy introduced lots of people as his friends and then later claimed he didn’t really mean it.
Seems to me that the only reason they might think it in their interests to restore the whip would be that it could be offered as a sop to the many footsloggers who may not turn out to canvass in May. Can’t think that many would be taken in by it. There are hundreds of (ex) members who have been expelled for being internationalist socialists – so many that everyone will know, or know of, someone who has been targeted.
More likely, I think, that they will not vote to restore the whip, and will try to shuffle him out at the next GE. Expect some expulsions in Islington before then.
Islington North CLP ignored Jeremy’s advice and endorsed Keir Starmer
JC has integrity and honour. He obviously didn’t recommend anyone. He admitted privately who he intended to vote for, but that’s an entirely different issue.
qwertboi – Really, I could have sworn that I saw Corbyn appearing in RLB’s campaign video for the leadership.
Starmer fooled lots of people with his professed admiration for Corbyn, and his promise of a ‘continuity Corbynism ‘ agenda (10 Pledges).
When someone is prepared to lie to that extent there really is no blame to be attached to those who’ve been duped.
No way he’d have got the endorsement had he promised to kick Corbyn out of the LP and dump the left-wing policies.
Only issue for NEC is financial position
For me it’s hard to guess what the Starmtroupers are up to. Although I can guess a majority NEC vote for the reinstatement of Corbyn into the PLP. Only for him to be barred from standing as a Labour candidate at the next GE. Let’s face it Starmer is an untrustworthy character who told the membership that Jeremy was his friend. Strange how he hasn’t spoken to ‘his friend’ for over a year.
If that happens and the party installs the awful Mary Creagh I hope she’s prepared for another humiliating defeat. Which no doubt she’ll blame Corbyn for that.
Well I hope he is reinstated – the is still in the Labour Party and I
cannot see him standing as an Independent – too loyal.
If they bar him as a candidate for the next GE – I think these
will be a revolt in his Constituency – with no one campaigning
for the Labour Party,
If possible, can SKWAWKBOX inform us how each voting member of the NEC actually voted?
I’d argue that this is an essential transparency/ accountability issue.
After Tuesday of course – and public record of NEC Voting on everything, not just our much-missed JC.
Statement on the UK High Court’s ruling on Julian Assange
By DiEM25 | 24/01/2022
Assange DiEM25 politics wikileaks
We welcome the UK High Court’s decision to allow Julian Assange to appeal his extradition to the US, whose government wants him for revealing its crimes, exposing its lies and informing the public – in other words, invaluable journalistic work.
Today marks a small – but crucial – step in the fight for Julian’s life, and his appeal will now be sent to the UK Supreme Court. Now, more than ever, is the time to raise our voices to prevent what would be an incredibly dark precedent being set for journalists, activists, and all of those who dare confront power. We urge you to join us in that fight
qwertboi
I think it goes back to the lower court first, realistically it won’t get to the Supreme Court for upto 2 years
You could argue with the conditions he is being kept under its as close to a death sentence as there is in this country
No doubt keef’s not happy about it. Not too keen to go to the media to say so, though, is he?
I reckon every time Julian Assange has a win in Court, BlueKeef’s anus ends up somewhere near his Tonsils! If they start dragging those CPS files out for a Julian Assange vs CPS case, Oh Dear Lawd, the shit will hit the proverbial fan!
Even Slippery, Slimy BlueKeef wont be able to Loophole his way out of that ‘little’ mess! I truly hope to see that day!
Perhaps you should familiarise yourselves with how little latitude the CPS has in extradition cases. Their actions are governed by the extradition treaties in place and it is the courts that make all the decisions not the CPS.
https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/joint-committees/human-rights/Extradition/JCHR29032011.pdf
It is a long document but it is comprehensive and informative.
Thanks for your time, I already know this. The part of interest that the CPS did deal with and was in charge of was The Illegal Dragging Out of a Foreign Subject from a Foreign Embassy for the illegal Imprisonment of a Foreign Subject, based on now Refuted (and acknowledged by the CPS prior to the illegal arrest!) Lies of a Rape Case, The Illegal Bugging of a Foreign Embassy to illegally record even intimate Moments and Medical Appointment Conversations! That all need some SERIOUS Law Bending, Loopholing and Fine Tooth Combing. That was communicated between Secret Services, MET, The Spanish Company hired to bug the Embassy, etc and The CPS Office. As you could see from that Document Your Luvvie BlueKeith had full responsibility for that Office when he was in charge and Julian Assange was no light case so nothing would have happened without his seal!
Based on just a FOI request from a Journalist from CPS and the Redacted to practically to Black Pages compared to the SAME request From Sweden where just the names and minimal personal sensitive information of the same documents are Redacted. I think that office has quite a bit to hide! It will come out, especially if JA gets the opportunity to call the CPS! Here’s to Julian Assange to get his much deserved Freedom back!
nellyskelly – I’m entirely with you on the freedom of Julian Assange. But the rest of your post is confused gibberish.
No not really, there is a lot of information to squeeze into one post, I am sure with your Teaching Expertise that you could get the jest of it.
nellyskelly – I can’t be bothered, Why would I when I already know it won’t be worth the effort.
Ah well that’s all good then.
Reminds me of a book I read, The Black Jacobin.
Toussant D’Overture after gaining independence for Haiti from France in the late 18th Century was imprisoned in France and was slowly left to deteriorate.
And in the recent Harry Dunn case a US suspect may appear by video link from the US which is good.
So why wasn’t this originally done for Assange?
And if need be (I if all appeals fail) why not now?
So here’s the deal British Justice: Free Assange and we give Blair to The Hague.
That’s Real Justice!
Bazza – Because the UK and US have completely different extradition treaties with each other. It is far harder for the UK to extradite someone from the US than it is the other way round. Why is a whole new discussion.
and the US claimed diplomatic immunity and said f’ off
Julian’s life AND genuine Journalism – both are threatened by extraditing the founder of wikileaks to the USA.
And – of course – Keir Rodney Starmer has worked hard (as authoritarians do) fto create this dreadful situation.
Andy, above, is right where he says about Starmer and the ‘contunuity Corbyn’ 10 Pledges “When someone is prepared to lie to that extent there really is no blame to be attached to those who’ve been duped”.
Labour draws up shortlist of two candidates for Birmingham Erdington
Ashley Bertie, a former deputy police and crime commissioner in the West Midlands, and Paulette Hamilton, a Birmingham councillor and cabinet member, have been shortlisted as potential Labour candidates for the upcoming contest.
I wonder how hopeful the NEC’s left-wing minority which has tabled this motion to reinstate JC really is.
Yes, Christian Wakeford’s enthusiastic welcome by Starmer will anger many principled (non-left) NEC members who would, therefore, be more likely to do the right thing and reinstate the former leader, but the LabourRight does have a strong majority and such people tend to be obsequious before they are principled and righteous.
Would a possible reinstatement of JC actually be good for the left?
Not if it weakens the increasing likelyhood that a new consolidation happens to the left of Labour.
Whatever the decision, Starmer is never going to be trusted as Labour leader by many attentive voters or party members.