NEC BLOCKS BURNHAM BID

Labour's National Executive Committee has rejected Andy Burnham's request to be considered for the Gorton and Denton by-election.  The NEC took less than 24 hours to consider his request, which was blocked on the grounds of cost and unity.  The decision was reportedly put to a vote of ten members, which included Shabana Mahmood, Lucy Powell, Ellie Reeves (sister of Rachel) and the PM himself.  Mahmood abstained in her position as chair, while the vote went against Burnham almost unanimously by 8-1.  Powell voted in favour of Burnham, having publicly backed his candidacy.

Prior to the vote, Mahmood told reporters that allowing a directly elected mayor to vacate their post had 'organisational implications' for the party.  While allies of Starmer were keen to block Burnham as a defensive move in order to prevent him manoeuvring for a leadership challenge, party sources are briefing that the decision was primarily down to the cost of a mayoral election to replace Burnham were he to win the by-election.  However, another source was quoted as saying the decision was also motivated by the prospect of a 'divisive campaign'.  It is true that some MPs and activists have declared their reluctance to campaign in Gorton and Denton if Burnham was the candidate.

The move is likely to provoke anger among supporters of Burnham, which includes a significant number of MPs.

NEC MASK MORON

One of Labour's most senior councillors has been ridiculed after she posted a pathetic virtue signalling selfie on Twitter announcing that she would continue masking up - even when she is on her own...

Cllr Perry represents St Peter's ward on Islington Borough Council, but also sits on the party's ruling National Executive Committee as a representative of thousands of Labour councillors across the country.  One of those who took issue with her statement was Mark Dolan of GB News - another anti-lockdown voice who has thankfully found his way onto the station's roster.  You can see his thoughts on Cllr Perry's absurd mask stance below.

Dolan is right about the political nature of continued mask-wearing.  One only has to look at this week's proceedings in the House of Commons, during which most Tory MPs abandoned social distancing and masks while on the opposite benches Labour and the SNP remained distanced and masked up.  Face muzzles are adored by the left - not because they represent an effective measure against the virus, but because they are a means of social control and oppression.  It is precisely why Labour has always supported this wretched Tory government when it comes to the repression of the British people throughout this pandemic.  It is also why masks and other restrictions are still mandated by the Labour government in Wales, the SNP in Scotland and Labour mayors in London and Manchester.

PRO-CORBYN NEC WALKOUT

Thirteen members of Labour's ruling National Executive Committtee staged a pre-planned 'walkout' on Tuesday morning in protest at Keir Starmer's leadership and his decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn.  The protest was reportedly led by former MP Laura Pidcock and Howard Beckett of the Unite union.  As the meeting was virtual we can only assume they merely hung up their Zoom connections.

Both Pidcock and Beckett raised points of order prior to leaving, criticising Starmer.  Embarrassingly, the walkout allowed a new chair to be appointed - a decision that riled up the left even more.  Veteran MP Margaret Beckett was voted into the position unopposed, but the left had assumed that the role would have automatically gone to the vice chair.  Ian Murray (not to be confused with the MP of the same name) was vice chair and as a representative of the Fire Brigades Union is also a strong supporter of Corbyn.  However, he was reportedly also one of those who walked out, so could not voice his opposition at the decision.

Laura Pidcock and Margaret Beckett

The Corbyn loyalists later pointed out that the chair was usually appointed on a rotating basis whereby the vice chair would automatically assume the position.  They have now complained to Labour's general secretary David Evans.  Perhaps if they hadn't staged their petulant walkout they could have prevented it!

Their letter is reprinted below.

"Dear David

As proud members of the NEC we find ourselves unable to stay in today’s meeting.

As you will be aware we recently wrote to you to request that you admonish the leader of Labour, Sir Keir Starmer, for his decision to undermine the role of the NEC by withdrawing the whip from Jeremy Corbyn MP.

The withdrawal of the whip directly undermined the legitimacy of the NEC decision to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn’s membership. It was made worse by Keir Starmer subsequently permitting his shadow cabinet members to make commentary on media that was clearly intended to undermine the legitimacy of the NEC process.

At today’s NEC the agenda item of election of the chair and vice-chair of the NEC appears. It is a matter of disagreement as to whether these agenda items can be heard absent the officers agreeing the agenda.

But regardless it has become apparent that the longstanding protocol of the vice-chair being elected as chair is not to be followed. Instead the leadership has lobbied for Dame Margaret Beckett to be chair. The public reason for such lobbying is to be given as Dame Margaret being the longest-serving member of the NEC. This is not protocol and is another example of the leader promoting factional division within Labour.

We believe the true reason for the leader lobbying for Dame Margaret, and indeed the reason that had been given by senior party MPs in private, is because the vice-chair, Ian Murray, was a signature to the previous correspondence sent to you seeking admonishment of the leader.

The leader’s decision to again promote factionalism comes at a time when the historic relationship with trade unions is under tremendous strain. Already we know that the Bakers’ Union are balloting their membership as to affiliation and the decision of the Leader to lobby and brief against the president of the FBU taking the chair, as would be protocol, must be seen in this context.

As the general secretary of the Labour Party you should be stepping in to uphold the rulebook, maintain protocol, remind the leader that he is an officer of the NEC and prevent factionalism.

We have decided not to remain in the NEC meeting today in order to show very clearly how factional the decisions of the current Labour leader have become. We will be returning to future NEC meetings to be the legitimate voice of the membership and to continue to demand that the party unite and reject the current factional approach of the leader".

How ironic that the same wing of the party that previously engaged in hate-filled purges of moderates is so quickly up in arms when they are on the receiving end.

MEMBERSHIP DOWN, CORBYN SPEAKS

While Labour may be leading in some polls, party membership is going in the opposite direction.  Results from the recent NEC election revealed that since Starmer took over as leader the party has lost almost 60,000 members and has now fallen below the half a million figure that was lauded by so many Corbynistas.  When Starmer won the leadership in April there were 552,835 registered party members.  That now stands at 495,961.

Turnout in the election was also significantly down, from 45.6 per cent earlier this year to just 27.4.  This is the lowest turnout in an NEC election since 2017.

In a further sign of division, one of the members elected to the NEC in the most recent election is being probed over remarks on social media.  Corbyn loyalist Gemma Bolton reportedly challenged the party to suspend her after declaring that Israel is an 'apartheid state'.  She added: "That comrades, is a hill I am perfectly happy to die on".

Meanwhile, the Great Leader has released a new statement this morning in relation to his suspension (see below).  He struck a conciliatory note and says he wants the matter 'resolved quickly'.  Will Starmer listen?  Many moderates want Corbyn expelled and are happy to see the back of his most loyal supporters too.  While Corbyn's inner circle want him reinstated, there are others who say that the party is 'dead' under Starmer and that a new socialist party is the only way forward.  Either way, Starmer's battle with the hard left is far from over.

HARD LEFT FIGHT BACK

Corbyn loyalists pulled off a major morale-boosting result in yesterday's elections to Labour's ruling National Executive Council.  More than 30 places on the NEC were up for grabs and Momentum-backed candidates won seven of them, the most prominent of which was short-lived MP Laura Pidcock.  Pidcock, who had been heralded by the hard left as a 'future leader', lost her seat in the red wall collapse - having only been elected two years earlier.

Pidcock finished second in the main ballot - for constituency party representatives - in which nine were elected.  This vote was set up in a way that ensured at least four of the victors were female   As it turned out six places went to women, although first place still went to a man - moderate Luke Akehurst.  The hard left Grassroots Voice, backed by Momentum, picked up five seats on this ballot and another two elsewhere (youth representative and disabled representative).

The impressive result for Momentum doesn't change the overall balance of the NEC, which remains firmly in Starmer's hands.  However, it has served as a reminder that the hard left are not going to leave quietly.  Several members of the hard left Socialist Campaign Group of MPs lauded the result and repeated their calls for Corbyn's reinstatement...

NEC CHIEF PROMOTES FAKE CONSPIRACY

Labour's Andi Fox

The chair of Labour's governing National Executive Committee has shared a baseless Covid-19 conspiracy theory on Twitter.  Corbyn loyalist Andi Fox shared a tweet earlier this week that suggested the Prime Minister was not really suffering from coronavirus.  Fox is arguably the most powerful elected Labour official with the exception of Keir Starmer himself.  After the tweet was brought to the attention of the national media she locked down her Twitter account.  Below is a screen capture of the tweet taken before she made her account private.

The Independent quotes 'sources close to Fox' as saying she had retweeted this by 'accident'.  It's a lame excuse and one we've heard so many times before.  In actual fact the Boris conspiracy theory is quite popular on the loony left.  Only last week a Labour councillor in Leeds was forced to apologise after calling the PM's hospitalisation a 'publicity stunt'.  So what about the source of the claims in Fox's tweet?  All is not as it seems.

The original author of the tweet - Neil Waugh - describes himself as a 'left-wing socialist' and his priority in life appears to be the Palestinian cause.  He is followed on Twitter by hard left Labour MP Richard Burgon.  In the Boris conspiracy tweet he refers to the 'Dorset Eye' so nonchalantly as if to confer some kind of legitimacy.  However, the Dorset Eye is far from a reputable local news outlet.  It's a blog run by a couple called the Cridlands and it has a proven left-wing agenda.  This agenda includes defending Corbynistas from accusations of anti-Semitism.

Jason Cridland's Facebook account shows that he not only follows dozens of Labour pages, but also Marxist groups and anti-Tory pages too.  They include the following:

Terrible Tories

Anti Tory Memes

Tory Britain Exposed

Never Trust A Tory

FucktheTories

Boycott Tory Newspapers Now

Conservatives Are Destroying Our Future

The Tories Are Killing Britain

I Hate The Tories

Bournemouth Labour Women

South Dorset Young Labour

Dorset Socialists

Socialist Alternative London

Coventry Socialist Alternative

Coventry Labour Left

Kent Class War

The Marxist-Leninist

Marxist Student Federation

Momentum South West

United 4 Corbyn

He also follows a page called 'Labour Against The Witchhunt', an organisation that defends Labour activists accused of anti-Semitism, including those now expelled from the party such as Marc Wadsworth, Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson.  There is clearly nothing impartial about the Cridlands and their 'independent news media'.

Finally, and we've saved the best until last.  The conspiracy propagated by their website - tweeted so matter of factly by Neil Waugh and then retweeted by Andi Fox - has no basis in fact.  The Cridlands have now admitted that the names of the doctors were 'made up' and the article itself may well have been intended as 'satire'.  This was the statement they posted to the original article, which at the time of writing is still there and floating around the Twittersphere:

"We realise now that this article may well be satire.  The names have simply been made up.

Either way the point is that we have a PM who is perceived by millions as a liar and a government who have handled the Covid-19 crisis in a chaotic and often criminal way.

We do however apologise to those who may initially have believed that this article was 100% factual (without satirical substance)".

Not the best advert for a 'news site' is it?  And certainly not the sort of nonsense the chair of Labour's NEC should be spreading either.

Debbie and Jason Cridland, founders of the far left Dorset Eye

LOSER CLAIMS VICTORY

As you can see from the above headlines, it's very clear that suspended Labour crackpot Chris Williamson has lost his legal bid to be readmitted to the party.  However, the Derby North MP has bizarrely claimed victory and doubled down on some of the claims that got him suspended in the first place.  One can understand his desperation, he's just blown more than £60,000 worth of donations to fund the action.  The solace that he is taking from the action is that the judge ruled unlawful the party's decision to reinstate his suspension after he'd been briefly readmitted in June.  However, the somewhat convoluted ruling also stated that Labour had not acted 'unfairly' and ultimately the judge decided that the suspension would stand until the current investigation run its course.  Therefore the headlines are perfectly correct - Williamson remains suspended and as the clock ticks down to a general election he is highly unlikely to be readmitted and re-selected in time.  There is, of course, a great irony in that.

It was Williamson who embarked on a tour of the country last year in what he called a "Democracy Roadshow", calling for mandatory re-selection of all Labour candidates.  It was no great secret as to his game plan.  As an ultra Corbyn loyalist he was looking to please his master by encouraging a purge of moderate MPs.  Understandably he didn't endear himself to these moderates and there was uproar when the National Executive Committee (NEC) readmitted him in June.  Now it seems as if his Soviet-style interference has backfired spectacularly.

In a six minute video Williamson continues to pledge his loyalty to Corbyn while denouncing the 'witch hunt', a term regularly used by Labour's anti-Semites to describe various disciplinary actions against them.  Williamson doesn't refer to anti-Semitism directly, but it is clear what he is talking about and remember this is the kind of talk that got him suspended in the first place.  Watch below for his utterly deluded conspiracy-driven assessment.

If you just watched that video, please be reassured that Chris lost his legal case.  He fought it with the aim of being readmitted to the party.  Has he been readmitted to the party?  Nope!

"ABOLISH COMMISSION" SAYS NEC MEMBER

Yesterday's announcement that the Equality & Human Rights Commission is to investigate anti-Semitism in Labour was horrific timing for the party.  The media narrative was beginning to shift slightly towards 'Islamophobia' in the Conservatives and knife crime was also dominating the news.  It must be incredibly frustrating for Corbyn and co, but as Owen Jones famously tweeted - "If you don't want eggs thrown at you, don't be a Nazi".

One of Labour's key defences against accusations of racism is that it is the 'party of equality', 'inclusiveness' etc.  We've all heard those words recently.  So, you would expect Labour figures to be fully supportive of an organisation dedicated to equality, after all it was set up in 2006 by a Labour government.  However, if your pet turns against you...

You'd be forgiven for never having heard of Huda Elmi, but she is a West Midlands-based member of Labour's National Executive Committee, that which governs the party.  When she was retweeted by journalist Kevin Schofield she responded by denying she ever suggested the commission should be abolished - despite the fact she said "We need to abolish it".  Even if, as she suggested, the commission is broken up into individual bodies for "each equality strand" then the arm dedicated to anti-Semitism would still be investigating your party!

Huda's response to the investigation of her party is classic socialism.  If something is critical of you or runs contrary to you then dismantle it, but replace it with umpteen watered down bodies in the most convoluted and expensive way possible.  In other words just throw money at it until it complies.

"Hantiwadaag iyo Walaalnimo" - Somali for "Socialism and Brotherhood".

SOCIAL UNDEMOCRATIC PARTY

On the same day that Labour met to discuss ways to make the party more 'democratic' it is being reported that some very undemocratic moves are afoot.  In addition to the proposed 're-selection' of candidates, itself an opportunity to remove moderate MPs who are not ultra loyal to Corbyn, it appears that some insidious contingency plans have been drawn up in the event that the Great Leader steps down suddenly or (Heaven forbid) departs this life.

The Sun, Mirror and Telegraph all report that the plan would mean that in such an event it would be the National Executive Committee (NEC) that would take over the running of the party and not the deputy leader, currently Labour moderate Tom Watson.  Of course it's no great surprise that the NEC is dominated by ultra left Corbyn loyalists, in fact in the most recent NEC elections all nine vacancies were filled by Corbynistas.  However, Mr Watson was also duly elected to his position, comfortably winning both rounds and defeating his nearest rival in the run-off by almost two-to-one.

Mr Watson is not from the left wing of the party and has been a vocal critic of Labour anti-Semitism.  As such he has found himself being increasingly marginalised, while taking plenty of stick from the Momentum keyboard warriors of hate.  In a break from convention he will not deliver a speech from the main podium at the upcoming Labour conference, partially due to the fact he was offered a meagre ten minute slot at the end of the event in a blatant attempt to undermine his position.  He can't be sacked as deputy leader, even by Corbyn, so they are trying to force him out.  However, Watson is made of stern stuff and will be difficult to dislodge.

The reports today though are very disturbing.  Why does the NEC want control if Corbyn stands down?  There would be a leadership election regardless of who is in charge during the interim period, are they looking to fix it?  Perhaps it is best summed up by the use of the word 'Bolshevik' in the Times report.  Trotsky would be proud, say no more.