Just a few days before the ballot papers are sent out, Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come out for Owen Smith.
Khan presented himself today as a Corbyn supporter who has reluctantly come to the conclusion that Owen Smith will be best for the Labour Party.
Fortunately these things are easy to check: Khan has always been strongly anti-Corbyn. Yes, he nominated Corbyn for leader along with a lot of other Blairites and Progress members, but admits he did not vote for the person he nominated.
In fact Khan appeared in the March 2016 leaked core list as "Hostile ", the most anti-Corbyn of the 5 categories of Labour MPs. Khan undoubtedly voted against Corbyn in the secret no confidence vote that began the coup.
Also in the "Hostile" group are Progress members Caroline Flint, Chuka Umunna, Yvette Cooper and Simon Danczuk. Even the coup ring leader Hilary Benn only made it as far as the "Core Group Negative", one level below "Hostile".
So it's no surprise that on the eve of the ballot Khan shows his true colours, with a carefully constructed and planned speech. What is shocking is his blatant misrepresentation of the position he has always held. How can we ever trust politicians like this?
Owen Smith has become the willing dupe of the Labour right
No
matter how hard you listen it’s impossible to hear the Blairite wing of
Labour. They have shut up shop. The Progress website looks like it’s
being maintained by interns, while there are no official Progress events
being held until the day after the leadership election (Angela Eagle and a venture capitalist, since you ask).
During their attempt to stop Corbyn getting on the ballot paper, the right launched Saving Labour
— there’s no information about where it gets its money, who its officers
are, what it’s statues are. It organised a day of street stalls, issued
three press releases and went quiet on 28 July.
It’s
been superseded by “Labour Tomorrow” — a private company with a
reported £250,000 war chest to fight Jeremy Corbyn once he wins. This
money will be distributed only to “moderate centre left organisations”.
No other other information provided on its website apart from a single blog post
by David Blunkett and Cold War union rightwinger Brenda Dean. No
explanation of what “centre left” means, again no indication of where
the money’s coming from.
The
purpose of this Blairite* dumb-show is to foist the entire job of
keeping Labour under the control of the neoliberal elite onto the soft
left around Owen Smith.
The
aim, clearly, is to reduce the ballot to: which face would you like to
see at PMQs? Perky, untested, bland, technocratic Owen, or gnarled,
unpredictable Jeremy? The massive differences in policy, strategy and
class orientation signalled by the emergence of Labour Tomorrow are not
to be allowed to surface in the actual election itself.
Thus,
Smith’s campaign has been designed as Jeremy Lite. Nearly as left wing
as Corbyn, only competent at playing the parliamentary game. Close to
Corbyn, but a bit “more patriotic” and less “metropolitan”.
To
facilitate the illusion that this is about two left wingers with
marginal disagreements, something else had to go quiet: the tabloid
media. There has been almost no right-wing criticism of Smith’s
faux-left programme in the papers.
Normally,
if a Labour figure stood up and, from thin air, plucked a £200bn
spending pledge based on a wealth tax, the Sun, the Mail and the
Telegraph would have reporters going through his bin-bags.
It’s
the same 0ver Smith’s call for a second referendum. The pr0-Brexit
tabloids would normally be eviscerating any Labour figure who called,
effectively, for people to be made to “vote until they vote the right
way”. But they’re silent over this.
Revealingly,
the second referendum call is the kind of gestural trick that you can
only pull off if you’ve no chance of winning. What if people vote for
Brexit again? — Smith has no answer and is never asked. But coping with
the actual Brexit process, as actual Leader of the Opposition, is the
practical question Corbyn has to deal with now. It involves
consultation, juggling the various Labour interest groups: Scotland, the
unions, northern MPs etc.
Smith
has named no putative shadow cabinet. He has made no attempt to define
his future relationship with the Blairites, or the Brown-era veterans
such as Yvette Cooper who stood down last Summer. There’s no plan
because the Owen campaign does not believe Owen himself would ever be
allowed to call the shots. If Corbyn is defeated it will be Peter
Mandelson, Brenda Dean and David Blunkett calling the shots. And behind
them millionaires like Michael Foster who called Corbyn’s supporters
“sturm abteilung”.
This
summer of Labour right omertà reached its nadir yesterday when Smith
inadvertently blurted out that he wanted Britain to negotiate “round the
table” with ISIS.
Corbyn
immediately and clearly rejected the idea. If Corbyn had said it
though, the right would have screamed blue murder. It was quietly put to
bed by Fleet Street, with a retraction. Instead the headlines were
about Corbyn failing to recognise a picture of B-list celebrities Ant
and Dec, with the New Statesman rushing out an immediate condemnation of Corbyn’s alleged “disrespect for popular culture”.
Smith
is part of a whole generation of Labour MPs who sounded left wing, but
you could never quite place what was left about them. They have
willingly shouldered the task of keeping Labour under the influence of
big pharma, big finance and big war. And they are losing.......
Note the biased question - not who do you want to lead the Labour Party but who [are the media telling you] is best placed to win a general electionand serve as Prime Minister.
In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours, Sir Paul Kenny was knighted 'for services to trades unions'.
All six pro-Corbyn supporters won the 6 seats up for election to the Labour Party National Executive:
BLACK, Ann 100,999 Elected
Eddie Izzard, Lost
SHAWCROFT, Christine 97,510 Elected
WEBBE, Claudia 92,377 Elected
WILLIAMS, Darren 87,003 Elected
WOLFSON, Rhea 85,687 Elected
WILLSMAN, Peter 81,863 Elected
REEVES, Ellie 72,514
IZZARD, Eddie 70,993
BAILEY, Bex 67,205
BAXTER, Johanna 60,367
DHANDA, Parmjit 53,838
AKEHURST, Luke 48,632
WHEELER, Peter 44,062
GALLAGHER, John 22,678
GUL, Amanat 14,693
A superb article by Paul Mason, ex economics editor of Channel 4 News and Newsnight, and author of 'Postcapitalism — A Guide to Our Future':
Paul Mason
In the war movie The Way Ahead,
David Niven is in charge of a platoon of working class conscripts, who
skive their way through basic training. In their first real battle
they’re forced to launch an attack on the elite Afrika Korps. As they go
over the top Niven quips: “This is for the day on the training ground
we missed”.
For
the Labour left, the last five weeks have seen the same kind of
payback. Last year’s victory was too easy: it felt like a bloodless
revolution. But they’re never bloodless.
Corbyn
won the leadership election in 2015 almost by accident. He wasted
months trying to operate a “collegiate” shadow cabinet, half of whom
turned out to be leaking and sabotaging everything he did, and preparing
to overthrow him. The movement that brought him to power got shunted
off into local ward meetings, got bored and demobilised. His own
leadership operation was, at times, shambolic.
But
the revolt of 170 Labour MPs following the Brexit referendum has now
forced the left, unwillingly, to wage the fight that was always coming.
With Corbyn assured of a place on the ballot paper, winning again will
still be a challenge — but not the main one.
The
real challenge is to make this leadership campaign the springboard for
winning a general election. That, in turn, demands we spell out an
alternative political strategy to the one inherited from Blair, Brown
and Ed Miliband.
To do this involves facing the following facts squarely:
A hard-core of Labour coup plotters intend to destroy Labour as an effective opposition between now and 2020.
Corbyn to become prime minister means Labour will have to win as an insurrection or not at all (For the sake of clarity, this is a metaphor not an actual call for armed insurrection).
Labour
has suddenly become a mass party. It can become, as Corbyn says, a
social movement. But this would be something new in Labour politics and
therefore difficult to achieve and hold together.
The
route to power also involves Labour itself becoming a more formal
alliance and, in turn, being prepared to make political alliances across
party lines.
Understanding the coup
Day
after day, the tactics of the coup plotters have evolved. It began with
veteran Blairites, quickly spilled over into a disorientated group of
soft-left young MPs and was organised in the background by the Blairite
apparatus. The sole aim was to remove Corbyn: lest we forget, Angela
Eagle launched her doomed campaign with not a single policy.
Then a pattern of
political coercion emerged: create a spurious victim narrative so that
the Labour membership, whose democratic decision was being stolen from
them, could be portrayed as a bunch of mysogynist thugs.
Then
Corbyn’s enemies on the NEC suspended the entire local apparatus of the
party and excluded 130,000 recent joiners from the vote. They used
millionaire money to attempt to get a court to exclude Corbyn from the
ballot. They used the Sun and to encourage non-Labour voters to join the
party defeat Corbyn. They dragged Labour’s reputation through the mud
of tabloid journalism with slanders, willingly repeated in the broadcast
media.....(continued here)
Mr Smith was the Head of Policy and Government
relations at Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals from
2005 to 2008. The American company generously allowed Mr Smith to fight
the 2006 Blaenau Gwent by-election as a Labour candidate – which he
lost.
We bet they were. Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the World. Since the year 2000 Pfizer has been on a mission to make Big Pharma even bigger, by taking over other pharmaceutical companies, even trying (and failing) to take over the huge AstaZeneca. You can't do that without political friends.
Not knowing if you’re opposed to something is what many in the Parliamentary Labour Party have been best at for a long time. Owen himself is known to be very committed to ridding the world of nuclear weapons but wants to replace Trident; he’s also a supporter of women only shortlists, unless people are against them. If Labour want to return to their position as incredible abstainers instead of being the opposition, they may have found their man, although Owen bravely picked a side and voted with the Tories to introduce the welfare cap.
If you joined the Labour Party after 12/1/2016, or are a £3 supporter, or have not joined the Labour Party, then to vote in the leadership election you have to pay £25 now.
All Consitituency Labour Party Meetings Suspended.
In the true tradition of Stalinism, all CLP meetings have been suspended for the duration of the election campaign, because the plotters are
complaining that they will be 'intimidated' by grassroots members.
Since last night's NEC meeting, if you joined the Labour Party after 11th January 2016, like over 100,000 members, you won't get a vote.
Unless you pay £25! Of course if you are a wealthy member then £25 is nothing, but then again you quite likely won't vote Corbyn will you? Also the window for registering is only open for two days, starting next Monday.
You need to be fast, the £25 will only work until 20th July!
Helpfully The Independent has outlined how to get round this Corbyn Supporters Tax:
Update: This has all been changed by the party establishment, the methods crossed out below may no longer apply. Here is the latest from Unite:
Your Party Your Voice
Your Party Your Voice
Joining Unite the union & eligibility to vote in the 2016 Labour leadership election
URGENT UPDATE:The Labour party
procedures committee has ruled that an affiliated union member must both be a
member of their affiliated union for 6 months and be registered as an
affiliated supporter by 8 August 2016. This is a change from last year's
election.
Do not assume that as a new Unite member you will be entitled to a vote.Please read the guidance below fully.
The only way to guarantee a vote is to join the Labour party as a registered member, which costs £25.
Registered membership opens on 18 July and closes on 20 July. The website will only be available from the 18 July.
Unite will obviously be following developments very closely and will post updates on the Unite website as soon as possible.
Entitlement to register as affiliated supporters – updated 14 July 2016
Unite
members can apply to be Labour party affiliated supporters and
therefore be eligible for a vote in Labour’s leadership elections, but
there are criteria for applications to be accepted.
Unite members must:
Have been a member of the union since 12 January 2016
Pay
the political levy – this will be the case unless the member has opted
out. It is a portion of member subscriptions to fund political
campaigning by the union.
Agree
to the statement that they support the aims and values of the Labour
party and are not a supporter of any other political party and agree for
their contact details to be shared with the Labour party.
Be on the electoral register at the address given to the union and the Labour party.
Provide a date of birth and email address.
Apply to be an affiliated supporter before 8 August 2016. To do this, fill in the form below.
The
Labour party will be conducting the election. Queries about the ballot
or members wishing to check if their applications have been accepted by
the Labour Party should contact the Labour Party www.labour.org.uk.
Currently, new party members who joined after 12 January
are ineligible to vote in the upcoming leadership election unless they
pay the increased fee
Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn greet him after
the announcement that he is allowed by the NEC to stand in the party's
leadership election without needing to secure nominations REUTERSMore than 100,000 new Labour Party members must pay a £25 fee to take part in the upcoming leadership election vote. The decision by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) has caused outrage among Jeremy Corbyn's supporters who have interpreted it to be another attack on his leadership. There are, however, a number of ways to avoid the fee, which
currently is an obstacle to around 20 per cent of the membership who
joined the party after 12 January.
Firstly, people can join the Unite union as a community member, paying 50p a week until becoming an affiliate member by 8 August. This would allow members or anyone interested, including students and the unemployed, to vote in the upcoming election. Secondly, if you are black, Asian or belong to an ethnic minority,
you would be eligible to vote in the election after paying £5 for a
two-year membership of BAME Labour.
If you are LGBT, you could gain a say in the leadership election if you join LGBT Labour for £8 a year. Alternatively, you could join Scientists for Labour for a concession rate of £5 to vote.
Labour membership numbers are thought to have reached around half a
million, more than the 405,000 it reached during the high point of Tony
Blair's premiership. There is no change to affiliated supporter status, and people in
affiliated trade unions will be able to sign up for a vote at no cost up
until Monday August 8 – a fortnight before ballots are sent out.
The reactionary fall out from the Brexit vote continues to tear
through society. The Labour membership and the Labour left are now under
the most sustained attack seen since the Bevan-Gaitskell clashes of the
1950s. The Labour Party is in a state of civil war – the mass rally of
10,000 Corbyn supporters outside Parliament felt like a battle cry of
the rank and file against a cynical, mendacious coup by the Bitterites.
Their claim is that Corbyn is unelectable. Between back-handed
compliments that he is, in the words of the sacked Hilary Benn, 'a good
man, a principled man', the right wing narrative is that Corbyn is an
electoral liability for the party. This narrative is spun out in the
media – a example of how sinister elites try to turn a claim into a
reality. What was the old adage about lies repeated often enough? They
try to prove their lie through a coordinated set of resignations from
the shadow cabinet. This plan was revealed in the Telegraph two weeks before the referendum – it is not a spontaneous display of anger, it is a premeditated coup against the Labour left.
But the tremendous display of support for Corbyn across many
parts of the Labour Party and from the trade unions reveals the class
divide at work here.
Here are some facts about Labour under Jeremy Corbyn that you aren't seeing in the Mirror or the Guardian.
1. The biggest mandate
Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership with the biggest mandate from
party members that any leaders has ever won - 59% - more than all the
other candidates put together.
2. Huge membership increase
Labour's membership has increased dramatically under his leadership - over 380,000 members.
3. Byelection victories
Labour has won 4 by elections since he became leader, Oldham
West, Sheffield Brightside, Ogmore & Tooting. Oldham West, Tooting
and Sheffield Brightside saw Labour win on an increased majority.
4. Mayoral elections won
Labour won London Mayor with Corbyn as leader. Sadiq Khan won
with the largest personal vote a single politician has ever received in
Britain, 1.3 million. It was also the first election of a Muslim
candidate to a western capital city. Labour also won Mayoral elections
in Salford, Liverpool, Bristol.
5. Good local election performance
In the local elections in 2016 Labour's performance was as good
as 2001, when Labour won a second landslide in the general elections.
Labour has repeatedly been ahead of the Tories in the polls since the
start of 2016.
6. Anti-austerity victories
Labour under Corbyn has helped fight off cuts to tax credits and
disabled people's PIP payments - scoring significant blows against the
Tories austerity agenda.
7. Won the Remain vote among Labour voters
Whilst the Brexit vote was very disappointing, Labour delivered
63% of its 2015 voters to vote Remain in the EU referendum. Compared to
the SNP's vote of 64% of their voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat
voters, Labour didn't perform qualitatively worse. David Cameron and the
Tories couldn't even deliver a majority of their voters - only 42%
voted to Remain.
Even if the right wing's arguments were true that Corbyn doesn't
'look' like a leader or doesn't 'get his message across in the media',
it just means that Labour is doing exceptionally anyway. Imagine how
well Labour would do if its MPs were loyal to their members and leader
and Labour could present a united campaign, unhindered by in-fighting?
If the coup plotters stand a moderate left candidate in a
leadership battle, Labour members should not be tricked into supporting
them as some kind of unity candidate. They would be a front for the
disruptive coup plotters.
Corbyn has been with the left since the start, dedicating his
life to the movements of resistance and hope that have battled it out
against the forces of reaction for the last 30 years. If Corbyn is
defeated then the triangulation of the party back towards
soft-austerity, social liberalism and migrant-bashing is guaranteed.
That way lies oblivion.
Simon Hardy is a Labour Party member and a member of Lambeth Momentum.
Hundreds of thousands of people, like you, have joined the Labour party to help
us transform our politics and our society.
To win the next General Election, we need to organise our Party and our
communities around a movement with a clear and bold plan to put an end to
savage Tory cuts, reach out to all those disillusioned with politics, and offer
a vision of a better, fairer future.
The plotters who have paralysed our party during a period of national crisis
are afraid to even have a debate with our own members, let alone the country.
That's why they've resorted on trampling on party democracy and trying to force
Jeremy off any leadership ballot.
This is the old politics versus the new, and we have 24 hours to ensure our
party gets a choice about its future.
Here's what you can do now.
Join Labour, and
stay
Join the Labour party, join Momentum and
encourage your friends, workmates and family to join. The plotters don't want a
mass party that can reach beyond Westminster. We do, and we're here to stay.
There has never been a time where your active support in the Labour Party is
more needed.
Sign our petiition
Sign our petition to show your support for Jeremy Corbyn
being on the ballot for any leadership election, and to ask our National
Executive Committee to respect Labour democracy - and then share the link to
the petition on social media.
Join before it's too late (there is talk of a cut off date - if you join after that you won't get a vote in the leadership election*):
http://join.labour.org.uk/
It could only cost you £1 a year.
Standard Membership £3.92 per month
Retired, unemployed or less than
16 hours/week £1.96 per month
But
the revolt of 170 Labour MPs following the Brexit referendum has now
forced the left, unwillingly, to wage the fight that was always coming.
With Corbyn assured of a place on the ballot paper, winning again will
still be a challenge — but not the main one.
But
the revolt of 170 Labour MPs following the Brexit referendum has now
forced the left, unwillingly, to wage the fight that was always coming.
With Corbyn assured of a place on the ballot paper, winning again will
still be a challenge — but not the main one.
Since last night's NEC meeting, if you joined the Labour Party after 11th January 2016, like over 100,000 members, you won't get a vote. 
'300 people' at the rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament Square.
