Why I voted No in this week’s motion
A year after losing the Election, despite months of hard work and effort, the country voted to leave the European Union. Newcastle voted to stay but by the slimmest of margins.
The last few days have been some of the most difficult since I was given the honour of being your voice in Parliament. I joined the Labour Party aged 16 but I was born into the Labour Movement and benefited personally from its struggle for equality, decent housing, education, health service and all the precious fruits of decades of activism.
To oppose the elected leader of the Labour Party is not in my nature.
I am not going to set out a detailed critique of Jeremy’s leadership. Whilst Jeremy has some important qualities – honesty and integrity – I could not in good conscience say I had confidence in him as our leader. I therefore voted NO to today’s motion.
Since Monday, 86 constituents (including members) have emailed me asking me to back Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership whilst 60 constituents have emailed me asking me to vote against a motion of confidence in his leadership. I have considered all their comments. Of the activists who worked the EU referendum – doorknocked, leafletted etc. – who contacted me the majority did not back Jeremy. On the doorstep, the majority of constituents who mentioned Jeremy did so negatively. I nominated Jeremy to widen the leadership debate and have backed him since he became leader. I hope that constituents and party members alike in Newcastle recognise that I have always supported him in public and have undertaken to serve him in whatever capacity he asked of me.
But I hope they also recognise that I cannot serve my constituents – which is my primary purpose – without effective leadership at the top of the Labour Party. Having worked in business and the public sector across three continents and many different cultures, I have experience of many types of effective leadership. Jeremy’s leadership is not effective. The lack of leadership following the Brexit vote was emblematic of this.
Whilst it is true that a number of members of the PLP have behaved disgracefully, it is also true that an effective leader with an effective administration can meet such challenges. Nine months is a long, long time in politics. Being the leader of the opposition is a difficult job, but winning an election and uniting a divided country, that is the most difficult and challenging and important job of all and I am afraid that Jeremy has not shown he has the capacity for it.
For those members who feel that I and other MPs should have carried on regardless I would say that everyone, MPs included, should have the right to challenge their working conditions giving bad management and leadership and especially and most importantly in the interests of our country.
I hope that Jeremy will accept a different role in the party and the Labour family can come together in a comradely fashion behind a new leader who reflects the values of the movement and has the capacity to realise them.
All the best,
Chi Onwurah MP
Chi thank you for your letter in explanation.
Can I ask you do you think Jeremy has been given the full support of the PLP in the last 9 months?
Have they taken on board his vision of a new politics based on pain speech rather than the double talk we are all tired of?
Have the PLP realised that the majority of the new members of the Labour Party want to see a more left leaning Labour Party?
If you all think the Labour Party is going to win another election without changing the way political discourse is going then I think you all really need to reconsider.
We will not win another general election with the same old politics.
The PLP needs to have a really long hard look at itself and realise that we the Labour Party members on the ground believe in Jeremy Corbyn and not them.
Most disappointing & I shall be seeking your deselection, especially as the majority of emails to you were in favour of our Party leader, who received the majority of members votes to give him a first round win.
Newcastle, in which your constituency is based, voted Remain so you are not only going against your Party leader, who you say was nominated by you (& others), you are also going against your constituents wishes.
I trust that when Jeremy wins the backing of the membership in the ballot of the treacherous, you will consider your position as MP.
She’s been honest, no need to be an Arse about it. Not many MPs are honest our days, which is what I like about JC he brings labour back to its core beliefs, she did the right thing being honest to the people she represents, I would rather that than someone who is cloak and daggers.
JC will win again, I’ve joined like many others to make sure of it, we are organising an event in Newcastle as support for him, many other towns are too.
The unions and the members support him the plp mean nothing without members and subs, they should remember this.
It’s going to be hard but we will fight for him as he has faught for us all his life. We will take our party back from these corporations and the lies of the bliarites. They’ve ruined our party, not JC that’s who I’m angry at.
I live in Newcastle, new mills estate, I had tories at my door for leave, ukip for leave and didn’t see one labour remain also had them in town. I voted remain had fears of my neighbours being racially attacked, the hates spilling on the streets, we need to unite and counter all this fascist racist ideologies. We ain’t going to do that fighting MPs that we don’t agree with, let the vote speak for us.
Carly, it sounds like you’re an activist of some kind and you are a Labour supporter (and now member). You said that you didn’t have Labour Remain come to your door. Did YOU offer to do any doorknocking or leafleting for them? Chances are, they would like to have done every street in the constituency but lacked the time and volunteers to do so.
I’d also say that given your concern about the consequences of Brexit and desire for unity in fighting back, which I share, you should ask yourself what JC has done SINCE the referendum result to address these. Personally I was appalled at his immediate response, which amounted to “the people have spoken; get on with triggering Article 50 and let’s all move on”. We can all agree that we must protect workers’ rights, oppose the rise of racism and xenophobia, and minimise economic damage, but the question is HOW to achieve these things. I’ve seen lots of discussion, including among Labour MPs and members, of whether parliament should seek to block Brexit or to force a second referendum, whether we should aim to negotiate a place in the EEA and other related matters, but nothing of substance from JC. I don’t hold him responsible for the referendum result (though it does appear that he has questions to answer) but I do blame him for this subsequent lack of leadership.
I’m very far from an activist, I am petrified of the rise in racism we’ve seen since Brexit, growing up me and my brothers got a lot of slack for being the only mixed race kids on the street. We used to put talc on our skin to look whiter and tried to bleach our skin one time. I see the impact racism can have on a person growing. It’s something I don’t want inflicted on children not in our time, we all deserve a right to live and be proud of who we are, not ashamed of what other people tell us we are.
I would of gladly went and knocked on doors, used to work for a charity ferm doing that and I know there’s regulations to doing so, so I couldn’t of just knocked on doors in case I was breaking the law (don’t know how it all works politically).
What I don’t get is how 70% of labour voters voted remain the exact same number as Nicola and she isn’t getting this sort of treatment?
The constant back stabbing in the Labour Party, it’s embarrassing why would anyone give the opposition party the questions the leader is going to ask? I totally support corbyn because these MPs have purposely been trying to get rid of him since day one, I hate bully’s and will not vote for labour if that is what there new quality are.
All the MPs that have resigned all voted for the welfare bill that seen the poor and the disabled pay for the 12 billion pound cuts that the tories wanted. Where is that an opposition? Jeremy voted against it, he’s the labour I want the one that fights for the small minority.
I found Jeremy’s speech really passionate so did millions others, if you haven’t noticed that he speaks to billions with compassion and pride you’re looking in all the wrong places. I agree with him the ref is over now we need to move on and build a better Britain with tolerance and compassion where we oppose the tories taking away our rights and fight for the welfare of all people not just the rich.
The leadership he is fighting for is due to these MPs that keep tryin to get rid of him, the thing that worries me is the fact some of them were on Blairs team and are pretty scared of the chilcot reports coming out. Blair and all the other MPs who new about that being lies should go to jail for crimes against humanity and war crimes and I think Jeremy will make sure we get that.
You appear to be supporting Chi in her decision NOT to back Jeremy Corbyn, yet at the same time you say you support him and what he stands for.
You say you never seen a labour rep in your area but seen many from the tories and ukip, what does that tell you??? I know what it tells me. Local councillors and party members have traipsed the streets knocking on doors trying to drum up support for the labour effort, but where was Chi?? The winning of the EU ref in this area had little if anything to do with her contribution.
You say the leadership she is fighting is due to the MPs that keep tryng to get rid of him CHI ONWURA is one of those MPs.
She doesnt deserve to be supported she needs to go. The only circumstance i would vote for her is if eremy Corbyn is the leader of the party, and body else, and my membership will be withdrawn
Regarding Jeremy’s response of the wanting to trigger article 50 immediately, you can’t be all that surprised considering he has historically been opposed to the EU and he is a socialist, and socialists voted Lexit. Jeremy as leader of Labour was put in a position of having to toe the party line which was remain, and I think he did a fair job of that, and have the EU a rating of 7 out of 10, which was very generous in my opinion.
Hear Hear – agree with all that you say
There is a rally taking place at5:30pm at Keel Square in Sunderland in support of Jeremy Corbyn.
I fully agree with all you say Ringo.
Carole I don’t support chi’s choice to reject JC, but I’m not going to sit and say she’s a bad MP and give her abuse for it, two wrongs don’t make a right and just paints us all as idiotic activists, and I’m neither of them. I don’t think JC would care for it either.
Well said.
Chi, to be honest, I’m stunned. I live in Northumberland, so you’re not my Mp, but, I first heard you speak at the Regional conference, then at other EU referendum meetings, and I was impressed by your integrity and vision. I heard you were in line for business Secretary and I was really happy that a local MP, loyal to the Democratically elected leader, was getting such an opportunity. I knew that my MP, Ian Lavery had voted for Jeremy Corbyn, and I assumed, because of how you were, particularly at the Regional Conference, that you would, too. Even though you acknowledge the appalling behaviour of the PLP: Even though, at a time when the Tories are imploding, uniting behind the leader would have given Labour the best chance ever of defeating the Tories: Even though the media blackout of Labour’s campaign is statistically proven, and the timing of this coup, two weeks before Chilcot, cannot be coincidence: and even though, in a leadership contest, the members will once again back the leader, especially after the treachery of the last few days, even after all of this, you decide to vote against him. I am beyond disappointed. Mps that I have admired for years, have put their own ambition before the wishes of the members, without whom…What will you all do when he is re-elected? Are you going to contrive another coup attempt? The myth of unelectability is manufactured by a right wing media, the Tory Party and right wing Labour MPs disappointed in their own ambitions. He won the leadership with a huge mandate. He won the by elections he was predicted to loses, and he run for mayoral contests. With the backing of the members, the unions and the PLP he’d have won the general election. You have a right to your opinion and your vote, and I have a right to tell you that I believe that you are misguided, mistaken and utterly wrong. I am deeply disillusioned and disappointed.
Agreed
Thank you so much for saying what is in my heart. I joined Labour to support Jeremy. I am disgusted and appalled at the behaviour of the 172. It is surely no coincidence that Blair is trying to worm his way back and the Chilcott report is due any day.
Dear Kate – how right you are. That old chestnut of ‘he’s unelectable’ – he is if nobody votes for him and the fact that the majority of naysayers are labour MPs is despicable. They should be behind him and tell the disgusting right-wing Murdoch press to ‘go away’. I am appalled at how this man has been treated since prior to his election as leader of the Labour Party.
Chi – I know this will have been hugely difficult for you, but think you have called it right. You and I have disagreed on specific issues but I have never doubted that two things have driven your positions – the interests of the Labour Party and the interests of your constituents – probably in reverse order. These are the right priorities. People below need to understand this about you. If there is a move to remove you, I’m sure longstanding members will want to support you against those whose interests in the Labour Party are insincere and transient.
Totally agree with this. MPs force feed us what they would prefer us to believe. I’m not to sure how far this coup goes (know it’s been orchestrated since he was elected though) but all the MPs who are decent should of had confidence because they don’t believe in bully boy tactics.
He is being painted as an unelectable idiot with no backbone and single handedly destroying the party for his own ego( when what he is actually doing is respected his members who have voted for him for a better politics.
He’s a victim in this as well as democracy and the members. They all keep trying to tell us he’s bad for the party, the party has never been so popular, when was the last time tens of thousands of people stood out side parliament for an unelectable idiot, when was the last time hundreds went to town centres in support of an MP?
Watched Angela Eagles interview, the first thing I thought was who are the wider Labour Party? The corporations and weapon manufacturers that they all seem to be very cosy with now. They don’t represent me, or my loose change, it don’t fill MPs pockets up enough.
Couldn’t give a damn about the 173 MPs who have abused their position in the Labour Party. When you look at the voting correspondents in the house, half of them are as savage as the tories, have nothing in common with labour our parents supported and most certainly not me.
We wanted a different kind of politics, JC gave us that, he’s give us passion, it’s a movement of progress for the people, the unions and our futures. Why would they do this? They could of all made our country brilliant working together for ordinary people.
It’s just not on MPs who show complete incompetence to our elected leaders and their constituents should hang their heads in shame because they’ve left us behind and do not represent us or our beliefs.
Dear Chi
Thank you for telling us how you voted . I think the decision should be yours and I know you will have given carefully thought to it. I do think the way some of the PLP have tried to get rid of him from the beginning has been outrageous .
I voted for Jeremy last time but have been disappointed with his public profile. I don’t know what I will vote if it comes up again but I can’t see any of the previous candidates being any better than they were last time.
Yours
Jennie McKeague
Vote for him if you want to tell them they can’t abuse democracy like this, if you have genuine reasons to vote against you must do that, but don’t be misguided by bias media and out of touch MPs who want a party that is as corrupt as the tories and as robbing as the tories.
Go with you’re gut
Tony Blair and his media friends have a lot to answer for!
Don’t loose faith Jennie
You know in a democratic party there are rules. If you choose once to bend the rules by back-door manoeuvring , you have upset the democratic mandate in place once a leader is elected. The nature of the resignations suggests something that was highly orchestrated. You’ve used the Brexit vote as a pretext to move against JC. We also have the Chilcot event coming up. This too, seems a convenient time to ditch JC
who would have spoken out vs. Blair. Are you simply a Blairite, one of those who didn’t vote vs. welfare changes? Once you do away with decency and idealistic values, what are you left with? Do you prefer power to principle?
Well said
Well said John. I am so sad that Jeremy has had to fight the media and now the blairites
Since it’s not the PLP who determine leadership, if Jeremy Corbyn (who has elected to stand again) wins, what happens then?
As a non-NE (Cambridge CLP) Labour member, may I second Ndu Anike’s question? That is what is important. The Labour Party rules are quite clear that irrespective of Eskine May or the unwritten non-Constitution the PLP is a unit of the Labour Party.
My thanks to Chi for her openness and clarity, but not for her participation in the Hodge vote which was an improvised, fudged-together procedure not consistent with Labour Party rules which, as above, trump any arguments from Erskine May or elsewhere.
On a much wider issue, isn’t a major aim of egalitarian socialists to change the very nature of, and thus the public (and in particular mainstream capitalist-owned media) perception of, leadership? IMO, the only reason Jeremy may have failed to satisfy that perception is his honesty and integrity.
Quite shameful in my opinion. To publicly back Jeremy and then vote against him in a few days is treachery. Did you have a CLP meeting before your decision or are you now making decisions on the basis of emails you receive ?
Farcical and not believeable . Suspect this.is everything to Do with Chilcott.
Could not agree more. I won’t vote for chi again. Can’t trust non of them. I’m shocked that you chose to go against him when majority of your constitutes asked you to back him. Shameful
Hi Chi
You are not my MP as I live in South Shields but I do work in Newcastle. I very much respect and agree with your decision. The role of an MP is to represent everyone in their constituency not just party activists. I do not believe that the average Labour voter believes Corbyn is a leader who can win a General Election and those in swing seats where elections are won and lost certainly don’t. If the Labour party is to be more than just a pressure group it is important to listen to all voters. I congratulate you both on thinking this through properly before making your decision and on representing your wider constituency and not just those who shout the loudest.
All of the evidence would say you were wrong.
4 By-elections
2 Mayoral elections
Predicted to lose 200 councillors lost 1
Predicted to lose 50 councils lost 0
Grown the party faster than any other leader,,, in history !
YouGov poll published in the Daily Mail ! of all places, have Labour ahead.
Don’t buy the playing down of just how well he has done. BBC, Guardian, Telegraph and Mail have all worked against him in a vile undemocratic way.
Agreed Skogg!
Funny, 5 out of 6 comments here don’t agree with your decision. Wonder where the 60 who wrote emails to you are now.
Hi Julietta
I wrote in support. I think you will find that though you disagree with Chi that she is speaking and acting in good faith.
I think that you received more emails asking you to support your leader, and yet you did not? I have joined the Labour party, yesterday, to support Jeremy Corbyn because this coup is a disgrace and I am incensed enough to act. I also truly believe that if he wins the leadership contest for a second time, those that have voiced there lack of support should step down from there elected roles to allow others in that support him honestly. Politics for one’s own career path are not what I believe in. Call me old fashioned, or naive, but I expect our elected representatives to represent the majority. In the example you stated above, the majority was to support Corbyn. I look forward to your resignation, or replacement, in the event that Corbyn wins a second time.
Well said
Well said Lee!
I totally agree with you.
Hear, hear!
So far, I have not seen an explanation of what this type of leadership that is not being reflected in Jeremy Corbyn. What has he done or not done to bring this charge of nit being an effective leader? People have disliked the lying from Tony Blair, we’ve heard about Gordon Brown being a bully and Ed Milliband? Well no one liked him but did not behave so disgracefully as I’ve seen lately. So, what is it that is wrong about his leadership.
Is it that he is not like the suited and booted and is straight as an arrow in his principles so they can’t get away with their lying and cheating? Someone tell me so that I can understand .
I 100% agree with above statement. I know that you said above that you did not want to critique Jeremy’s leadership, but I think his supporters deserve to know what the issues are, considering that as Wendy says, no other Labour leader has been subjected to such treatment. You are entitled to your own opinion and I respect that you are forthright enough to give it, but as our voice, we deserve a better explanation.
Perhaps Jeremy’s honest and integrity are too much for the 172. Media see him as a threat to the Establishment and then Tony Blair tries to worm his way back – Chilcott due any day as well. I voted for Jeremy and his new kinder politics. Let us hope that he digs his heels in and holds on.
He’s probably not Tory enough for them.
Chi,
Thank you for outlining your reasons on this issue. I fully support your argument and commend you for considering the case of not just party activists, but your constituents too. We need Labour MPs that hold strong relationships with their local communities and who act in their wider interests.
Most of the people who joined in order to support Jeremy are not party activists. This is anti-Corbyn propaganda. Most of them are ordinary people sick and tired of corrupt politicians that don’t speak for them. They see Jeremy as different from the smooth, polished and scripted politicians we are used to. Some of them have become activists because of Jeremy, because from day one, he has had The PLP plotting against him. Even so, he offered, and they accepted places in the shadow cabinet, to people who showed him no respect whatsoever. Hillary Benn’s grandstanding speech supporting air strikes in Syria, directly in opposition to Jeremy’s stance, cheered by the Tories. Angela Eagle leaning across the Leader to shake Benn’s hand, neither of them even glancing at him. Simply disrespectful, petulant and childish. He offered them places to try and unite the party, but they’ve plotted against him from day one, with never the slightest intention to get behind him. Two weeks before the election, Angela Eagle was defending JC’s work in the referendum, saying that he’d ‘ worked up and down the country in an itinerary that would have exhausted a 25 year old’. Exactly two weeks later, she was telling us how half hearted and ambivalent he’d been. Hillary Benn called Jeremy during the night to tell him he had no confidence in his leadership, what choice did Jeremy have but to fire him? Exactly what they wanted. Tearful Angela regretting Benn’s sacking had no choice but to resign, only it turns out, her Angela for Leader website was set up two days before the sacking. Resignations timed and orchestrated to keep the debacle in the news. Yet JC has delivered a massively increased membership, a 63% Remain vote (Nicola Sturgeon delivered 64% and is hailed a hero) under his leadership, we won four by-elections, four Mayoral contests and forced U-turns in some of the most ubiquitous Tory plans eg: Welfare cuts, and the Saudi Prison contracts. All of this in nine months. Please explain his lack of leadership, because, for the life of me I can’t see it.
I think you are disgrace to the Labour Movement. I see you are also on the following list of 184…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/these-are-the-184-labour-mps-who-didn-t-vote-against-the-tories-welfare-bill-10404831.html |
…yet, in your own words, you “benefited personally from its struggle for equality, decent housing, education, health service and all the precious fruits of decades of activism”
I would suggest that your lack of confidence is a personal issue and that you have been bullied by your other 171 dsigraceful peers.
You have made a terrible mistake that I believe you will live to regret – akin to Cameron’s similar ‘blunder’ and in a week where the Tories are at their absolute weakest, your timing could not have been worse or more ill-judged. What on earth were you thinking.
However, I wish you the best with your future career, whatever you choose/are able to find.
Nicely put sir
To be honest I agree with you, while I like Jeremy and I feel that he is a man of integrity and honesty I do not feel he is the right man for the job. We need an effective leader, a visionary and a candidate of strength. I like that he stands for a different nicer type of politics, this is admirable but we need someone stronger, who unites the party. I wont be voting for jeremy. I support you Chi.
I’m deeply disappointed to learn that Newcastle central MP, chi Onwurah voted no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.
Not only has she broken with the democratic decision of over a quarter of a million people who voted for him. She broke with the hundreds of constituents that were at the rally in Newcastle.
I believe Newcastle central needs new leadership.
I joined the Labour Party on Monday to support Jeremy Corbyn.
I think it is quite evident that the majority of Labour members support Corbyn, with the rally in Newcastle and London and the membership being doubled since he became leader.
You seem disillusioned and ill informed or maybe you have ulterior motives?
Dear Chi,
As a live long labour vote, I wanted to make it absolutely clear, that I think you are shameful for joining this coup. The members will re-elect Corbyn, we will hold strong and purge you and your Blairite chums from the party. Perhaps you can find yourself a career giving public speaking lessons or something like that. Your days are numbered.
Dear Chi,
This is a disgrace to our democracy. You say yourself that 86 constituents asked you to back Jeremy while only 60 asked you not to. Are you serving your constituents or yourself?
Jeremy Corbyn is the last hope we have for a decent, honest politician in this country. The press has gone against him and now his own party has turned on him. If Jeremy goes there is no way the youth will ever forgive the labour party for the atrocities committed in Iraq and under Blair whose party betrayed the ore socialist principals of the Labour movement.
I am deeply concerned by the state of modern politics and by this move of no-confidnece in the only leader we have seen who cares about the common people since before thatcher (before i was born). If jeremy Corbyn goes then I can wholeheartedly say I will never vote for Labour ever again.
Thanks Chi for this most honest and heartfelt note. As usual, you are spot on.
I voted for Yvette Cooper in the leadership election.
As a labour member, I have great respect for Jeremy and love the way he fights for what he believes in. But he is not a great administrator
But what upsets me is this. Right from the day he was election, a section of the PLP were personally undermining him by
a.) Not supporting him or refusing to server in his cabinet
b.) Damaging his credibility in all forums – social media, TV
They were expecting the project to fail and doing their utmost to it. And lot of senior Labour leaders did nothing to stop it
It was heart breaking to see that a labour leader, and thus the party, was being set up for failure
Even now they are trying to humiliate him
At the end of the day, no labour leader is anywhere near as popular as Jeremy. He is an asset to the party, if not as the leader
I hope the Labour leadership sees that and treats him with the respect he deserves and accords him the rightful position in the party.
Thank You for standing by the leader. And, I , sincerely hope that one day I would get to vote for you as the Labour Leader
You don’t understand she voted against him. Not for him.
Hari, she voted against Jeremy in the no-confidence vote. She does not support him.
Dear Chi,
I am trying very hard to understand what is going on and what the result will be for the people of this country. Who do you think will do something to change the ‘austerity’ policies in this country which, as the UN report confirms today, are seriously in breach of human rights? T
In a wide ranging assessment, expressed in unusually strong terms, the Committee sets out the following findings:
Tax policies, including VAT increases and reductions in inheritance and corporation tax, have diminished the UK’s ability “to address persistent social inequality and to collect sufficient resources to achieve the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights”. The Committee recommends the UK adopt a “socially equitable” tax policy and the adoption of strict measures to tackle tax abuse, in particular by corporations and high-net-worth individuals.
Austerity measures introduced since 2010 are having a disproportionate adverse impact on the most marginalised and disadvantaged citizens including women, children, persons with disabilities, low-income families and those with two or more children. The Committee recommends that the UK reverse the cuts in social security benefits and reviews the use of sanctions.
The new ‘National Living Wage’ is not sufficient to ensure a decent standard of living and should be extended to under-25s. The UK should also take steps to reduce use of “zero hour contracts”, which disproportionately affect women.
Despite rising employment levels the Committee is concerned about the high number of low-paid jobs, especially in sectors such as cleaning and homecare.
The Committee urges the UK to take immediate measures to reduce the exceptionally high levels of homelessness, particularly in England and Northern Ireland, and highlights the high cost and poor quality of homes in the private rented sector and the lack of sufficient social housing.
The UK is not doing enough to reduce reliance on food banks.
How will the Labour Party fight to reverse these policies, and who will lead them?
Yours sincerely
Hugely disappointed by this action which flies in the face of the overwhelming support Corbyn has from the people. Labour without Corbyn is dead. That leaves us with the tories. Are you a closet tory?
Chi, I was one of those that wrote to you asking you to support Jeremy Corbyn.
Surely, the effectiveness of a leader is determined by how the party members judge his performance in relation to closing the gap that prior disastrous Labour leaders have been.
To that effect, Jeremy Corbyn has exceeded all expectations. He has massively narrowed the gap with the conservatives, convinced double the number of labour voters to vote ‘remain’ in the EU compared to conservative voters (see http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/) and has invigorated the Labour party with hundreds of thousands of fresh members. But all you see is failures based on what concrete evidence?
I am deeply disappointed with your putting your position in the PLP ahead of your constituents and cannot see you representing Labour after Corbyn wins the leadership again. In that event i would expect you to fall on your sword and prove you believe in wjat you say.
Thank you.
Thank you for posting. Her behavior IS very alarming. I wonder if there is a more sinister agenda being played out in Westminster
This is terrible news. Jeremy Corbyn has boosted the membership, the profile and the respect of the Labour Party when it was at an all time low. He offers a leadership based on intelligence and integrity. To say he is not an effective leader based on “effective leadership’ in the private sector is ridiculous.
I have also worked in the public and private sector and can confirm that most leaders become leaders through ambition and ruthlessness. The banking crisis (which I witnessed from inside Northern Rock) was caused by such individuals who could not contain their greed. I have met similar in manufacturing, local government and even the NHS.
The UK abandoned meritocracy some time in the 1980s and has been in decline since. I have no doubt that corporation leaders are highly effective in creating wealth and employment. The current turmoil shows however that they should not be allowed to take charge of countries and the rights of individuals.
Effective leadership? I think an effective workforce would be better just now.
It is a difficult position that you face and your willingness to be transparent in your reasoning is to be respected. As an elected representative in a democratic political system, your role is not merely to to act for all your constituents, whether they voted for you or not, whether they are members of the labour party or not. In this you must make decisions that will not always be in line with one group’s perceived interests. Some might confuse representative democracy some some form of direct democracy. This would be wrong. You need perhaps to take reactions in this light.
Hello
Thank you for explaining your actions. But I feel I know what ordinary people want as I am one of them.
What they want is JC. Unfortunately after your decision me and the majority of people I know will be unable to vote for you ever again as you are clearly not fighting for what we want.
This credit vote was the result of people wanting a change in your standard leader as they are all mostly the same.
Since JC has been leader he has made politics respectable again and discouraged the acting like kids and shouting making our houses of parliament look like a joke.
I will not be voting for Chi either. I’m deeply disappointed that she went against the majority.
If we lose JC as leader, I reckon the thousands who joined because of him will abandon the party. If this becomes the case, I hope a new party is formed where we can give JC the support he deserves.
I’m totally fed up of right wing or slightly less right wing governments. We could do with something left wing for a change.
Firstly if it hadn’t been for Chi’s nomination, Jeremy could not have stood for Leader last year.
It is clear from her letter that Chi thought long and hard before voting as she did and knowing the buckets of manure that would coming her way then had the courage to say so. And of course the keyboard warriors haven’t disappointed.
Maybe next time you complain, you could include the number of times you were out on the doorstep in the local elections and the Referendum campaign. There won’t be many who will have done more than Chi.
But at the end of the day Doctors and other professionals have a duty to report colleagues they believe aren’t up to the job. End of!
Chi
I appreciate your honesty however am appalled at this decision.
You were voted to represent the people and just by the number of north east people turning up to events in support of Corbyn this week it’s clear what the people want.
To brush off these people as ‘just activists’ is disgraceful & offensive – consider the previous landslide victory for Corbyn & the huge rise in Labour supporters due to faith in him solely.
I’m not going shy away from calling a spade a spade – with that it is clear to see the organised coup in the Labour party against the only man with integrity and sadly you seem a part of this.
I have ‘no confidence’ in you representing the views of the North East going forward and thereby will reflect this with my future voting.
I have thought long and hard about this, and I am sure that Chi will have spent considerably more time tussling with what is the right thing to do. I support her decision: leadership does not come naturally and it is clear that, despite his policies, his great work as an an MP, and having let us believe we could have a socialist Labour Party once again, Jeremy Corbyn does not have the skills and personal qualities to lead or to unite the Party. This is a sad conclusion to reach but unavoidable.
I would also thank Chi for asking her constituents for their views, taking notice of all the responses, and for telling us all (including those like me who often work with her but are not Newcastle Central constituents) what she decided and why.
Always renshreifg to hear a rational answer.
Thanks for letting me post here. It’s all rather serious, so I hope you will let this stay on the blog, to put a smile on everyone’s face, matter what side you’re on. It’s a rare leaked political document that can manage to do that.
http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/leaked-letter-from-henry-mp-to-corbyn.html?spref=tw&m=1
I too appreciate your honesty Chi but will also be seeking to vote you out when given the opportunity. Jeremy Corbyn was and is the reason I supported the Labour party and yourself. Just months ago Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership despite the conniving of the bulk of PLP. He was the peoples choice, mine included.
Your loyalty to the party leader and your party has been shown to be fickle. Without Corbyn and his breath of fresh air, honest Labour politics the party will yet again crash and burn at the next election.
You, like so many of your colleagues do a great job at times but when push comes to shove, self-interest and self-advancement appear to come first.
Dress your betrayal of your party leader and your constituents as you please, it’s still a betrayal of the people who put you where you are. A situation I sincerely hope won’t last.
Those who support you are entitled to their opinions however I will not be doing so again and, without Corbyn leading, I won’t be supporting the Labour either.
Chi: I joined Labour because of Corbyn’s policies of equality and non-violence. I am dismayed that the leaders of the coup do not support those policies – note their parlimentary votes on bombing, Syrian support, austerity, disability support etc. Since the sitting members do not have to protect their own seats in a member review – for example I would not have supported Alan Campbell as my Labour representative – why should Jeremy? And who among the MPs now represent those policies and could make a somehow more-electable leader?
It saddens me that the Labour Party have deliberately undermined Jeremy Corbyn, a leader who was put there to challenge the worst excesses of the Tories.
The largest opposition party was failing to oppose the nasty neoliberal policies of the Conservatives and many, many people elected Jeremy as your leader to change that. But, the PLP, instead of uniting to stand in opposition, have wasted their energies undermining the very person who the majority wanted to fight that battle. They have leaked his questions to the PM’s office, have fed stories to undermine him to the right-wing mail and have allowed the entire Brexit campaign to be run by the Tories. In these stupid actions they have lost the trust of the membership.
As a party you are dead in the water. Labour has become diluted conservatism and the PLP lapdogs to the One Nation Tories.
Progressive thinking people should abandon you as you have abandoned them. They should now turn to one of the other parties that actually fight against the atrocious behaviour of the government.
There are many reasons why the referendum went the way it did. Jeremy’s reasoned arguments expressed clearly and without rancour were NOT one of them.
Most other contributors to the REMAIN case spoke in ludicrous hyperbolic terms demonstrating contempt for the views of their opponents – and, worse still, seemed to view the people as unthinking morons. I’m afraid the peak of the bullying strategy came when Amber Rudd, Nicola Sturgeon and Angela Eagle spent 2 hours hurling personal insults at Boris Johnson. At the end of the debate it was clear to me that REMAIN just lost a million votes. Those who sanctioned this unworthy strategy must recognise this fact.
Jeremy deserves our continued support in his valiant attempt to create a new kind of politics.
John Harris
This debacle started the day Jeremy was placed on the ballot paper for leader. A massive chunk of the Blairite PLP set out their stall to a) stop him winning the election for leader then b) undermining and plotting against him at every opportunity to ensure that his popular and new kinder, caring type of politics never had a cat in hell’s chance of getting a fair chance. They conspired with the anti – Labour media to ensure that the General Public could only see a divided and unelectable Party.
Chi the fact that you , in particular have supported the no confidence motion probably means that Corbyn will fall either in the ballot box or by resignation. The conspiracy will therefore have been successful and the membership will have been overturned and disregarded in the most objectionable fashion.
If a solid Socialist at least with some of JCs integrity and commitment to justice was available, I might view this situation differently . As it is the Party grassroots will never forgive or forget this betrayal by its elected representatives.
Hello Chi –
I totally agree with your decision to withdraw your support from Jeremy Corbyn. I was one of your constituents who emailed you to ask you to cast a no confidence vote. Over the last nine months it has become manifestly clear that Mr Corbyn isn’t interested in winning an election but much prefers to see Labour sidelined as an impotent party of protest to protect his pristine ideals. His current narcissism and self-indulgent behaviour will continue unchecked as long as he has the support of his claque, namely Momentum who are the Militant Tendency in everything but name. I have absolutely no clue as to what they and Corbyn refer to as “a new kind of politics.” It feels more like a return to the 1980s. I hope the current situation is resolved as soon as possible for all our sakes.
How is Corbyn’s position narcissistic? He has the support of the Labour membership. Are you saying the 10,000 people who showed up in London with 24hr notice to support him are a ‘claque’? Are they not Labour supporters as you are? The new politics might sound like the 80’s because it is anti-austerity and anti-bombing, as well as supportive of equality. Do you want to support the coup leaders who refused to vote against removal of disability right? Who supported bombing Iraq and Syria? I am not a militant, I am a pacifist. Find us a better leader who supports Corbyn’s ideals, and then I will agree to removing him.
I should also add that I admire your work Chi, and I am just disappointed that you have been unable to hear from new members of the party like me.
I think you did the right thing. I have been a party activist for 40 years, some of it in Newcastle in the 1980s/90s. The North East took a battering from the Tories then and the only way we were going to change things was to gain power in Westminster. The Party in the 1980s took some time to fight back, but they eventually did. We need a broad appeal, re-engage with our traditional areas and reach out to those who no longer want to vote Tory again, but would consider voting Labour if we had the right leader. Like many activists in the Party, we gave Jeremy a chance – we wanted him to succeed on our behalf, but sadly he has not been able to live up to the task given the new and very difficult circumstances our Country finds itself in.
He should go now so that the Party can swiftly move to rebuild itself and provide a credible alternative. We cannot go back to years in opposition.
Hi Chi. I appreciate you holding yourself accountable like this, in what was a secret ballot (granted, outside the party rulebook)
You nominated Corbyn to widen the debate at the leadership election and what we found was that the party membership rejected the old limited blairite view that was previously embedded into the party.
Unfortunately that’s not the result the MPs wanted.
It is extremely easy the undermine a leader and then blame his leadership in order to remove him. It’s just that’s not what we voted for. Whilst being undermined for the last 9 months we have seen by-election victories, mayoral victories and u turn after u turn from the Tories as well as a huge increase in labour membership and engagement in politics.
Imagine just how much more successful this movement would be with the backing of the MPs!
10,000 people turned up at short notice to back him! Can you imagine that ever happening for Cameron or any other current labour MP?
Market to the evangelists and the movement can become huge! Apple did it and became one of the biggest companies in the world, they did it with the smallest but most passionate following!
Please get on board with Corbyn. I think you are a brilliant MP and the Labour party benefits from you. But, Corbyn will not resign and he will continue to have my vote in any leadership election. So please back him with us.
I think thats really sad – I joined the labour party because finally it seemed to stand for something after moving further and further to the right over the years from Blair onwards…. Instead of turning on yourselves and your elected leader how about standing up and holding the Tories to account for this farce of a referendum borne of their need to have a manifesto promise to appease factions of their party and to appeal to UKIP voters.
Very disappointing….
Why has the the right of the Labour Party chosen now to launch a coup against their leader? You have been handed a golden opportunity to put the boot into the tories, so why has Labour decided to act like a suicide cult rather than a political party? You say that Corbyn is a liability on the doorstep, but how much of that is to do with most if your colleagues undermining him in the mind of the electorate rather than getting behind him to offer a vision of a fairer more inclusive society rather than the tired old neoliberal nonsense that we dont want anymore?There are talks of the Labour right splitting from the party if they dont get their way. To that, i say, yeah, bring it on, let them go, we keep the union funding needed and there is a huge groundswell of enthusiastic bright young things who have come into the party since the election of Corbyn and could provide the intellectual kickstart and ideas that Labour needs to refound a modern inclusive social democratic party unencumbered with a right wing who will be tactically useful in splitting the tory vote in the marginals they so covet, leaving Labour to reengage and regain trust from the real people that matter to us, the working class and the poor.
What is all this tosh about Jeremy Corbyn being unelectable? Last time I looked, he had been returned as MP for his constituency in every single election since 1983. Pssst – the Tories are terrified of his popular appeal. Sorry Mr Cameron, your sideswipe about JC’s presence on the opposite side of the House being good for the Tories was slightly amusing but unconvincing. I saw the whites of your eyes as you barked at him to go.
I am very disappointed in you Chi. You have bravely made public your decision but I am curious about what you call Jeremy Corbyn’s “bad management and leadership”. It is simply unfair to cast such words about without explanation of your reasoning. Alternatively, let’s talk about the qualities of an effective team member. I don’t think “ability to jump on the bandwagon” is one of them.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, supporters of Corbyn, please share on your social media outlet this link from a previous post:
http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/leaked-letter-from-henry-mp-to-corbyn.html?spref=tw&m=1
It may have been posted as a bit of light relief, but – as satire should – it brilliantly illuminates just what is going on here.
Chi,
While I’m only a neighbouring constituent, having had the opportunity to witness you speak on behalf of the party I have always considered you to hold sincerely held Labour views.
I believe you have done the right thing and I am dismayed by the reaction of non-active Labour Party members towards you. The Labour party is in crisis and it will require strong leadership and perseverance from the PLP to steer us through. I am sure you’re aware that members who involve themselves in campaigning, leafleting and local meetings understand the reasons for the votes of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn as we’re seeing the results of his leadership ourselves.
It is very sad that Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership must end in ignominy, and whilst I applaud you for your work as an MP and your fantastic representation of Geordies in Parliament I must end by pointing out that should the consequences cost you your seat and us our party, it was your foolishness in nominating an awkard Bennite for leadership in the first place that set the ball rolling.
You have described Jeremy Corbyn as having “honesty and integrity”. For me, this is what has been lacking in recent times among our elected leaders – few would dispute this. You are not the first to attribute these traits to JC, as I imagine wont be the last. These attributed traits by his peers and the public are not mere words; but attributes earned over his long period in politics. We should not seek to diminish the value of “honesty and integrity” as these are rare qualities that are hard earned over a period of time. It is rare to associated these traits with a politician as so emphasize that Jeremy Corbyn; the leader of the Labour party has proven honesty and integrity.
It then amazes how after acknowledging such rare traits that you can so easily conclude JC’s unworthiness to lead. Surely for you to downplay such a man; you bring an argument so great that it tips the scales. I do not say that honesty and integrity are the only characteristics required for leading the nation – it would be absurd to say so. However, to brush a man away and question his ability for the role; surely you bring an argument that is more than just your opinion on his ability to lead with your evidence being the outcome of a public referendum. A “public referendum” that the public needed facts and figures on to help decide to vote and not the leader of a political party to convince or canvass. We just wanted the facts out of the government in power for us to decide. We are not so inept to require canvassing or persuasion. The facts – that’s all; via any medium.
What does JC lack exactly in his leadership skills? How can you elude that the outcome of a public referendum that the Conservative government called is proof of lack of leadership of the leader of the Labour party or any other party? When did the public’s opinion on the referendum imply which political party you represent?
We are all so united in praising and honoring characters like Nelson Mandela, Mohammed Ali etc after they pass away. We endlessly discuss their contribution to their cause. The common trait being honesty and integrity. I do not elevate or compare JC to those exampled greats. Not at all or not yet anyway. I merely point out that – honesty and integrity is rare, valued, needed and not to be taken for granted or brushed aside so easily.
As most of us suspected for a long while – some politicians very easily change their tune. This whole JC saga is evidence of this. The public is witnessing the worst at the moment from our elected officials. Career politicians, backbiting, back stabbing, the changing of opinions – it all laid out now for us all to see. A drama even Eastenders script writers could not concoct. This is a time country needs to stay strong. It needs to be united. Unity and strength needs to start at the top. At the moment what is happening on the streets is quit simply the bi product of whats happening our parliament.
There was me thinking it was just me that thought Chi was wrong. It’s clear that JC has the support of voters, members, councillors and leaders even if he doesn’t have the support of his own MPs who supposedly represent the afformentioned group.
The Labour ‘coup’, who will be our next PM and all of the other melodramas playing out in Parliament right now will simply become footnotes in history within a matter of a few years. Britain just voted to leave the EU… that’s important because the consequences of Brexit will affect our country forever.
Chi is an amazing MP. She had her own reasons for voting against Jeremy in the motion and she is not one of the plotters and does not deserve some of the vitriolic comments posted on this thread and she most certainly does not deserve the threat of de-selection. I know Jeremy personally and I can tell you that he does not support any of the hostility aimed at Chi.
I will be supporting Jeremy to continue as our Party Leader and I will also be working week-in-week-out in Newcastle Central CLP to support Chi, all of our councillors and the Labour Party.
I agree completely with David Stockdale’s comments.
Chiefly, I think this is one of those rare moments when there is a real chance to extend democracy in our system of government. But for powerful elites, that’s seen as a threat. So, there’s one reason why Jeremy Corbyn’s mandate from our membership as Labour leader has been so fiercely resisted by some of ‘our’ MPs.
Why are they determined to undermine the membership’s decision? It’s not down to ‘management issues’ with Corbyn. True, he isn’t the best ‘manager’ in creation. But then most politicians couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag. It’s about policy, especially complicity in the policy of austerity, well illustrated when many of ‘our’ MPs voted for Tory welfare cuts.
As things now promise to get worse for most people, and the Tories have decided to extend the life span of austerity, we’re entering a dangerous period in which the absence of a clear alternative from Labour opens the door to UKIP and others to mobilise the frustrations and anger very evident in the Brexit vote from the far Right.
I’m for an alternative socialist economic policy that puts money in people’s pockets and jobs and homes within their reach.
It means a significant redistribution of wealth, higher wages and benefits, a publicly led housing programme, a planned ‘green’ industrial development strategy, a support framework for enterprises and services based on co-operative and other democratic social enterprises and a new approach to public ownership, a massive expansion of education and genuine training, and an end to the in-built instability created by the over-representation of ‘financial services’ in the economy overall.
None of that will be on the PLP ‘plotters’ agenda. But it will be on Corbyn’s. I’ll be voting for him – but really for a people’s economic policy – if it comes to a vote.
Dear Nigel,
Thank you for your comments. Having been a member of your constituency for over twenty years I am heartened that your views resonate so very harmonically with my own. Having been so badly let down by my first voting experience, which put that lying weasle of a war-monger Tony Blair in power, I have not found the heart to vote ever since, however, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn has given me fresh faith in the Labour Party as a vehicle for change, for the good, in this society and I was actually looking forward to the next polling day.
My local MP was fantastic, a proper, old school, grassroots Labour man through and through and I was hopeful that he would be replaced with somebody of equal calibre. I feel was sadly let down.
I notice you tactfully avoid mention of Chi and, as a colleague, rightly so, thankfully I bear no such constraints! Compared to Jim Cousins she is a very poor substitute. Always late in replying to points raised by constituents. Among those who voted with the tories in imposing further austerity and to bomb Iraq. Transparently self serving in her motives and now treacherous to boot!
I hope that she will not be representing Labour at the next ballot as I feel, following this debacle, she will be what the PLP have been labelling Mr Corbyn since his election as leader:- wholly unelectable!
I have already expressed my disappointment in the position you have been taking, as you carried on a poll of those supporting Corbyn and those not, but I was keen to read here your reasons for not backing Jeremy.
I can’t really find any, to be honest…
You say that he doesn’t have sufficient leadership qualities, or that he isn’t an effective leader, but you aren’t specific. What has JC done or not done that makes you feel/think this? I think you at least need to qualify this position with some examples, some evidence…? Otherwise, it feels to me, that you are following along the lines of the mainstream media, even, what I used to consider, the left-leaning media, who now seem to be joining the establishment ranks to print as many stories as possible which discredit Corbyn and highlight the PLP’s lack of support for him, or crow that public opinion is against him. And if that’s the case, then I am quickly losing what respect I did have for you. Never mind a vote of no-confidence in JC, I believe it is you, and your cynical, jostling colleagues who should be discredited and mistrusted, and shown a vote of no-confidence.
I am 35 years old. I feel ‘young’ still. I had never been a member of the Labour Party, even though that ‘would’ have been my natural leaning, because ever since I was old enough to vote the party was led by Blair, and then Brown…etc.
I couldn’t vote for them. I have only voted once in my life. This is partly because I have lived outside of the UK for some of my life, and for various reasons, for periods of time, have not been on the electoral register. For the first time in my life, watching Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, and his actions since as leader, I have decided to join the Labour Party. I have felt hopeful, because of the kind of politics Corbyn has been trying to introduce. And ‘kind’ is the word.
I have watched how his mere presence on the political stage has started to shift the paradigm back from what seemed like an almost unreachable place, over there on the right, not even centre; where it is acceptable for many of the hard fought for human and workers’ rights, services and principles to be hacked away at, sometimes covertly and sometimes unbelievably, shamelessly publicly, without the consent of the people. Why have we not had a referendum on issues like privatising parts of the NHS? Why not a referendum on going to war..Again and again?! Why not a referendum on what to do about the bankers and financiers who plunged the economy into recession, which WE then paid for with ‘Austerity’! No one asked us about that!
Corbyn is not slick. Not even particularly charismatic in the usual way. He might be having to get a bit more savvy when it comes to social media and the media…but he does not smell of the ‘normal political class’. That there even is a ‘normal political class’ that we can identify in this way is a terrible indictment of where we are at! That the Parliamentary Labour Party are worried that he doesn’t fit these images of what a leader should be is a sign of how out of touch with their roots, with the people they are supposed to represent, (although, who is that, now?) and with any actual, real, politics, they are. Jeremy Corbyn does not ‘smell’ to me like someone who would be comfortable sitting at the bar or the dinner table with lobbyists from private corporations, with the invisible rich and powerful who exercise their influence over other politicians. The others, many of them your colleagues in the supposed ‘no confidence in Corbyn’ camp, smell of that. And it stinks.
That smell turns people like me, and many I know away from politics. It makes us think that none of it matters anyway. That ‘they are all the same’. That we can’t affect or influence it anyway, that they will do what they want, so what’s the point. Jeremy was starting to change that. To bring us back. To give us some belief and hope in democracy. To not make us want to just burn it all down! Or to want to leave, to go somewhere where at least people aren’t pretending everything is ok. And now, you and your colleagues want to take that away. To give us what, instead? I haven’t heard or seen anything else (other than maybe this possible collaboration of the greens with JC) which offers anything like the alternative Jeremy represents. Hope itself is not enough. I know…we have to be pragmatic. So let’s be pragmatic! The last general election should have been a very clear lesson to Labour that if the party wasn’t going to offer anything radically different from the Tories, then the voters who would vote for those kinds of politics would vote….Tory!
Then, Jeremy came along, and loads of people started joining the Labour Party. Why? Because for the first time in decades, there was someone who talked and acted like Labour is supposed to be. Not some nostalgic stuck in the olden days vision of Labour-times have changed, of course! But listening to, representing, and fighting for the people who are most vulnerable, the people who are marginal, the people who don’t have off-shore tax-free bank accounts and their hands in pockets of people who have hands in pockets. NOT the elites. Not the bankers. Not the privileged few.
This is all stuff you know, I know that. So it leads me back to: Why? What has Corbyn really done that leads you to believe that he shouldn’t lead our party, and what do you propose should replace him? Why do you not see that by doing what you are doing, you are jeopardising the future of the party, and the support of many existing and new members. Even worse, you and your colleagues are telling people not to try to do something different. Not to believe in a kind politics because it isn’t ‘electable’. Not to strive for a movement against the inhumanity we have been subjected to, and have been subjecting each other to, for years.
Your African heritage should be whispering Ubuntu to you. If only you would listen. We are listening….
Thanks Rosa.
Succinct and erudite response to an unintelligable decision.
Shame that our elected representative is highly unlikely to read, respond to or learn from your point of view. 86 to 60 is probably a fair representation of her constituents balance of views on the subject, which was duly ignored.
Let`s hope they/we select somebody able to express our views in future.
Fascinating thread here; my, how political debate has been invigorated by this referendum!
As some of the contributors know I personally took the decision that the Labour Party had reached its ‘sell-by date’ a few years ago. Mostly driven by an encounter with the then shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, who I realised didn’t properly understand 21st Century global economics; a fatal political flaw I considered. Now with the election of Corbyn and, particularly, the appointment of McDonnell, a serious opposition to ‘there is no alternative to austerity’ has emerged.
Not that this alters my view of Labour, because they have simply moved a lot closer to the policies and principles the Green Party put forward in their election manifesto 15 months ago. And this crisis shows that in doing so they have opened out an internal rift that lies between an imagined past of a ‘family’ that needs to pull together, and the brutal reality of neo-liberal austerity which disdains such nostalgia.
In this context I urge people to read Wolfgang Streeck’s writings about the delayed crisis of democratic capitalism. Wolfgang is a German Social Democrat, not a revolutionary, but as a sociologist come economist he does not shirk from the full awfulness of what is occurring. This link is to a paper from the Max Plank Institute http://www.mpifg.de/pu/mpifg_dp/dp15-1.pdf Its 26 or so pages long but worth an hour of your time if you are truly interested in w’appen in the world today.
I was quite surprised at Chi’s decision and in no doubt that it is a grievous error, as well articulated by many of those above in this thread; but not necessarily a fatal one. Many comments above pay great tribute to her performance as a constituency M.P. Quite rightly. There is always time to reconsider and to change your mind, Chi. I don’t agree with the knee-jerk view that she must be de-selected, as there is little doubt in my mind that she is a kind of exemplar of that internal struggle within Labour. I am sure there was enormous pressure on her, this was, after all, a highly organised and well funded coup attempt. She should be allowed time to change her mind. The question you must answer to your Party members, Chi, is (and I’m assuming there will be a Leadership election), if Corbyn is re-elected will you then offer him your whole-hearted support?
Of course if Corbyn isn’t re-elected then may I just say to those disappointed Labour Party members that they will find a warm welcome for their views within the Green Party. Though you will have to ditch any obsession with growth as the solution. (Which actually shouldn’t be that hard as we don’t really have any right now).
Whenever the next General Election is, and given the opposition of the main parties to the result of the referendum there surely should be one sooner rather than later; then a major test of unity will be required. It is time to change the ‘first past the post’ system which is an increasingly obvious cause of dis-enfranchisement amongst us.
Strange thought you may say, but imagine if those 4 million or so who voted UKIP 15 months ago had then got a few dozen M.P’s. What would have happened? On the face of it not a lot. You’d have a Tory/UKIP coalition. But over the following 15 months those UKIP reps would be subject to parliamentary discussion and scrutiny and media debate. Their lack of any coherent policies and programmes to follow Brexit, their internal squabbles and disagreements would have revealed the vacuum at their centre. And perhaps the British people might have had a better idea of what they were voting for 2 weeks ago.
So its never too late. To change your mind or to change a bad electoral system that doesn’t work. Unity across Labour, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein and the SDLP could really help us get out of this mess.
Thanks for your honesty. I worked the Remain campaign for 11 weeks and was disappointed by how little we heard from Labour. I have realised how much of this was the obsession with what was seen as a Tory civil war. I also saw first hand the anger of white working class people over 50 which they directed at the scapegoat target of the EU. I was most disillusioned when I saw Watson, Balls and Cooper run scared. I always felt Jeremy was too nuanced but I feel in retrospect this was a vote about elites. For the PLP to then launch an elitist coup within days of the result when we needed to stand firm was bad faith and bad politics. However I respect your honesty and also that you have insights I don’t have. I look forward to an open and fair leadership campaign.
I live in your constituency and have voted labour for 28 years. The plp say Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable, nevertheless he has been elected and I hope will be again. If not I am done with labour. In all conscience, I cannot vote for any party that does not respect democracy
Dear Chi,
I saw you being interviewed on TV the morning Hillary Benn and the others in the coup started abandoning ship. You were asked by the interviewer if you were behind Jeremy Corbyn. You smirked as you said “I always support the leader of the party”. That smirk told me everything and I knew then you would join the coup. That was very disappointing to see and your letter above is very disappointing to read.
Dear Chi,
Sarah Champion, please follow her lead.
Somewhere the carefully orchestrated attack on Jeremy Corbyns leadership carries on, from within
and outside of the Labour party, but his refreshingly nonchalant, unflappable attitude towards his foe, stuns
them, like some long forgotten home-made concoction for controlling pests.
Also, coping with a biased media,and a bunch of carpetbaggers,this quietly spoken politicians’ message
grows louder, and louder, to more and more people,from a minor tremor, to a 9.2 against the richer scale
shaking the foundations and reverberating,down through the halls and corridors of corrupt power.