Jeremy Corbyn has joined an even more select club after the Privy Council urged parliament to drop his “Right Honourable” title.
Advertisement
Corbyn may also wish to comment on the antics of a mob of anti-gentrification “warriors” that rampaged through London’s Shoreditch locality on Saturday night last.
Senior Tory MP and historian Keith Simpson, a Privy Council member since previous year, said: “It is a snub for the Queen in the sense that she is a constitutional monarch and she represents the constitutional way in which we do business”.
However, the Iraq war cast a huge shadow over his legacy and Corbyn’s election was seen as a rejection of Blairism.
For that to happen Mr Corbyn, who has never met the Queen, would still have to confirm that he had taken the oath, but would avoid kneeling before the sovereign.
Its meetings are about once a month on average and presided over by the queen.
There are no prizes for guessing what the Tories will continue talk about over the coming days – the threat to Britain of a Jeremy Corbyn Government.
Mr Rogers, author of “By Royal Appointment: Tales of the Privy Council”, said: “Number 10 had confused a recommendation to appoint with an actual appointment”, adding that Downing Street “probably hadn’t cleared their statements with the Privy Council Office”.
Sir Nicholas Soames, a member of the Privy Council, said: ‘Treating a privy counsellorship in this way is appalling’.
David Rogers, an expert on the Privy Council, noted to the Telegraph that the government seems to have confused the Queen’s approval of Corbyn’s appointment with an actual appointment, and as such Corbyn’s parliamentary page was changed in error.
Massie told the Sunday Herald: “I was disappointed that I missed the fundraising dinner event in Glasgow on Friday, as a long standing holiday commitment meant I was unavailable”.
Meanwhile it has emerged that a grassroots network called Momentum has been set up by Corbyn supporters. He will do whatever is necessary to enable him to carry out his role as Labour leader.
Typically a leader of the opposition will only attend one meeting of the Privy Council, but Mr Corbyn has questioned whether the Leader of the Opposition should have to join the Council at all.
David Blunkett, the former Labour Home Secretary, warned of the danger of Labour becoming “a party within a party”.
Momentum will be seen as a challenge to Blairite lobby group Progress, itself formed after Tony Blair’s successful 1994 leadership campaign.
He said: “l I have had serious concerns regarding the new implementation of the recycling policy and I don’t think it’s been thought through”.
When I was declared elected three and a half hours ago, I announced to our conference that my first action in this new position as leader of the Labour Party would be to come to a demonstration in support of refugees, the right to asylum and the human needs of people all over the world.
Advertisement
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said there would not be a vote this week in the House of Commons, but could not give a guarantee in following weeks.
