As the leadership battle for the Labour party begins to heat up, Jeremy Corbyn is embroiled in a row over an alleged “breach of privacy” after an aide entered a former shadow cabinet minister’s office without permission.
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Michael Dugher MP, a former adviser to ex-Labour PM Gordon Brown, said: “I think she’ll be persuaded to seize the chance to go to the country sooner rather than later – maybe as early as October – if Jeremy Corbyn is still leader”.
She has now returned to her post as a shadow home office minister, focusing on women, equality and domestic violence issues.
250,000 people voted for Corbyn less than a year previously, yet a load of Labour MPs decided that they know better than the party membership, so they tried to bully Corbyn into quitting so as to avoid a democratic leadership election (because they knew that they would nearly certainly lose it).
A Labour spokesman said: “There’s always work to be done”.
Owen Smith, a Welshman like Kinnock, has challenged Corbyn for the leadership after a failed coup last month by the majority of the Shadow Cabinet.
Almost four in 10 – 38% – thought the majority of their local members would vote for the leader, and 53% thought most registered supporters would do the same.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn denied the accusations about his aide’s attitude and claimed Ms Murphy had entered the office to find out when Ms Malhotra’s team was planning to vacate it.
Speaking on Saturday, Mr Corbyn condemned abuse among members, saying “it has no place in our party”.
However, McNicol has now gone further by threatening to remove votes from £25 backers or union members found to have conducted intimidating behaviour, while party members now risk being suspended while allegations of abuse are investigated.
More than 183,000 people paid the fee during the 48-hour window for such applications last week.
The peer criticised Mr Corbyn for claiming credit for Government U-turns on tax credits, trade union reforms and housing without acknowledging colleagues. This is a breach of parliamentary privilege and is a violation of the privacy, security and confidentiality of a member of parliament’s office.
“But I don’t know enough about the details”.
The resignations followed a no confidence vote in Mr Corbyn among MPs and were an attempt to force him to step down.
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A poll of Labour councillors in the 250 most marginal parliamentary constituencies showed that the majority (60%) were backing Mr Smith for the leadership, with 28% preferring Mr Corbyn.
