Momentum say that party membership has more than doubled under Jeremy Corbyn, and that despite Cadbury’s fears, Labour’s electoral record under his leadership has been impressive, winning numerous by-elections with an increased share of the vote and recapturing the London mayoralty, among other victories. He said Britain must now ensure workers’ rights, human rights, environmental protection and access to European markets were protected.
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But the meeting took a dark turn after one pro-Corbyn speaker said during the meeting: “It’s very hard to get elected in this country without the support of the Israeli ambassador”. He pledged to make sure the “political spectrum” within the party was represented in his shadow cabinet.
But Mr Smith hit back saying: “You said this last time, and I know we live in a post-truth era, but it’s not true”. I will serve Labour on the backbenches, because I’m Labour to my bones.
“I thought we could have made a much bigger argument”, he said. But I would serve this party on the backbenches loyally.
“For these reasons I can not vote for Jeremy”.
But Mr Smith said the current tactics were reminiscent of the time the party was out of power for 18 years. I don’t want us to leave Europe. I want it to be work that is leading to a Labour government that allows me to put into practice what I want to preach to the country. There’s no place in the party for witch hunts against MPs, councillors and party staff.
He said: “GMB’s congress which only met just a couple of months ago actually had two motions unanimously passed by the GMB, by delegates elected from workplaces across the country backing Jeremy Corbyn”.
But the High Court declared that refusing them the vote would be an unlawful breach of the party’s contract with members as set out in the rule book.
Britain’s Labour Party has gone to court in a bid to prevent tens of thousands of new members from voting in the party’s leadership contest.
Miliband was the Labour leader prior to Corbyn but quit the position after the Conservatives won a majority in the 2015 General Election. We need a leader who has the policies and the competence to win the next elections and Owen Smith is that leader.
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Watson said in the letter: “I have no doubt that many Momentum members are genuine in their desire to campaign vigorously against Tory inequality but there is no denying that tightly-organised factions are also organising within Momentum and the party”.
