Labour MPs ‘terrified’ of purge by Left
LABOUR MPs are “terrified” to break cover and criticise Jeremy Corbyn publicly, fearing a purge by his supporters, a prominent moderate said last night.
Following Daily Express revelations that a group met in secret at a luxury Sussex estate to discuss removing the Labour leader, one of the MPs involved said they were reluctant to go public, even though their reservations about Mr Corbyn were well known.
The comments came as hard-Left MP and leading Corbyn supporter Chris Williamson stepped up his bid to allow constituencies to deselect MPs disloyal to the party leader.
In an open letter to the head of the country’s biggest trade union, Unite leader Len McCluskey, in the far-Left Morning Star newspaper yesterday, Mr Williamson urged him to use the union’s might to “democratise” Labour.
Mr Williamson said Labour winning an election was not enough and there were still many obstacles for Corbyn supporters.
Pushing for deselection of moderates and centrists, he said: “One obstacle hails from elites within our party. Some of Labour’s democratic detractors in the parliamentary Labour party remain wedded to a bygone status quo. The times have changed, but they cannot.
“Incapable of ‘putting a sock in it’ – as, Len, you wisely advised them to do – humility is a lesson that only our popular movement can teach.
“The resistance to democracy on the part of some elites tells us one thing – empowerment is an invaluable key to real change.”
Change
Mr Williamson added: “Comrades in Unite, you hold so many of the cards to make change happen. As a core pillar in the movement behind Jeremy Corbyn, what you vote on in conference this year will be definitive.”
The senior Labour source said last night: “The words of people like Williamson show why we have to meet in secret and why my colleagues are terrified to speak out publicly.
“After the last election it became very difficult, if not impossible, for us to criticise Corbyn simply because he avoided a wipeout”.
The MP cited the anti-Semitism row within Labour, saying: “If you look what happened to [deputy leader] Tom [Watson] and the abuse he got or the threats to discipline Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, it shows what an atmosphere of fear and oppression exists in Labour.”
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn was believed to have been spotted on holiday, in the Bay View Cafe in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset yesterday. A Labour spokesman declined to comment.
Last August Mr Corbyn was spotted in Croatia. In October 2015, soon after becoming leader, his walking holiday in the Scottish Highlands was blamed for delaying his induction by the Queen into the Privy Council.