Corbyn hardliners’ menacing warning to new mum Labour MP
Chilling threat to Labour MP – and new mum – from hard Left activists with hit list of moderates
A LABOUR MP is facing the threat of deselection from hard-Left activists unless she apologises for previously criticising Jeremy Corbyn.
Moderate Luciana Berger was forced to back the leader after his supporters took over her local branch of the party in Liverpool.
In a menacing threat, one of the newly elected members of the constituency committee said she was ‘answerable to us’ and ordered her to ‘ get on board quite quickly now’.
Mr Corbyn’s backers have said other MPs who disagree with him may be deselected – dropped as candidates for future elections.
Fears of a plot to purge moderates grew last night after a list of 49 Labour MPs to target, including Miss Berger, was posted on a Facebook page for a branch of pro- Corbyn grassroots group Momentum. Other names on the list include Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and Jess Phillips.
The post said the ‘usual suspects’ and ‘so-called Labour MPs’ should ‘join the Liberals if they don’t want us to hold onto millions of working class votes’.
Moderate Labour MPs were overlooked in a recent reshuffle of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
Many of the new members of the executive committee in Miss Berger’s Liverpool Wavertree constituency are thought to be Momentum supporters. They are mobilising to take over other branches and have put other Labour MPs on notice for failing to toe the leadership’s line.
Similar plots are believed to be afoot in Bristol West, where MP Thangam Debbonaire could face deselection.
Last year, Labour MP Angela Eagle, who stood against Mr Corbyn for the party’s leadership, faced a call for deselection by members in her constituency in Wallasey, Merseyside.
Miss Berger, 36, who is currently on maternity leave, is the first victim of the most recent purge attempt, which was threatened by Labour’s new chairman Ian Lavery.
She quickly issued a statement after the takeover of her constituency branch saying that she wants a Labour government under Mr Corbyn.
The MP previously quit the shadow front bench in protest at his stance, saying the party needed a leader who would unite it.
Mr Lavery, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, warned last week that the Labour Party was ‘ too broad a church’ and that current MPs must ‘ work very hard’ to avoid deselection.
He argued that ‘everything has got to be on the table’ in terms of party reform.
His comments were echoed yesterday by Chris Williamson, new shadow fire minister and a strong supporter of Mr Corbyn. He appeared to back wider use of deselection, say- ing no MP should be ‘guaranteed a job for life’ and that Labour’s newer members ‘must be listened to’.
Nine out of ten seats on the executive committee of Miss Berger’s Constituency Labour Party were taken by Mr Corbyn’s supporters this week.
One of the newly elected officials, Roy Bentham, immediately issued a call for Miss Berger to ‘get on board quite quickly now’ and publicly apologise for criticising the Labour leader.
He said: ‘She will have to be answerable to us. We would like her to come out publicly like other MPs have done and apologise for not supporting him in the past.’
Yesterday the Liverpool Wavertree branch said that Mr Bentham did not speak on its behalf. Both Miss Berger and Mr Bentham declined to comment.