Jeremy and his posse of lefty ladies
FLANKED by women, a grinning Jeremy Corbyn makes his way to Labour’s party conference in Liverpool yesterday.
The Labour leader was joined by eight smartly dressed supporters on the way to give his speech – as he tried to ward off criticism for not giving enough top jobs in the party to women.
However, the background of some of his allies may raise eyebrows amongst moderate members of the party.
One of them, Shelly Asquith, is a wellknown student agitator. Earlier this year, an investigation by the Mail into extremism on campuses found that the National Union of Students vice-president for welfare had said she believes ‘there are some laws that should be broken’.
Another joining Mr Corbyn was Rhea Wolfson, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee. She recently told BBC Radio 4 that Labour needed to consider ‘mandatory re-selection’ for moderate MPs.
Also heading to the conference hall was Helen Pearce, of the Labour Women’s Network. Despite being one of Mr Corbyn’s supporters, she says she wants to ‘help create a party in which women lead’.
After the photograph was taken, Mr Corbyn told delegates that the party needed to be the ‘voice of women’ to build the electoral support to beat the Tories. It was not the first time Mr Corbyn has used a photo opportunity to be pictured with a group of Labour women.
At the launch of his leadership bid in July, he was joined by ten women.
Earlier this year, Mr Corbyn was accused by 45 women MPs of failing to stop the ‘disgusting and totally unacceptable’ misogynistic abuse by his supporters.
They said his response to the intimidation was inadequate, and told him: ‘Jeremy, this is being done in your name.’