Hard-left purge will put off Labour voters
MODERATE Labour MPS fear they could be deselected within 12 months as they warned Jeremy Corbyn last night that a purge of the party’s centre-left would alienate swathes of the electorate.
As hard-left activists plough on with their campaign to remove MPS critical of the Labour leader, those facing removal believe the party’s governing body will “fire the starting gun” for deselections at the beginning of 2019.
One MP told The Daily Telegraph that Labour’s national executive committee is now expected to announce a timetable for choosing parliamentary candidates soon after the Government’s proposed boundary changes have passed through Parliament.
They added that the timetable, which would set a deadline for local constituency parties to have completed attempts to remove sitting MPS, would effectively light the “blue touch paper”, sparking a widespread campaign among Mr Corbyn’s supporters to rid the party of his most outspoken critics.
Their warning comes two days after Chris Leslie, the member for Nottingham East, became the fifth Labour MP to lose a no-confidence motion, put forward by hard-left members of his constituency party.
The vote, which has opened the door to his removal, was described as “utter madness” by colleagues, whilst Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley, claimed that Labour had never experienced “this sort of intolerance before”.
The Labour insider added that many colleagues remained “in denial” about a purge, despite the rule changes approved at last week’s conference, when delegates voted to make it easier for local parties to remove incumbent MPS.
The MP, who wished to remain anonymous, said the rule changes and no confidence motions against colleagues had left them in little doubt that their political careers were “now over”.
“If the leadership of the Labour Party are preparing to light the blue touch paper, then they’ll have the consequences to cope with.”
Separately, Mr Leslie told this newspaper: “If they push out those of us on the centre-left – while readmitting the likes of Derek Hatton – then the public will see for themselves the direction of the party.”