Hard-Left plot to unseat ‘soft Labour’ MP
WHAT MARK SANDELL, LEFT, THE CORBYNISTA LEADER OF BRIGHTON LABOUR PARTY, TOLD A MOMENTUM MEETING IN LEWISHAM, SOUTH LONDON
A LEADING supporter of Jeremy Corbyn has been caught by an undercover TV reporter vowing to sack a Labour MP who branded the party leader a ‘loser’.
The threat was made by Mark Sandell, the hard-Left leader of Brighton Labour Party, against one of the city’s MPs, Peter Kyle, a prominent critic of Mr Corbyn.
At a meeting held by the Momentum group accused of trying to infiltrate Labour, Mr Sandell spelled out how he would ‘unseat’ Mr Kyle for refusing to back a wealth tax and scrapping curbs on unions. And he mocked Neil Kinnock’s ‘horrible’ 1985 conference speech attacking Liverpool Council’s Militant Tendency regime for sending out redundancy notices to staff in taxis.
Labour should hand out redundancy notices to prominent Labour rebels trying to ‘knife’ Mr Corbyn, Mr Sandell said.
The undercover film will be broadcast tomorrow in a Channel 4 Dispatches film, The Battle For The Labour Party. The film investigates claims that ‘Trotsky entryists’ are taking over Labour.
Brighton Labour Party is on the frontline of the party feud. It was suspended by Labour chiefs when Mr Sandell was elected chairman amid claims that it involved threats and bullying and was part of a plot to sack Hove MP Mr Kyle.
Earlier this year, Mr Kyle, one of Corbyn’s most vocal Labour MP critics, said: ‘I won’t be bullied into uniting around a losing leader.’
Dispatches secretly filmed a speech by Mr Sandell at a Momentum meeting in Lewisham, South London, on August 16. He said: ‘So this guy’s not going to be hard to unseat, but the way we’ll unseat him is not by saying, “you’re the enemy”. We’ll say, “no, sorry, mate, you’re not fit to lead this battle”.’
After listing a string of Corbyn policies he claimed Mr Kyle had refused to support, Mr Sandell added: ‘He won’t even go on a picket line, so in which case, “get out of the way”. That’s the way we’ll do it.’
Mr Sandell last night denied any wrongdoing, saying his remarks were made at a public meeting. He added that Channel 4 had no right to use ‘subterfuge’ against him. And he defended calls for anti Corbyn Labour MPs to be fired: ‘If senior Labour representatives use their positions to attack the membership… members are entitled to select alternative candidates.’
A Labour selection contest in Brighton was inevitable owing to boundary changes, said Mr Sandell. ‘Given that Mr Kyle will not even join a junior doctors’ picket line, I very much doubt I will be supporting him.’
A friend of Mr Sandell said: ‘Mark’s comments were in a public talk in a public library. He is not a member of any organisation other than the Labour Party. CCTV footage proves claims of spitting used as an excuse to suspend Brighton Labour Party are bogus.’