Rebecca Long-Bailey is entitled to her views

THE Mail on Sunday opposes almost everything Rebecca Long-Bailey stands for. A Labour MP of the far Left, she is the heir to Jeremy Corbyn, whose disastrous and sometimes shameful period as Labour leader is at last coming to an end.

But that is just our opinion. We understand that others do not share it and we defend absolutely Ms LongBailey’s right to stand for office, in the Labour Party and in the country.

But in a sinister and distressing development, members of her own movement are trying to argue that her views on abortion, presumably influenced by her Roman Catholic faith, should debar her from becoming Labour leader. This is a shocking and dangerous view to take.

We are all free to defeat ideas we do not like in debate and at the ballot box, if we can. But none of us has any business telling anyone else what he or she can think. In fact, Ms LongBailey’s

position – she opposes lateterm abortions on the grounds of disability – is far from militant.

She supports the view of the Disability Rights Commission that

‘the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and nondisability are valued equally’.

Many in the pro-life movement, which opposes any abortions, would regard her as an opponent.

Once, it was the Church that was regarded as dogmatic and rigid. But it is increasingly those who would once have seen themselves as radical, secular and even liberal, who patrol the borders of politics and public debate, looking for heretics. This is the direct route to totalitarianism and the Thought Police. Those who indulge in it should realise that it is not just bad in itself but that their actions create a two-edged weapon that will one day be used against them as well.