Corbyn vs Smith: It’s a civil war between Labour’s left and right
As the Labour party continues to cannibalise itself, another spanner gets thrown at Jeremy Corbyn. Legal advice told Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) that there were no rules about barring an incumbent leader to proceed automatically to the ballot paper as a candidate for the leadership election. But this week, Jewish millionaire, donor and former Labour candidate, Michael Foster challenged Corbyn’s right to stand at the High Court in London. Justice Foskett will hand down his verdict on Thursday with consideration for appeal applications. Corbyn is expected to ask for the leadership contest to be deferred if he loses the court case.
Foster’s objection is based on Corbyn’s inability to secure enough nominations from Labour MPs and MEPs. Foster believes that Corbyn should have more nominations to be in a position to challenge his rival Owen Smith, former Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. 172 MPs and MEPs supported Smith’s nomination and if Corbyn had not been automatically added to the ballot paper, he may have struggled to find the 51 nominations necessary; however, Corbyn still has the monumental support of the grassroots membership and the so called politically aggressive Momentum Campaign, which many ex- pect to carry him through to a winning result on 24 September. The latest YouGov poll suggests Corbyn is in pole position to beat his rival in England, however Scotland is a different story as more than half of Scottish Labour voters are disappointed with Corbyn’s leadership.
The two candidates on the ballot paper are battling for the future of the Labour Party, in addition to the vote of no confidence in Corbyn from most Labour MPs, 500 Labour councillors have publicly supported Smith’s bid. Smith, a former Tony Blair special adviser, is presenting himself as a traditional, moderate and uniting leader, apart from being pro-defence and pro-patriotism, as opposed to Corbyn’s populist, socialist dream of anti-establishment revolution. Fundamentally, it is a civil war between Labour’s left and Labour’s right.
In a separate legal action, other Labour party members, objecting to ban on the 130,000 members who joined the party after 12 January—who the NEC has disallowed to vote in the leadership election—are taking the party to court. The recent members paid £25 to join the party, whereas last year’s membership was only £3.
More trouble for Labour came from Seema Malhotra, MP and former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who accused Corbyn’s team of unauthorised access to her office and harassment of her staff, following her resignation from the front bench (as a show of her lack of support for Corbyn). The Speaker, John Bercow said he was satisfied that there had not been a breach of security and dismissed her claim. MP Sarah Champion withdrew her previous resignation from the front bench in symbolic opposition to Corbyn’s leadership. She requested to be reinstated and was accepted back by Corbyn into her old post of Shadow Home Office Minister for Preventing Abuse and Domestic Violence. If Corbyn is allowed to stay on the ballot paper will other MPs follow suit? The whereabouts of social worker and publisher Abdul Wahid Baloch, a resident of Chakiwara in Lyari, are still unknown after he went ‘missing’ on 26 July, while his family alleges that he was picked up by law enforcement agencies.
A telephone operator at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, Abdul Wahid was a book lover, and helped Baloch authors publish their works and activists print posters.
According to Ghulam Mohammad, a close friend and neighbour of his, he was known for participating in events, protest rallies and hunger strikes held by Baloch activists and fishermen for the missing persons. “He was referred to as comrade and used to be a constant fixture at the Karachi Press Club.”
Speaking to Dawn, Baloch’s eldest daughter, 20-year-old Hani, said her father and his friend Sabir Ali Sabir, and his two children, were coming back from an event in Digri on Tuesday afternoon when two men in civilian clothes, “one in black and the other in white, came towards the van as it stopped at the Superhighway toll plaza and asked my father’s friend to show his identity card.”
Hani was given details of the incident by her father’s friend. “One of the men dressed in black coloured shalwar kameez — similar to how the Levies dress in Balochistan — then turned towards my father and asked him to show his identity card. Upon looking at his ID, the man took out his phone and checked something. He then asked my father to step out with his bags. As he did so, the men asked the driver to leave immediately.”
According to Hani, the two men were standing near a bluecoloured Vigo in which her father was taken away.
The family, along with a few friends, approached the Gadap Town police station, located right next to the toll plaza. “The police refused to register an FIR and asked us to wait for three days, as he might return. We then approached the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), where we submitted an application along with his details,” Hani added.
Another application was submitted by the Civil Hospital administration to the Gadap police station, acknowledging Abdul Wahid as an employee working with the hospital for the past 25 years.