Labour rebels face Momentum’s revenge
HARD-LEFT activists have started to take revenge on Brexit-supporting Labour MPs who propped up Theresa May’s Government last week.
Left-wing group Momentum last night demanded the deselection of four MPs who supported the Conservatives in the knifeedge Brexit vote on trade.
And constituency members have started proceedings against two of them – Kate Hoey and Frank Field.
On Thursday night a unanimous vote of no confidence was passed against Vauxhall MP Miss Hoey for ‘colluding with Nigel Farage’. It means she could be the first of the four to be deselected.
In response, an angry Miss Hoey said she would always put country before party.
Last night Mr Field was facing a similar vote by constituency activists. He has branded the move ‘Momentum-inspired’. Labour moderates fear the hard-Left is using Brexit as an excuse to start the longexpected deselection process against those they see as not supportive of Jeremy Corbyn. Laura Parker, national co-ordinator of Momentum, called for the deselection of the four MPs who rebelled on the Trade Bill vote: Miss Hoey, Mr Field, John Mann and Graham Stringer.
She said: ‘We had a chance to bring down this chaotic Tory government and four Labour MPs stood in our way. Kate Hoey, Frank Field, John Mann and Graham Stringer voted to save Theresa May and ensure a destructive Tory Brexit, leaving open the possibility of crashing out of the EU with no deal.
‘This is a betrayal of the millions of Labour voters who want our MPs to do everything they can to take down this cruel, incompetent Tory Government.
‘Labour is once again a socialist party that works for the many, not the few and there is no room for Labour MPs who side with the reactionary Tory establishment.’
A motion to suspend Miss Hoey from the Parliamentary Labour Party was passed with 42 votes in favour, none against and three abstentions, with nobody speaking in her favour.
The motion said she had been re-elected last year on a manifesto that ‘explicitly rejected Theresa May’s approach to Brexit’. Having lost the confidence of local members, Miss Hoey could now be deselected.