Remember who your enemies are, MPs told

SHADOW education secretary Angela Rayner has urged anyone talking about deselection of Labour MPs to think about “who are the real enemy”.

Ms Rayner said the party “should be concentrating on making sure we’re ready” for the next General Election.

She said: “If we’re divided and we’re fighting each other we’re not going to be able to implement that [Labour’s manifesto].

On Saturday, Labour’s Yvette Cooper condemned online abuse directed at MP Luciana Berger, who has been targeted by supporters of party leader Jeremy Corbyn over her past criticism of him.

Ms Rayner said: “Luciana has done a tremendous amount of work, she’s an absolute valued member of the team.

“Anyone that talks of deselecting any of my colleagues, quite frankly they need to think about actually who are the real enemy here?

“Who are making the problems for our communities at the moment, who have made those disastrous policies that are hurting the people that need us the most, and it doesn’t help them if we’re fighting each other.”

Labour MP Jess Phillips said “largely” the party was the party of tolerance, but added: “There’s no doubt about it, there are angry and aggressive opinions in the Labour Party just like there are in any grouping in the country.”

The MP for Birmingham Yardley told Radio Five Live’s Pienaar’s Politics she had only been an MP for two years, but there wouldn’t be a day that went by that she didn’t suffer some sort of aggression.