Parliamentary Labour party prefer fighting each other to the Tories

Rally for Jeremy Corbyn Monday evening

The war against Jeremy Corbyn is complex, and for those who haven’t been following too closely, we could be forgiven for thinking that Mr Corbyn is a weak leader who, if he stays, will lead the Labour Party into oblivion.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as Mr Corbyn himself has shown in his heroic stand to remain as the democratically elected leader against the spite and vitriol of those who oppose him.

The long knives have been kept hidden for months, in fact ever since Jeremy won the leadership contest with an eye-watering mandate to lead. No other contender came close, although in the beginning none actually thought he could win. They dismissed him as a joke, an afterthought, the comedy factor in the leadership elections.

​When he won, certain factions in the Labour Party who support Tony Blair’s New Labour (and also the Tories themselves) began to realise that perhaps the ordinary folk, who make up the backbone of Britain, were more than ready for modern socialism, the kind of politics where EVERYONE is heard and EVERYONE is given a chance to live a decent and productive life.

The Labour right of his party have never warmed to any socialist principle, they see politics as a promising career move, and in order to maximise their rewards, they need to be in power and they are prepared to do anything that gets them nearer to this goal.

Tory austerity has left people feeling disenfranchised and ignored by those in Westminster. Many feel that some politicians on both sides have become too used to their privilege, and they have forgotten why they were elected in the first place.

Jeremy Corbyn’s socialism for 2016 was suddenly a huge threat to this complacency. His style of politics is a threat to the tax dodgers, the greedy employers who squeeze their workers on zero hours’ contracts, the hiving off of the NHS (and other public benefits) to private concerns and the endless cuts and austerity people face on a daily basis. Jeremy Corbyn offers hope and that makes him a threat to the establishment.

History will see the plotters as those who, without a thought for the country they profess to love, were prepared to wait patiently for a time to strike. A time which would cause the most embarrassment and damage to Labour’s new leadership. Their chance to strike came when Britain voted to leave the EU by a very narrow margin.

Jeremy Corbyn was not an enthusiast for the EU at one time, but during the Labour leadership contest, he told the New Statesman that he had not “closed his mind” to the EU, and indeed he now saw it as a great opportunity for job creation, human rights and stability for British people.

Like most of us Mr Corbyn knows the EU is far from perfect, but we cannot change things for the better by standing outside. Jeremy Corbyn's late EU conversion was an asset to the Remain campaign and his party should have used it as such.

The Labour leader's journey from "undecided" to "In" offered an example for others to emulate and his own party should have used this to their advantage. Instead, those in the Party against a new socialism for all, preferred to use it as a negative, accusing Mr Corbyn of being half -hearted and lack-lustre in his campaign to stay.

Jeremy Corbyn ran an exhausting campaign for REMAIN speaking at rallies up and down the country. This was rarely reported in any great detail in the press, and as we are all well aware of BBC pro Tory bias in the political arena, there was little to no exposure for Mr Corbyn’s REMAIN campaign there either.

On the day the UK went to the polls, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted he had voted ‘REMAIN’ but nothing was enough for Labour MPs like John Mann, who were determined to blame Mr Corbyn for failing to persuade Labour heartland to vote REMAIN. John Mann lambasted Mr Corbyn when the Brexit camp won, but the cherry on that particular cake for JC’s loyal supporters must be Mr Mann’s breath-taking hypocrisy when it was discovered he himself had voted to leave.

Not one of Mr Corbyn’s detractors in the Labour party seemed much interested in the massive failure of the Tory campaign, or the lies given as incentives to vote LEAVE. Nothing much has been mentioned by them about the lie in the promise to spend the money ear marked for the EU on the NHS, or the fact that Brexit won’t have any significant effect on immigration or the numbers of people already living in Britain from abroad.

The one person responsible for this mess Britain is in today, has just about got off scot-free with hardly had a mention from Labour’s Tory lite. Experts warned David Cameron at the outset that the referendum would be a mistake, but to appease his far right Tory MPs, which he thought he was in danger of losing to Ukip, he went ahead, and on June the 24th we found that in one stroke he has broken Britain, yet he still managed to get out of clearing up the mess he’s made by resigning.

His slick orchestrated resignation speech, with a teary-eyed Samantha at his side was nauseating, and made more so when it was reported the next day that he’d allegedly said “why should I do the hard sh*t in clearing this mess?” Did anyone hear Mr Corbyn’ s detractors taking him to task for this comment?

We are in turmoil, hatred and xenophobia on the streets, the £ at all all-time low, credit rating down the drain and Britain heading for a recession. Instead of being able to take on the Tories for their abysmal failing and the ruination of the UK, Mr Corbyn has to waste his time and energy fighting those who should be standing shoulder to shoulder behind him. Where do those back-stabbing MPs honestly think this will get them if they win? What loyal Labour supporter would be first to rally behind Marcus Junius Brutus or Judas Iscariot?

The MPs who feel they cannot work alongside a decent, honest leader should perhaps split and form their own Blair Appreciation Party. Let’s hope it’s not scuppered after Chilcot.

By Patricia Betty a long standing Labour party voter and member

[Tuesday's vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn was 172 aginst 49 supporters]