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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
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| How Labour party democracy can work | How Labour party democracy can work |
| (2 months later) | |
| Since becoming Labour leader three years ago Jeremy Corbyn has helped increase the party membership to over half a million. He has also faced a motion of no confidence within the parliamentary Labour party in 2016, and soon after faced a leadership challenge which failed to dislodge him from office. For three years he has withstood direct and indirect challenges to his leadership and policies, despite increasing Labour’s share of the popular vote to 40% in the 2017 snap general election, increasing the number of Labour MPs in parliament by 30. | Since becoming Labour leader three years ago Jeremy Corbyn has helped increase the party membership to over half a million. He has also faced a motion of no confidence within the parliamentary Labour party in 2016, and soon after faced a leadership challenge which failed to dislodge him from office. For three years he has withstood direct and indirect challenges to his leadership and policies, despite increasing Labour’s share of the popular vote to 40% in the 2017 snap general election, increasing the number of Labour MPs in parliament by 30. |
| So it’s rather ironic to hear Chuka Umunna and others complain about a handful of constituency Labour parties passing motions of no confidence in their MPs, and exaggerating the influence of the leadership in that process (Report, 8 September). | So it’s rather ironic to hear Chuka Umunna and others complain about a handful of constituency Labour parties passing motions of no confidence in their MPs, and exaggerating the influence of the leadership in that process (Report, 8 September). |
| No-confidence motions have no legal basis; they are not a disciplinary measure; they are an expression of concern and dissatisfaction with an MP’s performance. They ought to be the start of dialogue, and an opportunity for change. They might be a precursor to deselection, and if so a reminder that party democracy works when the people who worked hard to get the MP elected are treated with respect, listened to and enabled to hold their MP to account.Steven WalkerWalton on the Naze, Essex | No-confidence motions have no legal basis; they are not a disciplinary measure; they are an expression of concern and dissatisfaction with an MP’s performance. They ought to be the start of dialogue, and an opportunity for change. They might be a precursor to deselection, and if so a reminder that party democracy works when the people who worked hard to get the MP elected are treated with respect, listened to and enabled to hold their MP to account.Steven WalkerWalton on the Naze, Essex |
| • I work with and for the poorest residents of Haringey without allegiance to any political party. I can from my own experience tell you that Nick Moss (Letters, 8 September) is wrong to suggest that there is no organic link between the political left and the working class. With a superhuman effort, Momentum and other Haringey activists overturned the regeneration policy of our Labour council, thereby preventing the demolition of working-class homes on council land in favour of a developer’s profit and new homes that would have been unaffordable for the evicted residents. For good measure they also committed the local Labour party to relieving families claiming the universal credit of the council tax and its draconian enforcement.Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty | • I work with and for the poorest residents of Haringey without allegiance to any political party. I can from my own experience tell you that Nick Moss (Letters, 8 September) is wrong to suggest that there is no organic link between the political left and the working class. With a superhuman effort, Momentum and other Haringey activists overturned the regeneration policy of our Labour council, thereby preventing the demolition of working-class homes on council land in favour of a developer’s profit and new homes that would have been unaffordable for the evicted residents. For good measure they also committed the local Labour party to relieving families claiming the universal credit of the council tax and its draconian enforcement.Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty |
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