{"id":9304,"date":"2016-07-14T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9304"},"modified":"2016-07-14T17:56:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T16:56:00","slug":"labour-fight-tories-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9304","title":{"rendered":"Labour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fight Tories call"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite members expressed frustration in a vote at conference today (July 14) in which they debated the policy of reselection of Labour MPs. Examining the conduct of some within the party and the challenge to the elected leader, they confirmed their desire to see Labour fighting the Tories, not among themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After a robust debate they supported a motion that called on Labour MPs to be held accountable to their Constituency Labour Party (CLP).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To achieve this democratic accountability, conference supported the need for mandatory reselection of Labour MPs in each Parliament as essential.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The motion comes against a backdrop in which current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced a rebellion from his Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) against the wishes of many lay Labour party members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite delegate Kevin Parslow<\/strong> of the London and Eastern region put forward the motion. He criticised the recent behavior of many in the PLP in what he called \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba coup\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsniping\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plagued the Labour leader \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsince day one.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMPs who put themselves up for re-election should be accountable to people they serve, not to Murdoch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s press,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Parslow said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Parslow conceded the idea that MPs are of course accountable to voters. But, he added, MPs \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be where they are if they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go through the CLP selection process.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite delegate Mike Hedges<\/strong> supported the motion. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFour weeks ago I would have spoken against this motion but after the treachery of 172 MPs we must support it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe way they have tried to break Jeremy Corbyn is disgusting,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey should be ashamed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut those of us who know Jeremy Corbyn know he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buckled in 30 years. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going nowhere except into No 10.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite delegate David Williams<\/strong> of the North West region agreed with the spirit of the motion but urged conference to oppose it based on its wording.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Williams argued that not all MPs in the PLP who resigned are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bright wing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with malicious intentions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLisa Nandy resigned but she is not a right wing Labour MP,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome MPs have resigned because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing it from the heart.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Both Hedges and North East Unite delegate Bryan Kelf<\/strong> enjoined Unite members to become involved in support for Jeremy Corbyn, since he is the only politician who truly reflects and promotes the values of trade union members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow do we know Jeremy Corbyn can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win general elections?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Kelf asked conference. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet been in one. They all said he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be elected Labour leader and he was \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by a large majority.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hedges said that Corbyn \u00e2\u20ac\u015bspeaks our language\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe establishment are scared of him,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re scared of a real socialist running the country. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to us to encourage everyone to become affiliated members. It will be a dirty fight. The establishment will stop at nothing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will be the fight of our lives,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe battle lines are redrawn. Together we can win.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The motion was carried by a wide majority.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite members expressed frustration in a vote at conference today (July 14) in which they debated the policy of reselection of Labour MPs. Examining the conduct of some within the party and the challenge to the elected leader, they confirmed their desire to see Labour fighting the Tories, not among themselves.   After a robust […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[497,545],"wps_subtitle":"Unite backs MP re-selection","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9309,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9304\/revisions\/9309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}