Two of the Labour MPs who dared to ask for leadership nomination forms have been sacked. Sacked for daring to make a stand and attempt to get rid of a useless Prime Minister. There is a very undemocratic pattern emerging from the Brown bunker. When he thinks he will lose a General election he U-turns, when he thinks we will vote against the Lisbon Treaty he denies us our promised referendum, when he thinks he will lose a vote in parliament (42 days) he whips his MPs and bribes (allegedly) MPs from other parties, and when he thinks he will lose a leadership contest he breaks party rules and sacks those who oppose him.Labour party procedural rule 4B 2 states: "where there is no vacancy, nominations shall be sought each year prior to the annual session of the party conference."
Apparently senior Labour officials say the rules are different when the party is in power. Is it me, or does that line have the ring of "this is not a constitution" to it?
UPDATE: Make that three Labour MPs sacked: Barry Gardiner, Joan Ryan and Siobhain McDonagh. Hat Tip to John Ward.
UPDATE 2: It looks like Gardiner resigned before he was sacked.
8 comments:
There's now a third sacking.
I've been following this saga in some depth in a couple of recent posts, and will be keeping a very close eye on developments...
Update to my previous comment. It now appears that Gardiner resigned, but Downing Street staff couldn't even get that right!
It looks like Labour MPs have finally caught up with what the rest of the country has known since day one.
What nobody's explained to me is exactly wtf a "special envoy for forestry" does and why Gordo needed one. Was he the man who talked to the trees on the PM's behalf?
He was the man who was supposed to help Gordon see the wood, but Gordon couldn't see for all the trees. That's why he was sacked.
As it happens, I think that rule 4.B.2 should be enforced. However, nomination papers haven't been issued for years; certainly, not during Blair's tenure. It shouldn't be ignored, but pretending that this is new and is indicative of something from Brown is, er, wrong.
xD.
Dave,
Has any MP asked for them in the last 11 years? Just because the party has not automatically issued nomination papers before a conference (since 97), it does not mean that they should not be issued if MPs ask for them. The rule states that the papers should be issued.
Someone is blocking the issue of nomination papers.
Steve,
I absolutely agree; papers should be issued as a matter of course. However, people have been asking for nomination papers to be issued every year for some time, not least by Peter Kenyon, who is now on the National Executive Committee.
xD.
Post a Comment