The Murdoch Sun has once more made a highly creative claim about Labour activists urging Jeremy Corbyn to back a so-called Peoples’ Vote on the deal struck between Theresa May and the EU. The problem is that the activists concerned did not urge Jezza to do anything: the story is a pack of lies from start to finish.
Under the headline “Labour chiefs demand Jeremy Corbyn supports People’s Vote and adopts second referendum as official party policy … Remainers in Brexit-voting Crewe and Nantwich made the plea to leader Jeremy Corbyn”, readers are told “LABOUR chiefs in a top marginal seat have passed a motion demanding Jeremy Corbyn offers voters the chance to reverse Brexit at the next election”. Then the whoppers start.
“The Labour constituency party (CLP) in Crewe and Nantwich voted through the emergency motion last week - despite voters in the seat voting overwhelmingly for Brexit in the 2016 referendum”. Overwhelmingly my arse: in Cheshire East, of which Crewe and Nantwich is a part, the result was closer than the UK average, with 51.2% voting Leave, and 48.8% Remain. Still, back the CLP motion.
“It sparked fresh infighting within Labour tonight, with other MPs representing pro-Leave seats”. No it didn’t, and for one good reason: the CLP did not even debate that motion, and certainly did not pass it. We know this as Laura Smith confirmed “Whoever provided this story is not a reliable source - the CLP did not pass this motion. @TheSun false reporting!”
One local Tweeter added “It wasn't debated due to there being no appetite for it... Which if anything makes this story even less accurate”. So when the Sun claims “But Labour MP for Rother Valley Sir Kevin Barron - one of just three Labour MPs who voted for the PM’s Brexit deal a fortnight ago, warned that buckling to the demands of CLPs like Crewe and Nantwich would see the party being punished by voters at the next election”, one has to assume that he didn’t check with Ms Smith first. Taking the Sun on trust? Not good.
Nor is the Sun’s irrelevant comment “Labour’s Laura Smith … Last year she was reprimanded by the Labour leadership after calling for a general strike in order to oust the Tory government.”. And the admission “The emergency Brexit motion - leaked to The Sun - piles further pressure on Mr Corbyn to adopt a second referendum as official Labour party policy” rather gives the game away. The motion was leaked.
What wasn’t leaked was the fact that it wasn’t even debated, let alone passed. No fresh infighting was sparked, no pressure was piled on Corbyn, and no motion was voted through. The Sun’s “story” is totally untrue, no more than propagandising against a party and a leadership that the Murdoch goons are desperate to keep out of power.
After all, Labour is committed to Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry, and the Murdoch press would rather not have the wider public be told what that press had got up to in its desperation to keep on landing stories and sell more copies.
The inmates of the Baby Shard bunker are desperate enough to invent totally false stories in order to demonise the Labour Party. No change there, then.
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