Beth Rigby, deputy political editor

The sight of the heavily-pregnant Labour MP Luciana Berger being "bullied" and threatened with deselection by her local party is the latest low in Labour's long-running antisemitism row.

Harriet Harman, the mother of the house, voiced what many of us were feeling as she called on the leadership to "STOP THIS NOW! An eight-month pregnant MP at bay will shame all the women in our party".

And stop it they did, the Liverpool Wavertree Labour branch dropping plans to table a no-confidence motion in Ms Berger just ahead of her maternity leave - apparently on orders from Labour HQ.

Image: Ms Berger has been a thorn in Mr Corbyn's side

But the incident, coupled with accusations from the parliamentary Labour Party this week that the leadership is failing to adequately tackle antisemitism cases, has re-opened a deep fault-line in Labour.


It is now a question of when, rather than if, some MPs decide to split.

The distrust between the leadership and the parliamentary party is plain to see.

Labour general secretary Jenny Formby's initial reluctance to release detailed figures on the party's handling of antisemitism complaints fuelled suspicion of a cover-up.

These confrontations have acted as an uncomfortable reminder of the lack of solidarity between the leadership and MPs suffering abuse.

For the spectre of Labour activists trying to hound a heavily pregnant woman out of her job is shameful.

Ms Berger has felt that isolation far more than most. The 37-year-old MP was a lightning rod for antisemitic abuse long before she became pregnant with her second child.

She was forced to have police protection after receiving death threats. There must have been plenty of occasions where she thought about quitting - yet she has battled on.

It is true that Ms Berger has been a thorn in Mr Corbyn's side.

She backed Andy Burnham in the leadership election and quit as shadow mental health minister back in 2016 to vote against Mr Corbyn in a confidence vote. But so did dozens of others of her colleagues, and they haven't suffered the level of abuse and intimidation she has.

This is not just driven by ideological division, this is driven by racism and misogyny and the leadership should not just call it out, they should stamp it out too.

Image: Anti-Semitism in the party is splintering MPs

For the spectre of Labour activists trying to hound a heavily pregnant woman out of her job is shameful. And it's the trigger point for a splintering of the party.

For why would Ms Berger, and other Labour MPs who have suffered appalling racist abuse, want to stay?

Talk is rife that a handful of Labour MPs are now really preparing to quit; and that trickle could become a much bigger flow after Brexit if those arch-remain MPs decide to pitch their new tent on the pro-EU centre ground with the liberals and perhaps some disaffected Tories too.

Many Corbyn loyalists vehemently believe the antisemitism and Brexit issues have been weaponised by his political opponents to undermine his leadership. They are as much the enemy as the Tories who sit on the opposition benches.

The party leadership is publicly imploring these would-be defectors to stay. But Mr Corbyn's equivocal support for MPs being targeted and threatened with de-selection lends weight to the sense from some MPs that, in truth, the leadership would rather them gone.

"I'm a bed blocker to a safe Labour seat for a Corbynista," is how one MP put it. "They'd love me to walk."

Nearly a millennium ago, King Henry II, in a temper with his archbishop and old friend Thomas Becket, uttered the fateful words: "Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest!" A month later four of his loyal knights did, hacking Becket to death in Canterbury Cathedral.

The Labour leader has thousands of loyal keyboard warriors and grassroots activists interpreting signals from the leadership as they try to rid the Corbyn court of rebels.

But they should be mindful that narrowing Labour's broad church could prevent Mr Corbyn from ever becoming king.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Hannah Thomas-Peter - There's another reason why Trump's supporters want a wall