EXCL Keir Starmer calls on Corbyn supporters to ditch mandatory reselection talk

A senior Labour frontbencher has called on supporters of Jeremy Corbyn to scrap plans to make it easier to dump MPs who are not loyal to the leader.



Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said Labour should be "dignified and united" and stop debating mandatory reselection.

He also condemned party chairman Ian Lavery's claim that Labour is "too broad a church", saying its wide appeal was one of its strengths.

Sir Keir's comments, in an interview with The House magazine, followed increasing calls from Corbyn supporters for changes to the rules on the reselection of MPs.

At the moment, two-thirds of local party members are needed to organise a so-called "trigger ballot" on whether they want their MP to stand at the next election. However, some on Labour's left wing want the rules relaxed so it would only require a simple majority.

Shadow fire minister Chris Williamson, a close ally of the leader, said this week: "Those MPs who are popular with their members, which may well be the vast majority, should have no problem getting reselected. But it’s unreasonable to think we as MPs can avoid any contest."

But Sir Keir said: "I don't support mandatory re-selection and I've always been really clear about that. That's the very strong view of very, very many people in the PLP.

"I don't think it's a discussion we need to be having. I think we have a government that is in crisis, that really doesn't know how to go forward, is on the ropes on a daily basis, is clearly in-fighting itself. In those circumstances the Labour party should be dignified, it should be united and it should rise above - we don't need a discussion in the party about mandatory re-selection."

In an interview with the Huffington Post last week, Wansbeck MP Mr Lavery - another ally of Mr Corbyn - said: "We are a broad church. Some might argue, and I would be one of them, that we might be too broad a church."

But Sir Keir hit back: "We're a broad church and we should remain a broad church. It is one of the great strengths of the party that it's a broad church. It has allowed the party to change over time and to remain relevant over the very many years of its history.

"It started off as a narrowly-based party of the trade unions and working people as its primary function. Then it broadened, because we're a broad church, and embraced all sorts of other important social issues - including all the work that's been done recently in relation to equality and sexuality, then into climate change and environmental protection.

"So that broad church is important because it allows us to be a broad-based party that's representing a broad swathe of people across Britain, but also becuase it gives us the flexibility to be the party of the future as well as the party of the past. So broad church is good."

* The full House magazine interview with Sir Keir will be out on Friday.