I am the chair of Momentum in Bolton – hardly the “metropolitan hardcore” John Harris talks about (There’s a fetid cloud of acrimony over Labour, 15 July). A Labour party friend suggested half a dozen of us might get together to talk about our response to the PLP’s attack on Jeremy Corbyn. To our surprise 40 Labour members turned up, appalled by what was happening in our party. We decided to set up a Momentum group. More and more Labour members are asking to come to the meetings. Bolton is typical of many other parts of the country with increasing levels of unemployment and poverty.

People who never supported Corbyn are appalled by the way the PLP has been trying to overturn democracy, especially at a time when the Tories were in disarray after Brexit. John Harris talks about the “old calculation whereby adversaries are best beaten by making their lives so unpleasant that they simply give up”. I cannot think of a better description of how the PLP has treated Jeremy Corbyn. They have not been able to make him resign through all these machinations. They are now using false and ridiculous claims of antisemitism and misogynist and homophobic bullying in an attempt to undermine his constituency and trade union support. Members who have been paying subscriptions for six months have been prevented from voting.

Labour party supporters of Jeremy Corbyn support the policies which have brought tens of thousands of new, especially previously disillusioned young people, into the party. Those MPs who have been undermining him since the summer don’t want these policies or the members who support them.

Cath Ryde

Bolton

• Why do I have a distinct sense of deja vu from John Harris? Could it be that some of us who were members of Norwood Labour party in the 1970s still have painful memories of being harangued by Ted Knight in full demagogue flow at countless meetings where solidarity was proposed with revolutionary groups all over the world, but concrete ideas for resolving domestic problems were in short supply. Knight was one of many who had joined the Labour party from the Socialist Labour League, and in Norwood Labour party he formed an alliance with Ken Livingstone. Once in control of Lambeth council, a succession of “loony left” councillors – a term some of them relished – ran a hard-left agenda which resulted in inquiries and investigations while Tories and most of the media looked on with undisguised delight. Financial mismanagement led in 1985 to Knight and other Labour councillors being surcharged and disqualified from political office for five years. Moderate Labour party members took their support elsewhere, including to the newly founded SDP, and for 18 long years the Tories flourished in government, while many of us despaired of ever seeing Labour in power again.

Now political history seems to be repeating itself. As recently as February a resurgent octogenarian Ted Knight addressed a “rapturous” Momentum audience in Brixton, moderate Labour members and supporters complain of political bullying, a split seems inevitable and the Conservatives could be looking at another long spell of uninterrupted power.

Barbara Richardson

London

• John Harris asserts that “the lion’s share” of “horrible behaviour” comes from Corbyn supporters. Being a Corbyn supporter, I’m on the receiving end of the shocking abuse from Corbyn’s detractors – words such as “cockroaches”, “cancer” and “thugs” are regularly used to describe us. I’m also aware that at the top of the Labour party, while Corbyn appeals for restraint, those opposing him are less scrupulous. For example, you wouldn’t see Corbyn wind up opposing supporters by attempting to change party rules retrospectively; or making the price of a democratic “say” prohibitively high; or taking away the rights of local democratic bodies to express themselves.

And then there are the Labour MPs who want to “de-seat” Corbyn, who referred to me and my family at a recent peaceful demonstration as “dogs” and “rabble”; anti-Corbyn MP Jess Phillips boasting in the media of telling a fellow MP to “fuck off” and saying rather than “backstab” Corbyn, she’d “knife [him] in the front”; and MP Ian Austin, who recently shouted at the elected Labour leader to “sit down and shut up” in parliament – encouraging contempt for Corbyn, for his supporters and for the political system as well as provoking potential reaction. The media must also take some responsibility for feeding that reaction whenever there is the appearance of bias. How can John Harris discuss the threats made against other MPs without mentioning the constant death threats which Corbyn is subjected to? They are horrible crimes – not ammunition.

Kate Buffery

London

• I was at the Brighton Labour party meeting John Harris describes, and I saw orderly queues of sincere party members conducting themselves in a polite and respectful manner. Yes, candidates who support Jeremy Corbyn were elected to office. Nothing wrong in backing the elected leader of the party! But they also made good speeches about how they wanted to contribute to Brighton and Hove district. As a grandmother who has read the Guardian for 50 years, I strongly object to being portrayed in your paper as some sort of spitting extremist.

Sandra Tolley

Hove

• The suspension of the Brighton, Hove and District Labour party (Smith and Eagle urged to agree on single challenger to take on Corbyn, 16 July) is an interesting example of a wider phenomenon. In effect the Labour party hierarchy is “no-platforming” supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. The idea, now very familiar, is that anything said which offends or upsets favoured groups constitutes “hate speech” and is therefore illegitimate. Arguments about whether anything said at a meeting may have been “intimidatory” miss the point. The claim by Labour MPs is that support for Corbyn constitutes intimidation per se.

Rory O’Kelly

Beckenham, Kent

• As an ordinary Labour party member, I have followed the current situation in the party with utter disbelief and extreme concern. Jeremy Corbyn is the best socialist leader the Labour party has ever had. There is no one who is his equal. Yet this dignified man has been subjected to the most shameful treatment from the start of his election as leader. Do his distractors know anything about him and why he has the respect of people across the world? Do they know that he was given the prestigious Gandhi international peace award for his lifelong dedication against injustice and wrong? Do they know of his work for the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six? Of his campaigning against apartheid in South Africa? Of his support for the campaigns to free Guantànamo prisoners? Do they know he went to Washington to plead for the release of Shaker Aamer? That he is still working for the return of the British citizen Andrew Tsege, unlawfully abducted and imprisoned in Ethiopia? Or of his support for the children of Gaza? His hopes and plans for a more equal, just society have encouraged massive support for the Labour party, especially from young people. And yet we have now an outrageous situation – the farce of another leadership election, rigged to exclude as many members as possible who would want to vote for Jeremy Corbyn again.The Labour party is privileged to have Jeremy Corbyn as leader. I do hope he is re-elected, despite all the shabby attempts to defeat him. Those who should have supported him as leader may see that they have destroyed the party they profess to love.

Joy Hurcombe

Worthing

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