Labour members should be free to choose their next leader without needing the permission of MPs, the shadow fire minister Chris Williamson has said, arguing that those who oppose changing the rules are frightened of democracy.



Williamson, a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, said it was looking “very, very positive” for changes to be passed at the party’s autumn conference next month to ensure candidates for the Labour leadership need only the support of 5% of MPs and MEPs instead of the current threshold of 15%.

The rule change is referred to by critics as the McDonnell amendment as it would make it easier for John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, or another candidate from the left to succeed Corbyn when the time comes.

It has not been proposed by McDonnell but has been named for him because a lack of support among MPs frustrated his possible runs for the leadership in 2007 and 2010.

Corbyn won the support of 35 MPs to become a candidate in 2015 but the amendment would mean candidates need the support of only 13 Labour MPs next time.

Williamson said he backed the rule change but he would prefer a situation where Labour members could pick their leader without needing the permission of any MPs.

“There shouldn’t be a leadership threshold at all,” he said. “That needs to change. Who are the PLP [parliamentary Labour party]? They are a tiny percentage of the party.

“If we’re going to have a threshold, it should be CLPs [constituency Labour parties]. But that’s not the proposition. The proposition is to reduce the threshold. I’ll settle for that. Why are people so frightened of democracy?”

The decision over whether to pass the McDonnell amendment will be one of the big battles of the party conference in September, with both its supporters and opponents organising hard to get their delegates selected to attend and vote.

McDonnell said last week there was now “less of a sense of urgency” around amending the rules but there was still some demand for change and there may be scope for a compromise if it was pushed at conference.

Williamson said he believed Unite, Labour’s biggest union backer, would “go with it”, along with some other unions and an overwhelming number of constituencies. “It’s difficult to predict but it’s looking very, very positive,” he said.

Williamson, who recently caused controversy by suggesting women-only train carriages could have “some merit”, has been one of the fiercest critics of Corbyn-sceptic MPs since he was reelected in Derby North in June, having lost his seat in 2010. He has previously called for a return to mandatory reselection, and he said he still believed this was “crucial”.

“Members deserve the right to be able to select their Member of Parliament. It will strengthen and enhance the role of members of parliament,” he said.

On the possibility of centrist MPs splitting from the party to avoid deselection, he said: “If people want to go off and stand as independents or centrists around some Tony Blair party, let them go and see how far they get. I don’t think it would hurt the

Labour party. If they are neoliberals, they shouldn’t be with us.”

Williamson has been Corbyn’s shadow fire minister since his return to parliament and has led calls from the frontbench for a wider inquiry into sociopolitical issues relating to the Grenfell fire.

“It’s important we do find out how and why it started but there are deeper questions that relate to the political culture that allowed it to happen,” he said.

“It’s a culture that has afflicted both Labour and Conservative governments, starting with Margaret Thatcher. That whole culture is built on deregulation, privatisation and cuts.”

He said politicians who had “foisted neoliberal brutality on this country” had contributed “directly to Grenfell Tower and these people have blood on their hands who have pushed this approach”.

“Because neoliberalism is underpinned by privatising and not fettering business, that has actually resulted in things like building control being subject to competition, which has meant the private sector coming in and cutting fees, and inevitably the quality has gone down,” Williamson said.

“You also have things like decisions about whether newbuilds are safe being done on a desktop.”

He said the arguments against neoliberal economics, privatisation and cuts had now been won in the party and across the country, as Labour was riding high in the polls.

“The demonisation of Jeremy and commonsense socialism did colour people’s attitude at the election but, when you break it down, there is overwhelming support for the manifesto’s policies,” he said.

“It’s not a matter of left and right any more but right and wrong and this country’s going in the wrong direction.”

Williamson said he expected Corbyn to face a further onslaught from his opponents before the next election but said he believed the public had begun to tune it out. He said rows over Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism within Labour and his approach to Venezuela were “proxy wars and bullshit”.

“I’m not saying it never ever happens but it is a really dirty, lowdown trick, particularly the antisemitism smears. Many people in the Jewish community are appalled by what they see as the weaponisation of antisemitism for political ends.

“It is pretty repellent to use that to attack somebody like Jeremy Corbyn, who has spent his whole life fighting for social justice and standing up for the underdog.

“But I feel people have stopped listening to the smears and lies and dirty tricks. I think for all the talk about Venezuela and antisemitism, and the latest thing is sexism now, Jeremy’s overwhelming landslide victories in the leadership elections and the general election mean people have stopped listening to the smears.”