Frank Field writes to thank Harry Potter author after she expressed dismay that Labour leader is likely to be re-elected

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Frank Field has written to JK Rowling to thank her for a “blast of reality” after she tweeted her frustration over the probable re-election of Jeremy Corbyn, claiming the party will not laugh in the future because “this isn’t bloody funny”.

The Labour MP told the children’s author she had “hit the nail on the head, and not for the first time, about Corbyn”.

In a letter from his parliamentary office, Field wrote of his party leader: “It is remarkable he has got half a million new members. If he could spell out how this becomes a social movement, rather than an execution squad of Labour MPs, and ties in with what political parties do to try and win elections, then we will be a step forward.”

The message comes after Rowling, who has more than 8 million followers, triggered a huge response from supporters of the Labour leader, who attacked her tweets, and others who backed her.

One message that Rowling retweeted called her a “billionaire centralist not a persecuted leftie”.



J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) One day in the far distant future we'll look back and we WONT LAUGH, LABOUR, BECAUSE THIS ISN'T BLOODY FUNNY.

Rowling did not refrain from hitting back at her critics, responding to one person who asked her what she did when she couldn’t sleep with: “Try to stop thinking about Jeremy Corbyn.”

To another, who called her a “filthy liberal”, she replied that the far left and right shared a dislike of decadent liberals.

She also tweeted about the amount of support she had received, referring to “beautiful messages”, including from Corbyn supporters. To one person who called on Rowling’s critics to “stop hating”, the author responded with a promise to stay put.



J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) The far left & far right share many things, like a loathing of 'decadent' liberals #FilthyAndProudOfIt pic.twitter.com/y7lxk9naqf

J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) To everyone who has sent me truly beautiful messages in the last few hours (including some Corbyn supporters), thank you xxx

J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) I'm going nowhere! Little known fact about filthy bourgeois neoliberal centrists - we're tougher than you'd think ;) https://t.co/Sbe3Lwrq0l

Rowling has been an outspoken critic of Corbyn for a while, and has tried to support the Saving Labour movement, which is backing Owen Smith in the leadership contest. Her intervention came as pressure groups within the Labour movement clashed in a war of words over the leadership campaign.

Richard Angell, director of Progress – a Labour pressure group that is critical of the Corbyn membership and whose members are seen as Blairite – has written an excoriating article for his group’s magazine.

He accuses Momentum, a movement on the left of the party that is backing Corbyn, of planning to split Labour after September’s election result.

“This is not a party in a party, but a party waiting to leave a party,” writes Angell in a message that will appear in his group’s magazine on Thursday.

“Just look. Its national executive, trade union affiliations, membership processes, its conference alongside Labour conference and data on Labour members – harvested by the private companies set up to run Corbyn’s leadership campaigns – all look like the precursor to an asset-strip of the Labour party.”

Angell said that it was a difficult and unpleasant time for “moderates” in the Labour party.

“But look how often the ‘Mr Reasonable’ mask slips from John McDonnell’s face,” he wrote about the shadow chancellor, before also claiming that when the party released a rights at work policy “the leader’s office threatened in the media to sack party staff”.

The reference appears to be to the row between Corbyn and Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol.

JK Rowling and the Angry Corbynites – truly a Twitter row for our times | Ellie Mae O’Hagan Read more

Angell suggested that Momentum was “frustrated that taking over the party is not as easy as it hoped. Why? Because members like you remember how proud you felt the day the national minimum wage became law and, at a stroke, 1.5 million people – two-thirds of them women – got a pay rise; because members like you want to see something similar again.”

He concluded that the Tories were bad enough to lose, but said Labour had to be good enough to win.

He also criticised a new NEC member, Rhea Wolfson, for doing her first interview with Solidarity, the newspaper of Worker’s Liberty, a socialist group banned by Labour in 1990, and for supporting “mandatory reselections” of MPs.

Angell said he had originally invited Momentum to be a partner of Progress but was annoyed that it let in non-Labour members. “It should rule out any support for deselections or a change of the rules for mandatory reselection – you cannot debate the future of the party and country with a political gun to your head,” he added.

A spokesman for Corbyn’s campaign said: “We would encourage Richard Angell to engage in a constructive debate rather than construct straw man arguments and indulge in personal attacks on his fellow members. It’s regrettable, although expected, that Richard feels this way.”

He argued that Corbyn had reached out to all sections of the membership, citing a YouGov poll that gave the leader a huge lead over his rival, Smith.

“We want to bring as many people into our party as possible to help us elect a Labour government,” he added. “But we also want to be a pluralist and inclusive party, which is why Jeremy spoke at the Progress conference earlier this year.

“We will continue to argue for the policies that will transform and rebuild Britain so that no one and no community is left behind.”

A Momentum spokesman said: “Momentum is absolutely committed to pluralism within the Labour party and had invited Progress to run joint campaigns twice – on voter registration and in support of election candidates, offers that were refused on both occasions. It is also bizarre for Richard Angell to attack Rhea Wolfson for giving an interview to an organisation whose recent national conference was addressed by both Richard Angell himself and unsuccessful Progress-backed NEC candidate Luke Akehurst.”