Letter published today in Guardian attacks Jeremy Corbyn – but the background of its signatories suggests alternative motives

Lord Mandelson, left – who said he tries to find ways to undermine Corbyn every day – and former general secretary Iain McNicol, two of todays signatories

Today, some 64 Labour peers – unelected members of the House of Lords, which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised to abolish as PM – placed a paid, full-page advert in the Guardian’s print edition attacking Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism.

One of the signatories, Lord Winston, admitted today:

Ultimately I don’t think it’s about antisemitism.

It’s not hard to see what he means.

Labour activists on social media have pointed out that the list of signatories reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of Blairite leftovers:

Let’s not mince words. This ‘advert’ is the work of the fag end of New Labour: Blairite self-servers & bag carriers. When they ran our party – as if it was their own fiefdom – they evacuated it of socialism & emptied it of activists. This pack of lies is their bitter last hurrah. pic.twitter.com/1nQIfxjM6o — Labour Left Alliance (@LabLeftAlliance) July 17, 2019

Another signatory to the Guardian advert is Baron Giles Radice, or ‘Blair before Blair’. He was close to the heart of the New Labour, so much so that he wrote a book ‘Trio:Inside the Blair, Brown, Mandelson Project’. Can’t see what else he’d have against @jeremycorbyn. 😂 pic.twitter.com/UtzgeIg12S — Labour Left Alliance (@LabLeftAlliance) July 17, 2019

The considerably less than spotless record of some signatories on race has also been highlighted:

This is Baroness Glenys Thornton who signed the ‘advert’ against Jeremy Corbyn in today’s Guardian.



Here she is confusing two black women MPs despite serving as an Equalities Minister. https://t.co/QHVk4kbpBq — Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 17, 2019

Others have pointed out that most of the signatories have been incessant critics of Corbyn:

The most disingenuous phrase in the peers' letter to Jeremy Corbyn is 'we cannot STAY silent'.



Most of them haven't paused for breath in their attacks on him since he was elected – even after he was re-elected, and even after he led us to our best vote for two decades. — Steve Howell (@FromSteveHowell) July 17, 2019

But one of the most telling – and perhaps shocking – hints can be found in the parliamentary register of members interests, which one Labour insider described as reading “more like it’s from the days of the British East India Company than something from the 21st century .

Of the 64 Lords who have signed the letter, at least twenty-four are corporate lobbyists or on boards of hedge funds, banks, ‘global security consultancies’ and, particularly, private health firms. Others have family links to similar enterprises.

One of the ‘grandees’ signing the Guardian advert is Baroness Hilary Armstrong of Hilltop, former MP for North West Durham & chief whip. Anyone remember the good old days when @UKLabour was hiring Hilary’s hubby to tell them how to privatise the NHS? 🙄 https://t.co/2vU5qEqKwR — Labour Left Alliance (@LabLeftAlliance) July 17, 2019 On example pointed out on social media of peers’ substantial private health links

SKWAWKBOX view:

Jeremy Corbyn plans to renationalise the NHS, rail and utilities, opposes needless wars and has reconfirmed his intention to abolish a House of unelected Lords who can draw £300 a day just for turning up.



Why on earth would unelected peers sign a letter attacking him – and just at the right time to allow their cowardly colleagues in the Commons to take cover?



It’s a real conundrum.

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