by Kit



The anti-Corbyn coup, launched simultaneously across the press and PLP, hasn’t had much go their way. Corbyn refused to resign. The public are largely behind him. The NEC caved to membership pressure and refused to (effectively) bar the incumbent leader from the leadership ballot. That means that the coup-planners had to put their money where their mouths were, and actually have an election. Leading to one of the more cringe-making press events in recent history (see above video).

Straight-off, the anti-Corbyn line has been about his “militant” supporters “bullying” MPs. When a brick was (allegedly) hurled through the window of Eagle’s constituency office, by person or persons unknown, Ben Bradshaw went so far as to claim that a Momentum member had done it, and with Corbyn’s blessing. Such claims are totally without any evidence to back them up, and are actually libellous (Momentum have since said they are seeking legal advice for a case against Mr Bradshaw).

When Corbyn voted against an unprecedented “secret ballot” of the NEC, Johanna Baxter shrilly decried him for “endorsing bullying”. Miss Baxter is apparently of the opinion that public officials should not have their policy decisions made public. An interesting notion.

In their most recent misstep, Eagle’s campaign have claimed they had to “pull out” of an event in Luton because of “bullying and intimidation” and “threatening phone calls”. The claims were repeated here in John Harris’ shamelessly biased Guardian column:

Eagle has also had to cancel a forthcoming meeting in Luton after “threatening” phone calls.

This is a total fabrication. At least according to the hotel where the event was supposed to take place. Which claimed they cancelled it because of who Angela Eagle is, and what the meeting was about:

“We can confirm that the event has been cancelled as we were unaware of the nature of the meeting.”

Presumably the “threatening phone call” Eagle’s office received was from the manager of the hotel. Perhaps it’s one of those militant hotels, committed to both affordable accommodation and the destruction of the bourgeoisie.

In the brief, and rather embarrassing, history of this coup, this may be the saddest own-goal yet. That Guardian should simply report Eagle’s assertion, without even performing a simple google search to check its veracity (that is literally all it takes), once again demonstrates whose side they are on, and how far journalism standards have fallen.