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More MPs 'considering' leaving Labour, says Ian Austin

MPs speak out at 'intense' PLP meeting

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Labour’s Ian Austin has said more MPs are “considering” quitting the party after a stormy meeting in Westminster on Monday evening. Leaving the Parliamentary Labour Party gathering, Mr Austin delivered a scathing verdict on Labour chairman Ian Lavery’s attempt to unite MPs at the meeting.

Asked if more MPs could follow the lead of the seven who quit earlier today, Mr Austin said: ”If that’s the response of the leadership it will make the situation worse. I think you could see more people considering taking the same course of action.

“If that’s the best the leadership can do then I think you could see more people taking a similar course of action.”

The Dudley North MP said Mr Lavery had “failed to come close to demonstrating he understood the scale of the problem the leadership face.” He said “nobody” had confirmed they were leaving the party at Monday's PLP but he said Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth had been left “very upset” as she addressed the meeting. ”Ruth was understandably upset”, he said. She had raised a case in which both she and fellow Jewish MP Dame Louise Ellman had been accused of lacking “human blood” by a Labour member.

“She raised it months and months ago,” confirmed Mr Austin. “And yet the person is still a member of the party and still hasn’t been suspended.”

Dame Louise also said Mr Lavery had failed to “recognise the enormity” of what was happening in the party over Jew-hate. She also revealed she had been sent further abusive messages from Labour members in recent days.

In an angry and intense meeting, Ms Smeeth revealed she would be remaining in the party. But she was in tears as she spoke and paid tribute to her colleague Luciana Berger, berating those who attempted to downplay threats made to the MP who announced she was quitting the Party earlier.

At the meeting, Caroline Flint said “There are some people in our party today who have no right to be here.” She added that if they were not dealt with by the leadership “they will bring us down.”

Stella Creasy added that “people out there are looking at our morals and finding them wanting.”

Mr Lavery was shouted at as he claimed he would not have joined a party that was "racist.”

Labour MPs filing out of Monday’s meeting described it as showing the leadership were “deaf” to the problem

But in unsavoury scenes Lord Prescott berated journalists outside as “vultures.”


 

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