John Mann quits as Labour MP just in time for a general election to become full time Tory Party anti-semitism tsar and attack dog
His resignation falls just in time for a General election where he can use all the power and voice of his new Government role created and appointed for him by the Tory Party as government’s anti-semitism tsar.
With only weeks before a likely General Election, he confirmed: “I’m not prepared to stand as an MP with Corbyn as leader.”
This is a prelude of what we can expect from Mann and his biased opinion on both the Labour party and its leadership.
The shape of things to come!
He said he had written to Mr Corbyn explaining his decision to stand down and in a hard-hitting letter repeated his call for the Labour leader to resign.
“I have told him to resign for the good of the country and for the good of the Labour Party,” he said.
In a departing shot letter Mann repeated his call for the Labour leader to resign. saying:
“I have told him to resign for the good of the country and for the good of the Labour Party,” he said.
He said: “When Corbyn goes the problem doesn’t go with Corbyn.
“But his failure to lead is the big problem – as is the problem of antisemitism on the left.
“Corbyn is an enabler. His unwillingness to undo the damage he has done has had huge consequences.
“He’s not just an enabler – he’s the enabler in this country.
“His refusal to sort things out – and the things he’s done and said in the past – gives an open licence to it.”
Trigger Ballots
Mr Mann hit out at suggestions his decision to stand down and take up the new role was deliberately timed to raise the issue of antisemitism again with a general election on the cards.
Mann decision comes just before MPs face trigger ballots that could see Labour MPs been removed by their constituents if they felt they had not done a good job in representing them. Mann was a very unpopular MP able to remove them.
Labour’s current rules state that MPs who wish to be reselected as parliamentary candidates for the following election must face a “trigger ballot”. Local ward and union branches affiliated to the constituency party consult their members on the MP’s reselection. There is then a yes/no vote, with each branch casting one vote. A simple majority of branches is required to reselect the MP. If the MP wins, they become the candidate for the next election, pending (largely routine) endorsement from Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).
Only if the MP loses this preliminary ballot is a full selection contest triggered. A shortlist of candidates, including the MP, is drawn up and put to a local one-member-one-vote secret ballot. The winner becomes Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate.
The big question remains when will the Tory party honour its commitment to an independent inquiry into Islamophobia within the Conservative party.
Boris Johnson is still facing calls to honour his commitment to an independent inquiry, senior minister refused to say that one would go ahead under his premiership.
Johnson appeared to sign up to an inquiry during the BBC debate of the leadership campaign, when Sajid Javid, now his chancellor, got his rivals to agree that an external investigation into Islamophobia was a good idea.
The party has faced heavy criticism for its handling of complaints of Islamophobia among Tory members in recent months, with some of those suspended quietly let back into the party.
Asked on Sky News when Johnson would be launching an inquiry, Rishi Sunak, the new financial secretary to the Treasury, said the prime minister was “committed very firmly to rooting it out in the party wherever it is”.
But he declined to commit to saying that Johnson would be holding an independent inquiry. “Obviously how that gets implemented is a question for the brand new party chairman,” he said.
James Cleverly, who is the new Tory chair, has said he disagrees deeply with the idea that the Conservatives are institutionally Islamophobic.
During the campaign, Johnson at one point appeared to water down the idea of an inquiry.
He told ConservativeHome: “Well, I took it up with Saj afterwards and he said that actually, if I understand it correctly, what we’ve committed to is a general investigation into all types of prejudice and discrimination, including antisemitism.”
Asked if this would be an independent investigation, Johnson replied: “Yup.” He added: “So yes, we’ll have to study exactly what Saj has in mind, but it sounded like a sensible idea when he mentioned it.”
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