It was reported by LabourList last week that, to try to stop a haemorrhaging of voters to Reform UK, “Labour’s candidate in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection has launched a petition to close a local hotel used for asylum seekers, just days after the Telegraph highlighted her past comments on her council ‘warmly welcoming’ asylum seekers”. I really wonder how low the party will sink. Where is Gordon Brown’s famous moral compass now?
I joined the party on polling day 1966 and have stayed loyal, through thick and thin, ever since. In part, I joined because Harold Wilson had said that the Labour party “is a moral crusade or it is nothing”. After reading about this petition in Runcorn, I wonder what is left.
During the 1970 election campaign, Labour’s Joan Lestor, standing for re-election in Slough, told a racist Labour supporter that he could “stuff his vote”. A lesson in morality for the party? Or will I be thrown out for pointing it out?
John Burnell
Former councillor, London borough of Hackney; campaign manager for Diane Abbott in 1987 general election
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