Call to Derby Labour members: Don’t stand against Chris Williamson
Steve Score, East Midlands Socialist Party secretary
Chris Williamson, MP for Derby North has announced that because of his ongoing suspension from the Labour Party, he has been forced to stand as an independent candidate in the general election.
Chris has been a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and, for example, the democratic selection of candidates by means of mandatory reselection.
Because of this he was targeted by the Blairite right-wing of the Labour Party and falsely accused of ‘anti-Semitism’.
The Socialist Party calls on the local constituency Labour Party to refuse to select an official candidate to stand against him and to oppose imposition of a new candidate by Labour nationally .
The Socialist Party is campaigning in this election for a Jeremy Corbyn-led government on socialist policies. If he was elected Chris Williamson’s standpoint and record as a Labour MP suggest that he would back a Corbyn government with anti-austerity policies.
This is something that, given Tony Blair’s recent statement in the Financial Times attacking Corbyn and calling for votes only for “a core of good Labour MPs who will not be whipped into supporting policy they do not believe in”, those Labour MPs who support Blair’s politics would resist.
This year’s annual general meeting (annual conference) of the RMT transport workers’ union gave its full support to Chris Williamson as an MP who has stood up for workers’ rights.
We believe a conference of trade unionists, Labour Party members, community activists and socialists should be urgently called locally – within days if possible – to discuss building a campaign of support for Chris Williamson and the socialist policies on which to fight.