The Mancunian Candidate: Labour's Toxic Right Could Lose Gorton

It is becoming disturbingly plain that some 'progressive' MPs are prepared to sacrifice one of the safest seats in the country, just in order to attack the leader. If that isn't 'bringing the party into disrepute', I don't know what is!

Many locals - and I do mean many, I live in the constituency - are seriously considering voting for George Galloway as a better option, for Labour, than Afzal Khan. It would be sad for the party to lose a safe seat with so much history, but there is widespread feeling that at least if Galloway is elected, we can be sure of gaining an MP who will stand behind Corbyn - without a knife in his hand.

Afzal Khan has been an excellent representative for the area both at home and abroad, but it saddens me to see him gladhanding PLP members who have sown nothing but division in the party he stands for.

Ditto when I see him consistently tagging those who undermine Corbyn on social media. Khan's Twitter taglist reads like a who's who of coup conspirators, although he does include Corbyn - most of the time....

One account he has chosen to include, @GortonLabour, claims to be 'Labour's Byelection campaign in one of the safest seats in the country'. Its bio also states 'We're all behind Jeremy. A very few of us are holding knives'.

Other regular tagees include Lisa Nandy, Tom Watson, Mike Kane, Lucy Powell and Iain McNicol.

In the past, supporters voted Labour without a second thought because they knew we were all on the same page. Now even lifelong Labour voters are not so sure - thanks to the corrosive efforts of people who I don't even recognise as having the values the party embodies.

One Gorton resident told this blog "It's a disgrace what some of them (MPs) are doing, trying to bring him down all the time, damaging their own party. We chose Corbyn, and they even made us do it again. They treated us with contempt, they want to be ashamed of how they're behaving"

"I'm really having a hard time over who to vote for, I've never not voted Labour, but if Galloway gets in I think I'd be celebrating"

Some will vote Galloway because they recognise that his loyalties lie firmly with the party leader they chose - some may do so because they believe the media hype which tells them their party is a shambles.

So Galloway could win - but in the worst case scenario, the split vote might even allow a LibDem victory.

One only needs to look at the media coverage of 'Kengate' to see how entrenched the anti-Corbyn bias is - one might almost think someone was telling them to do it.....

Corbyn makes no comment on the suspension = 'Corbyn fails to condemn - antisemite!'

Corbyn orders further enquiry = 'Corbyn gives in to pressure - antisemite!'

Watson takes £500,000 from the son of Blackshirt leader Oswald Mosley = Zip, zilch, nada - oh and here's an all expenses paid junket to Israel

Len McCluskey recently described Corbyn as 'a man without an ego', and I believe this to be the case. He is not continuing as leader for self aggrandisement - if he was, Lord knows it's in short supply! He is doing the job he was elected to do, because he hopes to make things better for the people he represents.

And if he's some dangerous trot subversive determined to bring about the revolution by taking Labour over, all I can say is he's waited a while on the backbenches.

Consistently elected for 35 years by his constituents, quietly (well, fairly) doing his job as an MP. Consistently elected not by Momentum, or 'entryist trots' (whatever they are) but by the people he has served since before Momentum, Progress, Labour First, several coup MPs, and probably the odious Richard Angell and Luke Akehurst, were even born.

He has, for the most part, backed leaders he did not choose or agree with. He has, for the sake of serving his party, even voted for things he believed were a mistake - because the membership thought they were right. Because, though some seem to have forgotten this, Labour is not about the careers of MPs. It is about the membership.

He has not dipped so much as a toe into the gravy many of his peers - and yes, I mean you Watson - have been greedily feasting on.

At a time when the Tory government desperately needs holding to account, it is beyond reprehensible that parts of the PLP are refusing to give Labour the chance to do that job as a united opposition.

If Labour do lose Gorton, the toxic right might do well to start worrying that this might be repeated in their own constituencies.