Here in Wales, Blaenau Gwent is the only Constituency Labour Party to have nominated Owen Smith for the party leadership – by underhand means.
CLPs are allowed to organise their constituency meetings along two lines – as all-member or delegate-only meetings. If Blaenau Gwent had held its nomination meeting in the same way as all the others, there would be nothing to say about it.
Last year, that constituency nominated Jeremy Corbyn after an all-member meeting; this year, the meeting was restricted to delegates and Owen Smith got the nod.
Senior figures in the constituency party had decided that only delegates would be able to vote – and the ballot would be secret.
The numbers do humiliate Mr Smith. His CLP support is only a fraction of that won by Jeremy Corbyn.
And who knows how many nominations were gained in the underhand way suggested by the underhand Mr Akehurst?
This leadership election is shaping up to be less a choice between two left-wing politicians and more a battle between good and evil.
Akehurst should be kicked out of the Labour Party. His machinations bring the party into disrepute and his actions are clearly not just anti-Corbyn (which he is entitled to be) but also – and far more importantly – anti-Labour. Entryists like him should be shown the door – for ever.
I just hope that ALL Labour members and supporters will be able to read this and make their own judgments as to what has been going on behind their backs.
I think Luke Akehurst is Labour First rather than Progress.
To my mind, Labour First is ‘old labour’ associated with the right wing unions in the Midlands. Progress is ‘new labour’. Labour First is quite strong in the West Midlands where I live. Sure they collaborate with Progress on certain things, but they have their own national annual conference (in Tipton this year) and organisational structures. They favoured Tom Watson for Deputy Leader. However, I’m no expert. You’d have to confirm this with your own sources and research.