Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs, Amber Rudd giving evidence to MPs on Windrush and David Davis giving evidence to MPs on BrexitDavid Davis’s evidence to Brexit committee – summaryPMQs – Snap verdictPMQs – Verdict from the Twitter commentariatLunchtime summary 2.58pm BST Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary and Jeremy Corbyn’s most powerful ally in the trade union movement, has launched a blistering attack on those Labour MPs who have criticised Corbyn for not doing enough to tackle antisemitism. In an article for the New Statesman, he says some MPs are “working overtime trying to present the Labour party as a morass of misogyny, antisemitism and bullying”. He also says their behaviour has strengthened the case for mandatory reselection.The full McCluskey article does not appear to be online yet, but George Eaton has written up the highlights here. Here is an extract from Eaton’s article. Eaton says that McCluskey:Condemns the “few” antisemites in Labour (“any is too many”) and argues that “combating their views is not merely legitimate, but essential”. McCluskey adds: “I have fought antisemitism and antisemites all my life, including physically on the streets on occasion, and I need no lectures from anyone else on the subject. I am not sure that some of the voluble backbench critics of Jeremy Corbyn can say as much.”Denounces Labour MPs “such as Chris Leslie, Neil Coyle (my own MP), John Woodcock, Wes Streeting, Ian Austin and others” as “a dismal chorus whose every dirge makes winning a Labour government more difficult”. He accuses them of “working overtime trying to present the Labour party as a morass of misogyny, antisemitism and bullying”.You would have to go back a long way to find such a sustained smearing by MPs of their own leader and their own party as we are seeing now …Their determination to divide the party into pro- and anti-Corbyn factions, despite the huge increase in Labour’s vote secured last year … ultimately pollutes everything it touches. That includes the work against antisemitism … 2.18pm BST David Davis has opened the door to parliament agreeing to the demand that we get a people’s vote on the final Brexit deal.His admission that the government will have to respect any decision by parliament to amend any motion or legislation on the final Brexit deal makes it clear that while Brexit is a big deal, it’s not a done deal.We have made considerable changes to the bill to reflect issues raised by members and by the devolved administrations. It is indeed disappointing that the Scottish government have not yet felt able to add their agreement to the new amendments and we sincerely hope they will reconsider their position. Continue reading…
Via: Len McCluskey accuses 'dismal' Labour MPs of 'smearing' Corbyn over antisemitism – Politics live
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