Not every Labour MP wants an early general election. Take Chris Leslie. The former minister was overheard by a snout at a dinner confiding he’d publicly support a no-confidence vote in humiliated Theresa May’s disintegrating Tory regime, yet preferred delaying a contest until 2022 to hang on to his Nottingham East seat for longer. Corbyn’s vehement critic fears deselection by a left-wing constituency party in a Labour stronghold where an early election might pour him an early bath. The Midlands city’s members persuaded the Derby Corbynista, Chris Williamson, to be auctioneer at a local fundraiser. Williamson raised £100 for a bottle of Commons whisky to be signed by Corbyn. Bids invited for a bottle of wine from Leslie started with a dismissive shout of 10p before closing at £5. It cost the MP £9.50 to donate it.
Chuka Umunna, like Leslie, vocally hostile to Corbyn and widely rumoured to be toying with resigning the Labour whip or joining a phantom new party, was similarly earwigged by an informant predicting as many as 50 Labour MPs would be deselected. Umunna, who now lives in west London rather than his Streatham constituency in sarf London, tells hacks inquiring why he hasn’t promised to remain in Labour, thereby quashing exit talk, that he could never commit to staying in a racist party. Splits and recriminations aren’t confined to the Conservatives.
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