I am a lifelong Labour Party member and supporter, I never left the party at any point, and support them now, just as much as I did in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. I live in a constituency that was up until 1997 a Tory stronghold, but have been fortunate that ever since 1997 we’ve had a Labour MP, a great Labour MP and one who’s majority has steadily increased since first being elected to Parliament.

But here’s the thing, there are only 650 seats in the House of Commons, and this will soon become just 600 in 2020. There are just 232 Labour MPs and with boundary changes expected, this is likely to be closer to 200 in 2020. These are the MPs who make up the Parliamentary Labour Party and a lot of these MPs are the ones considered to be unwanted by the membership, with cries, of “get rid of the unfaithful Blairite scum” being shouted on social media over the past 12 months on a regular basis, because Jeremy is now the Labour Party, and he was elected with such a big mandate that everyone should now step in line behind him.

Now forgetting that this is the same leader who voted against his own party more than 500 times in his time as an MP, let me set a few things straight, every single Labour MP was democratically selected by their constituency party, and then again by definition of being an MP they were elected by their constituencies. When elected they sign a contract to represent people, they represent, in this order;

  1. Their constituents, every single person in their constituency regardless of age, if they voted or who they voted for
  2. The people who voted for them, regardless of membership of the Labour Party
  3. The Members of their Constituency Party who supported them
  4. The wider Labour Party

So if you live in a different constituency to a Labour MP that you don’t like, be that Simon Danczuk, Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves or Mike Gape, remember that their constituency party chose them, their constituency party supports them and they have a mandate from the membership themselves to act as their representative.

If you don’t have a Labour MP then don’t disparage others who do, actually get involved with your CLP, get active and do something to get your own Labour MP in your own constituency, chose them yourselves and stand by their success or failure. You have no right to tell me that my MP should be kicked out of the Labour Party if he or she doesn’t support the Leadership wholeheartedly, because you didn’t chose them, WE did.