Jeremy Corbyn

• TUESDAY January 25 was a day of shame for the Labour Party and for some of the trade unions that I had always thought were on the side of the people.

When a majority of the party NEC, national executive committee, members voted against restoring the whip to our MP they demonstrated that a once great party is now in the hands of asset strippers.

They seem to have swallowed Sir Keir Starmer’s order that Jeremy Corbyn must apologise for telling the truth.

We all know that Jeremy Corbyn is capable of apologising when needed – for example, in 2015 he made a splendid and long overdue apology for the Iraq War – and his integrity continues to shine while he resists making unwarranted apologies to a leader who has gate-crashed the wrong party.

If somebody other than Jeremy Corbyn becomes the Labour candidate in the next general election then I do not envy anybody who tries to canvass for whatever the Labour Party has become by then.

They can expect a very frosty reception at doorsteps and they will invariably struggle to sell their product.

In this awkward, self-inflicted, scenario the Labour Party’s best course of action would be to stay away from the Islington North constituency and let the people, not the machine, decide what is best for them.

IAN SHACKLOCK
Monsell Road, N4