18/09/2016 Sunday Politics


18/09/2016

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My thanks to Greg Hands, Tom Brake and Neil Coyle,

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Will Jeremy Corbyn be able to reunite the Labour Party if he's

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If Theresa May facing a backbench rebellion over her Brexit strategy?

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And does Tim Farron have any chance of staging a Lib Dem comeback

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Back with me now is Helen Lewis, Isabel Oakeshott and Tim Shipman.

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Also, following on from our interview with Labour MP Peter Kyle,

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who's complained that some Corbyn supporters are trying

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to deselect him, we can speak to the national

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organiser for Momentum, James Schneider, who joins

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James, there is mounting evidence that one of the purposes, one of the

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purposes, of Momentum is to get more Corbyn friendly Labour MPs elected.

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Are you still denying that? There is not mounting evidence that Momentum

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is campaigning for the. We are not campaigning for the selections. The

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one person who is apparently going to appear in a documentary tomorrow

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calling for Peter Kyle to be deselected isn't a member of

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Momentum. So you would urge all Momentum supporters in Brighton and

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Hove to back Mr Kyle, the sitting MP? That is not what I'm saying, I'm

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saying selections are a matter for local party members and affiliates

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and it is their right to decide what they would like to decide. Momentum

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is not campaigning to reselect any particular MPs. So why was Mr Sandel

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addressing a group of Momentum supporters, telling them how to go

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about deselecting anti-Corbin Labour MPs? He was invited by one local

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group. In a big organisation which is very, very active, 150 groups,

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18,000 members, tens of thousands of activists, people have democratic

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debate and get invited for talks, that is normal. One meeting does not

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dictate national policy. Are you telling us today that Momentum, at

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the local level, is not and will not be involved in any efforts to

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replace sitting MPs? What I'm telling you is that the selections

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are a matter for local Labour Party members and affiliates. It is their

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right to choose through the mechanisms laid down by party

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conference and the National Executive Committee, to do that,

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that is completely normal. What I am saying is Momentum is not

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campaigning for any deselection. Even at a local level? Momentum is

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not campaigning for deselection. Are you telling me Momentum is not

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involved in trying to get rid of local MPs at local level, is that

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what you are saying? Andrew, what I'm telling you is that selections

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and elections within the Labour Party are the democratic right for

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members and affiliates. We are not trying to interfere with that, one

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way or the other. There may be members of Momentum who are members

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of the Labour Party who take a particular view on their MP, for

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example myself, I am a member of Momentum and the Labour Party, I

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take the view on my MP, I really like my MP. Who is your MP? Keir

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Starmer. So his position is safe from Momentum? All MPs' positions

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are safe... We have got Len McCluskey of Unite saying it is time

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to get rid of MPs who have been overcritical of Mr Corbyn, Mark

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Sandell lecturing Momentum on how to unseat sitting MPs, Clive Lewis

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describing deselection as simply democratic selection. Have you not

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had the memo yet? Andrew, selections, as I keep on saying, are

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the democratic right of local party members and affiliates. I am not

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trying to stop anybody having those rights, those rights are extremely

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important in a democratic party, but what I'm not going to do is be

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goaded into saying something I don't think, which is that Momentum should

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be organising for deselection is because that is not what we are

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doing. You are not being goaded, simply questioned. Is it correct

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that Momentum would like to have, or plans to have, what it is calling an

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engagement officer in every constituency Labour Party just to

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keep an eye on what is going on? Can you tell us what the engagement

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officer would do? It is half true. If you look at the guidelines on

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Momentum's website, to be a verified local Momentum, you need positive

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engagement with your local Labour Party, local trades union branches,

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community and activist groups, so each group has Labour Party

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engagement officers so that people are making sure they are taking part

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in the party, we want people to be as involved in the Labour Party as

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they can be, to be campaigning and part of a Democratic Party. Thank

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you, I know this was short notice, thank you for joining us this

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morning. Let's move on because we talked

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about Labour at the beginning. To the Lib Dems. Theoretically, the Lib

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Dems, at this point, given what is happening to Labour, given Mrs May

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and grammar schools, there could be an opening for the Lib Dems, but is

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there any sign of it? At the moment the thing that Tim Farron could do

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to get noticed would be to go skinny-dipping off Brighton beach

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because it might get him some press attention. He gave quite an

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interesting speech which I'm afraid I read on my mobile phone rather

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than watching in person, which tells a tale itself. This is

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a guy trying to rebuild locally, get councillors elected again, being

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relatively successful at that, they just got a 38% swing in athletes the

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other day against the Labour Party, but it is a long road back and at

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the moment they are not exploiting the national opportunity they have

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got. I think the problem they have got is their grassroots network is

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so depleted, the opposite situation to the Labour Party. They do not

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have the kind of infrastructure any more, there are no resources, human

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or financial resources, they don't have the people to go out there and

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knock on doors. Tim Farron, a great and lovely guy, but he doesn't

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provide the most charismatic of leadership and they really deep to

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find something to pin a revival on, and at the moment it isn't there. I

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am more upbeat than these two, it is a long road back that there is a

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space down the middle between their Labour is and the Conservatives are,

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it is very authoritarian at the Home Office which opens up a space for a

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Liberal party. They have only got eight MPs, if they had more, we

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would be paying more attention to them. Attention is one of the

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problems, getting attention is difficult for them, there will not

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be that many senior journalists at the Lib Dem conference. Then never

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used to be. We are going way back to where it Lib Dems used to be a long

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time ago. But it is worse, if you look ten years ago at least they had

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a reasonable cohort but I don't think the number of MPs is the

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issue. To get attention you have got to be spiky, punchy, pumping out

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controversial press releases, they are not doing that. But they have an

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advantage over Labour, they are used to talking to people who disagree

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with them, there are relatively few friendly ears for the Lib Dem, and I

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think there are some signs of resurgence but it is a long road

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back. There is a new Tory group campaigning for hard Brexit. It is

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fair to say that the longer Mrs May waits to trigger article 50, the

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more Tory divisions will come to the surface? I think that is fair

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enough, absolutely, but I have some sympathy with her position of

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leaving it until she has got her ducks in a row. Once Article 50 is

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triggered, there is a limited time frame to work out the negotiations,

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and you had an interesting guest earlier, we had David Liddington who

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spent so long on the European diplomatic circuit, and his view is

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that you do need time to work all this out before you press the button

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on it. So not this side of New Year? But you cannot leave it forever

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because there are European elections coming up, it would be ludicrous to

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be in a position where we are re-elected MEPs. I will out myself

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as a moaning Remainer. Nigel Farage this morning said people voted to

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get out of the single market. Did they? Again, no one knows what

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Brexit means. We will talk more about that as autumn progresses.

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Jo Coburn will be back on BBC Two tomorrow at noon

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with coverage of the Lib Dem conference in Brighton.

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I will bring Tim Farron's speech on Tuesday.

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And I'll be back with more Sunday Politics live from the Labour

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conference in Liverpool here on BBC One next Sunday at 11am.

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Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics.

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