BRIAN Leishman has blasted the Labour Party’s leadership as “authoritarian”.
“As socialists within Labour, we all know this first 15 months of government have been at best a disappointment and at worst – it's fair to say an abandonment of the values that the Labour Party really should stand for,” the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth said in a speech at a fringe event at Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday night.
“We are all well aware of the many mistakes the leadership have made over the last year and a bit. Leadership, there's no doubt about it, has been reactive instead of proactive and, in my own particular experience, more authoritarian than collaborative.”
The Scottish MP had the whip removed by Keir Starmer alongside three of his colleagues – Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Chris Hinchliff – in July after all four voted against the UK Government’s welfare reforms.
Leishman said he had been "temporarily suspended" at the time and stressed he wished to remain a Labour MP.
Later on in his speech, which was at an event titled ‘Change Course or Face Defeat’ organised by left-wing organisations Momentum and Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), he again branded the Labour leadership as “authoritarian”.
But first he paid tribute to the socialists that “still call Labour their home” – naming the likes of John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Apsana Begum.
Leishman added: “[But] the more I think about things, the more I think of the terrifying prospect of what comes next if we don't get this right. The more that I think, more than ever, that fighting for our party is worth it.
“We've got years of a Labour Government ahead and we can really set that political agenda because I think it's fair to say that our leadership right now, as much as I said it is authoritarian and reactive, they don't seem to have solutions to any big ideas.”
Leishman went on to mention that there is “absolutely hope” for the Labour left.
He also told The National: "If we want to try and bring the electorate from the United Kingdom along with us, then we've got to do the exact same with backbench MPs, and that really should be a culture where their thoughts and opinions are tolerated, respected and encourage. Encouraged to be voiced because it's about internal party democracy."
The comments from Leishman also came after the Labour conference backed a union-led motion accepting a UN finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza on Monday.
This came despite much opposition from party leadership, with the conference arrangement committee – made up of Labour-elected reps and officials – ruling about 30 motions about Palestine from local parties out of order pre-conference.
The Gaza genocide emergency motion was eventually pushed through with the help of UK’s biggest union, Unison, and the train drivers’ union Aslef but was still delayed.
Then, only delegates voicing support for a separate leadership-backed emergency motion – which largely endorsed government policy to date – were chosen to speak.
While this all ended up in vain, Labour MP Richard Burgon said the way it was handled was “disgusting”.
Also speaking at the conference event, he said: “I think it's disgusting that they're playing those games. I think it's disgusting. But I was very, very proud and totally moved when the Labour Party conference voted to do what the leadership didn't have the moral fibre to do a long time ago and recognise it's a genocide in Gaza.”
