• FORMER Camden councillor Mike Katz was quoted in the CNJ commenting on the Labour Party’s decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn from standing in the next general election.

Mike Katz himself was not reselected by his fellow party members in a previous council election. The rationale for the party’s motion last week was that under Jeremy Corbyn the Labour Party only secured 202 seats.

However, let us examine Mike Katz’s comment on “a leader who brought shame and failure on Labour”.

First, leaders who brought shame must surely include Tony Blair whose invasion of Iraq led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the subsequent rise of the brutal Islamic State regime; and the invasion of Afghanistan which led ultimately to the basket case that that country is today.

And former leader Ed Miliband is currently the subject of hundreds of tweets labelling him shameful and shameless for his comments on Jeremy Corbyn.

Second, leaders who brought failure; whereas under Jeremy Corbyn Labour polled 40 per cent in 2017 and 32 per cent in 2019, Ed Miliband scored only 30 per cent and Gordon Brown a pathetic 29 per cent.

And, in terms of votes cast, Corbyn’s 2019 result was better than Blair’s 2005 result, which shows just how people had lost interest in Labour.

Labour prides itself on being a social democratic party, but by this motion it appears to have cast its back on both social and democratic values.

SIMON PEARSON
Bartholomew Villas, NW5