I agree with Harriet too – Woolas had to go

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

As Claire Spencer has already written on LabourList this afternoon, rumours are circulating in the press that Labour MPs are backing Phil Woolas, and John Pienaar has said that Harriet Harman was “monstered” by the PLP last night over her handling of the Oldham East judgement.

Over at Liberal Conspiracy, Don Paskini has drafted an open letter to Harriet Harman, saying:

“Dear Ms Harman,

I just wanted to send you a quick note to say that I absolutely support the decision to expel Phil Woolas from the Labour Party, and was horrified to hear that some of your colleagues have criticised you personally for having done this. Phil Woolas’ campaign was disgusting, shameful and illegal, and the Labour Party is better off without him.

Yours sincerely,

Don Paskini”

I agree with Harriet too. Once Woolas was found guilty there was no other course of action that the party could have taken. Woolas was, after all, found guilty of lying as part of his bid for re-election. That, surely, is beyond the pail – and if some of our MPs don’t realise that then we clearly have a much larger problem on our hands.

Supposedly there has been “anger” from some within the PLP over Harman’s handling of Woolas. There’s anger among grassroots members too, but not towards Harman. The leaflets at the centre of the Woolas case were vile and hideous (as I said on Friday) and any attempt to conflate immigration with Islamic fundamentalism is unbecoming of a party with our history. Woolas lied, and made accusations that conflated race and immigration with terrorism in a horrific manner – and in an area with a history of race riots.

I’ll be adding my name to the letter, and I’d urge you to do likewise.