Letters to the Editor – week ending 3 May 2026

Read what people have been writing to our editor about this week. Find out how to share your own views here.

Whip it?

I watched the entire debate. Keir was wrong to whip the vote and even more wrong to have pushed it to a whipped vote because he had chosen not to refer himself (which was fair enough if he truly felt he had no case to answer). His decision speaks volumes about his unwillingness to risk the displeasure of the PLP. If the general view of the PLP was that it was an opposition stunt why would they need to be whipped?

Jack Harper

*****

Cruddas wrote his book “A Century of Labour.” to summarise our history. What comes across is his despair at how infighting has resulted in Labour being out of Government much more often than we are in it. Your piece today makes a comment about such arguments over the Tory attack on our Prime Minister. THe fact is that NO Labour MP should vote against our Government except in the most extreme circumstances yet we had over 10 do so. They were Socialist Campaign Group members mostly and really it is time that was a proscribed group. I understand why Cruddas feels so upset about this because so do I. If we disagree we should discuss it in private and never talk to the media about it.

Just Saying,

Bernard Naish

*****

Thanks for the piece today about the disgraceful abuse of Labour MPs supporting the Tory motion to refer Starmer to the Privileges Committee, notably Emma Lewell, MP for South Shields. As a NE Labour Party member I appreciated her powerful contribution to the debate and her principled reasons for voting the way she did.

It needs to be remembered that the starting point for the tedious Whitehall melodrama about Mandelson starts with the incompetence and poor judgement of the Party leader, appointing a man whose lack of principle and sheer venality were already public knowledge. For some reason he decided that appointing yet another discredited relic of the Blair era could improve our standing on the international stage. What was he thinking?   

In solidarity

Rob Jewitt

Grassroots view

Dear Editor

Although personally unaware previously of this poll, it seems some members are missing the point.

As PM Keir Starmer has brought more fairness and trust to the job than shown by any previous holders over the last 15 years. This has included one who put party before country, a congenital liar, a foolhardy boaster and two more who lacked vision and party support.

Therefore we are clearly better off than what has gone before.

Non-dom financiers of propaganda broadcast in the UK such as sections of the media, who do not want any Labour government will see most of its policies as contrary to their own aims and oppose whether good for the country or not.  Therefore we need to positively publish our desires at every opportunity to challenge undermining efforts.

The local actions to help people in need described by Sarah Williams make it all worthwhile.

Kind regards,

Mike Davies

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