She’s a bit of a horrid woman.

I like her. What others see as shameless self-promotion, I tend to see as a more authentic connection to the public than most MPs. Each to their own I guess.

As regards the rumours: (a) I doubt anything will happen, and (b) it would reflect very badly on the local Labour Party if it did.

I wouldnt go as far as horrid but I don’t see the admiration that some people give her.

POLLTROLL – Why would it “reflect badly on the local Labour Party”? What is wrong with wanting to replace a candidate who doesn’t reflect the views of the party?

MATT WILSON – I think she’s one of the least talented and most narcissistic MPs in parliament (and I disliked her before any of the Corbyn stuff), fast-tracked into a seat she didn’t deserve. Her trump card seems to be her supposed feminist credentials, but her grasp of the issues involved is pretty infantile, to be honest. She is everything that turned people like me away from Labour under Blair.

…..she’s a bit like the new Hazel Blears….

Eco: this isn’t about Jess Philips per se, deselection would look bad wherever it took place (at least if it was on ideological grounds – if an MP is given a criminal sentence or something that is obviously different). It would look like the beginnings of a purge, it would validate the rumours of hard-left entryism, it would be a PR disaster.

And as for “not reflecting the views of the party” – which views of the Labour Party – as opposed to the leadership – does Miss Philips not reflect?

I enjoyed this exerpt from a Jess Phillips piece in the Guardian:

“There is no one in the world I argue with more than my dad, even though we agree on most things. Our relationship is typical father/daughter (or typical at least in a political family). He plays the role of old-guard leftwing ideologue, I play the petulant zeitgeist-obsessed sulky teen that he will never understand.”

Yes. One could easily replace the word “Dad” with “Party”. (although the party may not continue to be “he”, of course!)

POLLTROLL – Well, for a start her views on the leadership are entirely at odds with her party (though not her parliamentary party). She may be on the right of the party, but the reason I think her deselection would be justified is that Labour are behaving hypocritically by not doing so. This is the party which has recently kicked out members for retweeting Caroline Lucas, and yet the powerful Blairites (including the man himself) brief the press against their own party, and (as with Phillips) make her whole campaign about her independence as an MP, by implication trashing her own party’s chances. Would the tories put up with that behaviour, and allow an MP to stand again? I doubt it very much.

“This is the party which has recently kicked out members for retweeting Caroline Lucas…”

[citation needed]

POLLTROLL –

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-membership-appeal-leadership-election-compliance-unit_uk_57c54b46e4b094071b4c8d8e

“Showing support for the Green party on Twitter in 2014 & 2015”.

These are extreme caaes, and clearly shouldn’t have happened. But they do highlight how hypocritically the party is behaving by suppressing deselections etc. (I know some Labour/Momentum activists who have many examples of the Labour hierarchy trying to subvert all they do)

So yes, if I was a Labour member in Yardley, I’d push for deselection. I also don’t accept the assumed wisdom that it would “reflect badly on the party”; it would be a storm in a teacup….I cite Danczuk as an example of that.

It should not be for Labour Party members outside this constituency, let alone for non-members on UKPR, to determine whether Jess Phillips should or shouldn’t be the Labour candidate here. That is down to Birmingham Yardley CLP and rightly so. I am very far from being a fan of hers but would never call for her deselection – it’s none of my beeswax.

Danczuk slept with a seventeen-year-old girl. Not illegal, but in a post-Yewtree world quite clearly a disreputable action. It is that, rather than his attacks on the leader, that did for him. Not to mention he was not even deselected, he had the whip suspended which is a different kettle of fish.

What has Jess Philips done? Made a couple of ill-judged comments about frontal stabbing and the New Years’ Eve attacks in Cologne. There is no equivalence.

POLLTROLL – I’ll give you that Danczuks case was different, but I still don’t see why a local party using its democratic processes is a problem, providing due process is followed.

BARNABY MARDER- Many things we discuss on this site are none of most peoples beeswax. That doesn’t mean we don’t or shouldn’t have an opinion. In this case, I think this is an important debate about how parties should work- who are the people who are assuming a challenge is out of order? There seems to be a bizarre orthodoxy people are signing up to, which has no logic behind it whatsoever.

Im with barnaby on this. Its up to Yardley members and constitency who their representative is.

MATT WILSON – I fully agree with that. However, all the indications are that the Labour membership is overwhelmingly pro-Corbyn, and I suspect it is very likely that Yardley Labour members may well prefer a new candidate. Unfortunately, though, we seem to be being fed the assumed wisdom that it is somehow wrong for those members to use their party’s democratic powers. So the hypocritical Labour heirarchy and the political elite are the ones suppressing the members choice, not me!