Diane Abbott’s exit from the Labour frontbench has come later than the former Shadow Public Health Minister imagined. She had planned to resign over the Syria vote, only to find, rather to her dismay, that her party leadership had taken the position she supported in the end. Behind the scenes, the briefing is that she wasn’t sufficiently loyal: she has always been in her own party rather than pulling for the team. LabourList has a fantastic quote from a party source about Abbott ‘pissing all over the tents’, rather than ‘pissing out of the tent’ as had been hoped. She did get rather cross about Syria, but she also publicly objected to any toughening of the party’s stance on immigration, and became Michael Gove’s favourite Labour MP when she supported his drive for higher standards in schools.
This latest sacking underlines that Ed Miliband wants his own people around him who will pull with him and stick to his message. He can afford to do this, clearly, because no-one sees any benefit in leaving the tent: Jim Murphy, Stephen Twigg and Liam Byrne accepted humiliating demotions as Miliband is the only game in town and it is better to stick with him.
But now that Abbott is definitely outside the tent (and intending, in the words of her payoff on her valedictory Comment is Free piece, ‘to enjoy being a free agent on the backbenches even more’), Miliband shouldn’t ignore her entirely. She has been doing some deep thinking on how Labour should view the family that we reported in May, and some of her conclusions have been rather surprising. She might still be able to help those left in the tent.
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