Statement by Labour Left Alliance
Vote Jo Bird for the NEC!
Jo Bird’s reinstatement to Labour Party membership is fantastic news and shows that the left can exercise real pressure on Labour Party HQ:
- Hundreds of Jo’s supporters, including many LLA signatories, sent letters to general secretary Jennie Formby, urging her to overturn this very unjust and incredibly unfair suspension, just as Jo was leading in the NEC nominations. Clearly, the complaint against her and Mo Azam was politically motivated and should never have led to suspensions in the middle of an election campaign. The LLA statement is available here.
- Up and down the country, socialists refused to accept her suspension and followed the LLA’s recommendation to keep on nominating her in their CLPs. She now has 115 CLP nominations (and would have had many more if her campaign had not been disrupted).
Clearly, the pressure has shown what can be done when we stand up to the campaign of weaponised suspensions & attacks on the left! We hope that Mo Azam will also be reinstated asap (though he has withdrawn his NEC candidacy).
The whole left must now unite behind the campaign to get Jo Bird on the NEC: She will be a real thorn in the side of the right and those who are prepared to sacrifice good left-wing comrades in their misguided campaign of trying to appease the right.
The Labour Left Alliance has supported Jo all the way through – and we are absolutely thrilled that she will be speaking at our launch conference in Sheffield on February 22! Details here: https://labourleft.org/lla-launch-conference/