Lobbying of Labour grandees has failed — Labour Party NI can only now take legal action on the election ban

(The letter can be read here: ‘Labour Party NI members fooled over leadership choice? I take different view,’ Feb 14)

Firstly it now appears that Emily Thornberry did not actually have the good manners to respond to a letter to her from the Executive Committee of LPNI (about her position on standing candidates in Northern Ireland); instead she preferred to reply to the Labour Party Irish Society-(LPIS) a grouping which supports Labour’s undemocratic NI policy.

In her response to LPIS , Thornberry appears to be sympathetic to the “unfairness” of Labour’s electoral ban on Northern Ireland.

However, she wraps this up in two untenable conditions. Firstly she envisages the possibility that LPNI might (in a distant, unspecified future) forge an electoral pact with the SDLP.

This would immediately disqualify LPNI as cross-community socialist party. It would sectarianise LPNI.

Secondly Emily Thornberry links the possible electoral inclusion of LPNI to the fortunes of the Irish Labour Party (ILP). She argues that if a revival of the of the ILP occurs then maybe this would somehow legitimise the electoral aspirations of LPNI.

This is nonsense. As the recent general election in the Republic demonstrates, the Irish Labour Party is in decline and no longer has any trade union affiliations. Besides, the people of Northern Ireland have a democratic right to vote for the UK Labour Party (UKLP), irrespective of the fortunes of the ILP!

Emily Thornberry has spectacularly failed to get on the final Labour leadership ballot. However it is worth examining the attitudes of bookies’ favourite Keir Starmer to Northern Ireland.

Starmer is firmly against Labour standing candidates in NI. In his LPIS interview, he declares that Labour should “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the SDLP and reveals that he endorsed the SDLP’s Claire Hanna in South Belfast.

Never mind the fact that the SDLP is now in political alliance with the right wing Fianna Fail; although curiously Claire Hanna canvassed for a Fine Gael candidate recently in the South.

At the same time Keir Starmer states that Labour must act as “an honest broker” with regards to Northern Ireland! Figure that one out.

Boyd Black, Secretary of LPNI, has stated that the Labour Party is exercising “institutionalised racist discrimination” against its members in NI.

In that case, LPNI is now at a critical juncture. The only remaining chance it has of ending Labour’s electoral ban is legal action.

Traditional lobbying and relying on the patronage of alleged grandee ‘sympathisers’ has been tried for decades and failed.

Andrew Ward, Belfast BT6