At the height of Maastricht, no member of the Major Government publicly told the rebels that they were not Conservatives, and ought to go and join another party.
And at the height of Iraq, no member of the Blair Government publicly told Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell that there were not Labour, and ought to go and join another party.
But in the absence of a rebuke to Richard Harrington, then the official position of the present Government is that the members European Research Group are not Conservatives, and ought to go and join Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party.
Nigel Farage, that is, whose lifetime total of every vote that he has ever managed across his seven unsuccessful attempts to enter the House of Commons is 33,146. By way of comparison, Diane Abbott's majority at the 2017 General Election was 35,139. Not her total vote. Her majority.
There is no electoral reservoir waiting to be tapped anywhere to the right of the Conservative Party. Those voters simply do not exist. No constituency would elect the ERG as itself. There is nowhere that it could even keep its deposit.
In fact, it was Jeremy Corbyn who came from the Outer Left, such as would have precluded his membership of the dying French PS or of the dying German SPD, to lead the Labour Party within two years to 40 per cent of the vote and to the forcing of a hung Parliament.
Theresa May gladly meets him and his entourage, as well as his trade union backers, while refusing to have anything to do with the likes of the ERG. Her Ministers abuse Corbyn and McDonnell while falling over themselves to ape their policies. The only possible reason for this is that that is where the votes are. As has now been established as an electoral fact.
Potential seceders from either main party, take note.
Nigel Farage, that is, whose lifetime total of every vote that he has ever managed across his seven unsuccessful attempts to enter the House of Commons is 33,146. By way of comparison, Diane Abbott's majority at the 2017 General Election was 35,139. Not her total vote. Her majority.
There is no electoral reservoir waiting to be tapped anywhere to the right of the Conservative Party. Those voters simply do not exist. No constituency would elect the ERG as itself. There is nowhere that it could even keep its deposit.
In fact, it was Jeremy Corbyn who came from the Outer Left, such as would have precluded his membership of the dying French PS or of the dying German SPD, to lead the Labour Party within two years to 40 per cent of the vote and to the forcing of a hung Parliament.
Theresa May gladly meets him and his entourage, as well as his trade union backers, while refusing to have anything to do with the likes of the ERG. Her Ministers abuse Corbyn and McDonnell while falling over themselves to ape their policies. The only possible reason for this is that that is where the votes are. As has now been established as an electoral fact.
Potential seceders from either main party, take note.
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