Difficult time for Labour

“My party right or wrong,” is a Labour mantra I have heard said on many occasions.

However, the recent resignations from their important posts of two local Labour MPs, Kevan Jones, North Durham, and Catherine McKinnell, Newcastle North, in response to leadership decisions of Jeremy Corbyn, takes Labour into new volatile territory in our region.

More specifically the main interest for the people within their constituencies, are the views of our three local Labour MPs, Julie Elliott, Sharon Hodgson and Bridget Phillipson.

None are slow in coming forward in the media to expound their views on a variety of issues, which is fair enough that is their job, so a paragraph or two about their opinion on the direction their leader is taking the Labour Party would be welcome and certainly interesting.

Catherine McKinnell stated that the party is heading down an “increasingly negative path”, mentioning also “internal conflict” within Labour.

Kevan Jones was even more damming when he said “ We have lost the voters confidence on the economy. We are now in danger of losing their confidence on defence and national security”.

Do our three local MPs agree with these opinions of their North East parliamentary Labour colleagues, or do they stand firmly behind the policies of Jeremy Corbyn?

Coun Michael Dixon,

Conservative