A fake email purporting to have been sent by the soft-left group Mainstream has been doing the rounds among Labour MPs.
The email – which has been refuted by the group itself – claimed that the Mainstream Coalition was planning a “coordinated parliamentary walkout in protest of [Keir] Starmer’s direction” on 20 November.
Eagle-eyed Pygge readers will have spotted that it is, in fact, only February.
It claimed that participating MPs would resign their seats and “stand again in the ensuing by-elections” and added “this will serve as a clear declaration – to the public and to the party leadership – that we will not remain in place while Labour is stripped of its democratic legitimacy”.
The bogus email described the decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee to block Andy Burnham from standing as a Labour candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election as a “profound political mistake”. Burnham is, of course, a member of Mainstream.
Mainstream have made clear the email is fake. In a statement on X, the group said: “This morning, a fake email was sent to Labour MPs purporting to be from Mainstream calling for a parliamentary walkout in November.” The group has reported the email to the police.
The statement added: “Clearly, bad faith actors driven by factionalism are seeking to undermine the work that Mainstream is doing with MPs and others from across the Labour Party to build the ideas, strategy and culture to make our time in government as transformative as possible”.
[More bacon: Clive Lewis is Andy Burnham’s biggest fan]
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