Dear Sir,

I refer to Owen Dickinson’s letter in last week’s issue of the Newton News and apologise to him for missing his delegate speech at the Labour Party conference. I watched most of the BBC’s coverage, and can only assume that the Brexit comments in his speech were in support of Brexit and that in true BBC fashion they therefore decided not to air it!

In my letter I criticised the fact that the Corbyn led Labour/ Momentum Party manifesto, as elaborated on in the Conference, set out to undo most of the legislation enacted by the last Labour Governments of Blair and Brown. From Owen’s response, “The issues he lists were the issues that the Labour Party now believes in; . . .”. it would now appear that New Labour is dead; its policies are to be wiped from history and the statute book as though Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had never existed. Do all local Labour Party members agree with this? Did our MP Phil Wilson mislead the Labour Party and the electorate when he published an election leaflet saying he did not support Jeremy Corbyn?

Please would Phil Wilson and /or a spokesman for the local Labour Party tell the electorate:

a) Is Phil Wilson (Tony Blair’s successor) now a ‘turn-coat’ and a loyal Corbyn / Momentum supporter and will he campaign on the current Corbyn / Momentum manifesto?

b) Do the local Labour Party now support all the Corbyn /Momentum policies?

c) Do the majority in the local Labour Party now support LEAVE?

d) Why, having voted to trigger Article 50, did Phil Wilson vote with Corbyn against the ‘Great Repeal Bill’?

I would like to point out to Phil Wilson and other Remain MP’s that those who voted LEAVE did so to make Parliament sovereign again. However, this cannot happen until we leave the EU. Until then, the democratic LEAVE vote in the Referendum is sovereign!

Our Referendum was democratic and legal and Parliament agreed to abide by the result when it voted to trigger Article 50. For the sake of Democracy, social cohesion, and our economic future all MP’s are duty bound not to delay Brexit or to weaken our negotiating position.

Alastair P.G.Welsh