Excited about the Labour leadership announcement

peteneras, good to see you discussing politics instead of the merits of Eton and other top public schools. I hadn't realised you were a Labour Party member.

Re the 172 - in the UK we don't actually cast our vote for a political party. We elect an individual to be the MP for our constituency. By custom and practice most candidates are members of political parties, so we know which way they will vote if they get elected. We also know that the PM will be the leader of the party with the majority of MPs. That makes it feel like we are voting Labour or Tory or whatever, but actually we aren't.

From time to time an MP changes party mid-parliament. Sometimes they resign and stand again in a by-election (as Douglas Carswell did when he joined UKIP), but they're not obliged to.

Even if all 172 of those MPs resigned from Labour and started a new party, they would be under no obligation to resign as MPs. Actually, they were elected on a manifesto which Corbyn has abandoned and they are sticking to, so perhaps he and his tiny band of MP supporters should resign and stand again on a manifesto that reflects his new priorities. I wonder how well they would do.

Why can't they see it?

Maybe for the same reason extremists fail to see most things - because they simply don't want to?? Those who kid themselves that JC's backing from party members will translate to support among the wider electorate might do well to take off the blinkers

I also agree with Pan that this pretence about "kinder politics" is disingenuous in the extreme, as a recent decision from Momentum shows clearly: www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/19/momentum-drops-pledge-to-non-violence-from-code-of-ethics

Little, exactly!

A pp is right the 172 need to leave. Bite the bullet and make approaches to the lib dems or frankly to anyone. Try and build up an effective opposition and leave corbyn to it.

Labour have under his leadership performed dismally in local elections worse results for an opposition party in 30 years and also in strong hold council elections and that's with momentum being out in force trying to gain support

The party membership isn't even 1 million it's a very small percentage of the electorate

The 172 won't resign some might be pushed out no matter how I have pressure mementum out on them many have worked hard for years for the Labour Party why should they leave because a few idealistic party members disagree with them

An IRA and other terrorists groups sympathiser is never ever going to be PM it just will never happen

Those 172 MPs have been elected in a democratic vote by Labour Party supporters.

I don't know . . . that's what you (and the 172) said, that JC can't win a General Election. Has he lost one yet? All I see is his mandate has increased. There's no opposition because of its in-fighting - thanks to the 172! Yes, they should now go away quickly, they are just 172 individuals - nothing more - that won't be missed and their replacements can be easily found from the majority of the Labour Party membership who would work with JC and form an effective opposition.

oh, sorry.

Not looking fwd to CLP meet coming up. Whenever that will be.

It was a response to Swedish ....

and....??

I watched Andrew Neil

The more I look at JC and Momentum the more suspicious I get of the 'kinder, gentler politics' stuff. He is being disingenuous.

Esp when McD refuses to withdraw comments made about McVey, as nasty as she is.

No OP I'm not excited about the announcement. It's a bit misery-making. IF the Tories could chose a Lab leader it would be JC.

Not that Owen Smith would have been much cop - scrape slightly his veneer and there's a rather unpleasant individual under it - It would have just determined by how much we will lose in 2020.

It is really weird.

The cult Corbyn supporters are more interested in purging their party of so called 'enemies' than in trying to win power. All this in fighting makes them look like losers. Corbyn does not come across as a winner. Why can't they see it?

Actually, to be clear, they discussed the abuse McDonnell gave to Esther McVey. But there was a general discussion in the studio about abuse and anti-Semitism within the party.

Excatly there hasn't been a crediable one since Corbyn became leader as he can't lead the party

But there will be even less of an opposition should they all resign which they won't as they have the support of the electorate that is why they are there

i want to know why on Sunday politics nothing has been mentioned about the abuse mp's are getting its like its been accepted this is how the far left are and we just have to accept it

Peston discussed it with Yvette Cooper.

Opposition?

What opposition?

peteranas I hope you are not serious. Hard working, committed, talented, true Labour MPs should actually resign because they have no confidence in a useless, serial shit-stirring 'leader'?

What a fantastic idea the opposition having around 60 mp's

I am sure many momentum supporters will be agreeing with you

I hope the 172 Labour MP's who opposed JC's leadership should now do the honourable thing and resign. Go!

Just GO!!!

Ken seems to be on the radio and tv all the time

Moderate MP's need to get together and work on getting people to join the party so membership is not over run by the far left

i want to know why on Sunday politics nothing has been mentioned about the abuse mp's are getting its like its been accepted this is how the far left are and we just have to accept it

And now Ken Livingston is taking about deselection of those that don't get into line

Poor Ken - as a dedicated communist he's waited a lifetime for a leader who'll no doubt back this kind of thing, and now it's someone who stands almost no chance of winning a general election

If they deselect for more extremist candidates they're even more screwed, and if they keep the current "172" there'll be yet more trouble ahead. They may clamour to come back for their place at the trough, but it remains a fact that the majority of them declared no confidence in JC

If anyone can explain how that could possibly be made to work I'd love to hear it

Grim assessment of where we are now:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/24/only-liberalism-can-thwart-demagogues?CMP=twt_gu

I thought I was past caring really but radicalrooster your second para actually brought tears to my eyes. One doesn't need to be a UKIP voter..