THE LEFT MUST HAVE A PARTY TOO:

Defector says more MPs set to quit Labour (GERRI PEEV, 4/27/05, The Scotsman)

A VETERAN former Labour MP who dramatically defected to the Liberal Democrats warned yesterday that more of his colleagues would jump ship after the election.

Brian Sedgemore, who is standing down after 27 years at Westminster, denounced Tony Blair as an "empty husk who should be thrown on the scrapheap of history".

Mr Sedgemore’s resignation was designed to inflict maximum embarrassment on the Prime Minister and New Labour ahead of the election. The defector warned: "I am not alone. A small group of us - all MPs who are standing down - decided we would leave the Labour party immediately after the election."

He added they had planned to unveil a joint statement directly after the 5 May poll.

But Mr Sedgemore - a long-time critic of the Blair government - said: "I believe I owe it to voters to speak out now.

If Tony Blair's is going to be the most conservative party in Britain then the Left has to go elsewhere. Alernatively, they can remove Mr. Blair and revert to their roots, but then aren't likely to dominate elections in the future.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 27, 2005 11:43 AM