Is this the start of the break up of the Labour party? A new splinter group has formed called Red Shift, which is uncannily close to what would happen if you ate too many strawberries. It is composed of Liam Byrne, Shabana Mahmood, Heidi Alexander, Nik Dakin and Caroline Bradley. Some of you may remember the note that Liam left in the treasury when Labour lost to the Tory/Lib Dem coalition which said, “there was no money left.”

Red Shift

The splinter group seems to be composed of personalities from the far right of the Labour party. They have produced a report titled “Looking for a new England” in which they espouse their views of what went wrong for Labour during the recent election and how they can regain power. It would seem that the grand idea is to appeal to UKIP and Tory voters by adopting far right English Nationalist policies, but without the “hatred and bigotry of far right extremists.” They also identify the silver vote as a key group to win votes from. The policies they espouse would appear to be at odds with Corbynomics.

The report itself reads like a UKIP manifesto with phrases like, “We have to find new ways to accommodate a positive English nationalism and pride” and, “Put Labour firmly on the side of those big businesses”. These guys are further to the right than Tony Blair was.

Happily Scotland get’s a mention too, “Until Labour understands and embraces English identity the SNP threat and proposals on English votes for English laws will continue to damage Labour’s electoral prospects in English marginal seats.” So it would appear that they have already given up any hope of electoral success in Scotland, they seek only to, “build a majority in England.”

Is this right-wing splinter group just a wee plook on the face of Labour? Or is it the start of a huge, hard right boil which will erupt and spew puss all over the Labour party? Only time will tell.