PMQs: Labour MP John Woodcock Tweets About A 'F*cking Disaster', Then Deletes It

Party rendered a "laughing stock" by 'The List' of MPs hostile to Corbyn
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A Labour MP swiftly deleted a tweet describing Prime Minister's Questions a "fucking disaster" for Jeremy Corbyn's party after failing to capitalise on Tory disarray over the Budget

John Woodcock's anger followed the leak of a list reportedly from the leader's office ranking Labour MPs on their hostility to Corbyn.

It meant instead of the focus of the half-hour grilling of the PM being the Budget U-turn and Iain Duncan Smith's resignation over disability cuts, Cameron turned the focus on to Labour splits.

It prompted the Cumbria MP to write:

"Fucking disaster. Worse week for Cameron since he came in and that stupid fucking list makes us into a laughing stock."

It is understood the tweet was meant as a direct message.

The Barrow MP, a repeated critic of the direction the party is heading, who has been placed on the "hostile" list, later tweeted in response to former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, that he was "despairing at way Tories getting away with". He wrote:

"I was sharing frustration with a colleague, ineptly. U might think all fine, we despairing at way Tories getting away with it."

This morning, The Times revealed an internal Labour Party list which ranked its MPs on how loyal they are to Corbyn from “core” to “hostile”.

Cameron picked out MPs ass they threw barbs at him, clearly enjoying himself.

“There are five categories,” he said.  “We’ve got core support. I think you can include me in that lot.”

The video below underlines the frustration of many Labour backbenchers - while they think the party leadership should be savaging the Tories over its incompetence, Labour conspires to make life easier for the Government.

Corbyn focused his attack on the Government’s U-turn on cuts to Personal Independence Payments. And, after failing to get the mention the former Work and Pensions Secretary when he confronted Cameron in Parliament on Monday, finally pressed him on Duncan Smith's suggestion cuts were  "distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest".

But Cameron felt able to brush it off, and at one point hit back with: "Suddenly the king of fiscal rectitude speaks."

Speaking to the BBC's Daily Politics, Labour MP Rachel Reeves said the existence of "the list" was "totally ridiculous and counterproductive".

The former member of the Shadow Cabinet, pigeon-holed as a member of the "hostile" squad, said: “I just wish that the Leader's office, if it comes from the Leader's office, would concentrate on holding the Tories to account, rather than try to divide the Parliamentary Labour Party, which is the only thing that that list does.

"This was written in January because in January I'd just come back from maternity leave, I'd been off work for six months, so I'm not sure how hostile I was."

 

She added: "I don't want to agree with everything that John Woodcock wrote in that tweet but it does make us look silly and a laughing stock and that we don't want to move the conversation on.”