Richard Burgon says Labour party MEMBERS should be allowed to decide whether Britain goes to war or not
LABOUR’s Richard Burgon has demanded party members be able to decide whether Britain goes to war or not.
The Shadow Justice Secretary claimed the move meant Labour "would not endorse, or back, or support military action, unless the members gave it their explicit approval".
Called a "Peace Pledge", it could mean a small group of members paying as little as £3 a year would have a say over any military action Britain takes ahead of the rest of the country.
In a bizarre speech in Oxford, the far-left candidate for deputy leader also blasted his colleagues as “frustrated Churchills”.
He said: "No decision is more important for a political party than whether or not to support military action.
"It is right that if the Labour Party wants to back military action then it must have the explicit backing of the party’s members, except in the case of a genuine national emergency or with UN backing, which Iraq clearly didn’t have.
"Never again should Labour members have the shame of having to protest 'Not in my name' against their own party.
“With this pledge in place, the British people can be confident that the Labour Party will not repeat the mistakes of the past and wrongly back military conflict."
Labour MP Neil Coyle blasted the plans.
He said: "What horse s**t. We are representatives, not delegates.
"If you want SWP then vote for them. Leave Labour alone."
Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy hit out at the suggestion, saying:" "I can't disagree with him more".
She said: “At times in our history there have been moments when we have had to stand up and go to protect people all over the world.
“In Sierra Leone and Rwanda, those people couldn’t wait for us to go and ballot Labour Party members."
Mr Burgon also launched an astonishing attack on his fellow Labour MPs and labelled their understanding of the world "deeply embarrassing".
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He explained: "There are MPs who have voted for military action, including Labour MPs, who until they heard the speech on that proposal that day wouldn’t be able to say where that country was on the map, wouldn’t know what the capital city of that country was, wouldn’t know anything about the culture at all."
"Yet they strut about making these grandiose speeches like frustrated Churchill's.”
The Leeds North MP has promised to present the rule change at Labour's annual conference in September if he becomes deputy leader.
He is running against Angela Rayner, Ian Murray, Dawn Butler and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan.
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