Shami Chakrabarti attacked by Labour MPs after missing meeting with them to have a drink with Diane Abbott just yards away
Shadow Attorney General pictured enjoying a glass of wine instead of facing colleagues following by-election comments
SHAMI Chakrabarti has come under fire from Labour MPs after missing a meeting with them last night to have a drink with Diane Abbott just yards away.
The Shadow Attorney General was pictured enjoying a glass of wine instead of facing her colleagues, who were angry over her comments on the party’s crushing Copeland by-election defeat.
The peer swerved appearing at the Parliamentary Labour Party to face her critics, who were then incensed when a photograph of her with fellow Shadow Cabinet member Ms Abbott appeared on Twitter.
The pair were enjoying a drink in a room just down the hall in the Pugin Room, leaving Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle reportedly "angry and animated".
His colleague Graham Jones told the picture was “disappointing”.
“Shami had a lot to say at the weekend, it's a shame she didn't have a lot to say in the meeting,” he added.
"Perhaps if she had turned up she could have explained her comments. When it was revealed where she was, people felt it wasn't in order.
"There's a degree of frustration because she's not elected and she speaks like someone who is elected.
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“She has no authority from any electorate and people feel there's a disconnect and those of us who have the views of voters to take on board and consider."
Jeremy Corbyn also failed to fulfil a request from his MPs that he attend the weekly meeting, after the humiliating defeat in Cumbria and the narrow victory in Stoke on Trent Central.
Ms Chakrabarti, who only joined the part last year after the Labour leader tasked her with leading review into anti-Semitism, failed to blame him for the dismal by-election performances.
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday she blamed a whole range of factors, from its former MPs, to the media and even the weather.
She angered Labour figures by saying Copeland was “one of those constituencies that was neglected by my own party over some years”.
At the PLP meeting backbench MP Lillian Greenwood read out Ms Chakrabarti’s long list of reasons for losing the seat, which had been Labour’s since the 1930s.
But in a pointed reference to Mr Corbyn’s negative impact, she added: “Is there anything missing from that list?”