Hard-left Labour MPs have told moderate colleagues to "p*** off" as fears grow that the faction is poised to force Andy Burnham into tax hikes and open borders.
It comes just days after a speech in which Andy Burnham demanded the nationalisation of energy and water, and confirmed Labour would seize privately owned homes. Using his landmark address, Labour leader Mr Burnham said his party would allow council busybodies to take over empty houses to try to address the housing crisis.
Recording reveals attack on moderates
Speaking at a rally of the Socialist Campaign Group, backbench MP Kim Johnson fired warning shots at her own side. In a recording obtained by the Daily Express, she can be heard saying that some of her fellow MPs "shouldn't be anywhere near the Labour Party". To those more fiscally-minded members, she said: "They need to p*** off is what I say."
Ms Johnson was speaking at a packed-out event during the Labour Party Conference, which took place this week in Liverpool. The Socialist Campaign Group includes MPs on the left of the party.
Conservatives warn of tax hikes
Conservatives warned that socialist parliamentarians were "cheering on Andy Burnham as their socialist-lite Prime Minister". A Tory source said: "To placate the hard-left, Andy Burnham will have to hike taxes to pay for their endless socialist projects, while hardworking people are left picking up the bill. The Labour Party is as hopelessly divided as ever."
It came as other Labourites demanded the party hike taxes and open the borders, calling on the Prime Minister to abandon immigration reform.
Rally calls for bolder approach
Veteran trade unionist Neil Duncan-Jordan MP told attendees of a rally in Liverpool that the party had to be "much bolder" and "share costs" of an incoming National Care Service. The Poole MP served as an organiser for UNISON, and is now an active member of the hard-left Socialism26 group, which calls for higher council tax, public ownership of all utilities and rent controls.
Speaking at a left-wing fringe during Labour's annual conference, he said No 10 could not "fix social care if you are going to kick out migrant workers". He instead called for people working in social care to "be allowed to stay", in defiance of his own Home Secretary, who had called for the system to restrict access to migrant workers.
Responding to Mr Burnham's announcement of a National Care Service, which is intended to be part-funded by ripping away the triple lock from pensioners, he added it should be "for us to pay as a society as a whole". He added: "Our job is to advocate for something much bolder than we've got now. Something that pools the risk and shares the cost. If we don't do that, then the National Care Service won't be worth the paper it's written on."
Conservative MPs warned that the hard-left of Labour was lying in wait to force Mr Burnham to hike taxes and open the borders. Matt Vickers MP, Conservative Party Deputy Chairman, said: "Labour's hard-left forced the former Prime Minister into a humiliating U-turn on welfare reform, and they are lining up their next demands on ILR and tax rises. The Government should not cave. The hard-left's answer is always the same – more immigration, more spending and higher taxes. The Labour Party is divided, but one thing is becoming clear – the hard-left thinks it is in charge."
