Hoey no-confidenced by her CLP – no votes in her favour

Kate Hoey with a friend before the EU referendum (Jeff Spicer/Getty Image) 

Kate Hoey was one of four Brexit-supporting Labour MPs who last week voted with the government on a key EU trade bill, almost certainly saving Theresa May and her government.A motion was put to the general committee of Vauxhall CLP last night expressing no-confidence in Hoey and calling for her to have the Labour whip removed and to be ruled ineligible for future selection as a candidate: it passed  with Forty-two members voting against the MP and three abstentions. No one voted in her favour. Hoey did not attend as she is acting as an adviser to the Zimbabwe elections.The next move must surely be to deselect her: Labour’s national executive committee will be asked to advise on whether an early trigger ballot is possible.

Below is the full amended motion (original text in italics.)

This CLP notes that in June 2017 Kate Hoey was elected on a manifesto which explicitly rejected Theresa May’s approach to Brexit and that she pledged in a letter to constituents that she endorsed Labour’s plans.

This CLP censures Kate Hoey MP for repeatedly reneging on those commitments, and ignoring the clearly stated views of her constituents and the national and local Labour Party.

MPs must have the right to vote with their conscience and against the Party Whip on matters of principle. However, this right cannot extend to collaborating with the ERG and DUP by co-signing an amendment to the Trade Bill making it illegal for the UK government to make customs arrangements for Northern Ireland separate to Great Britain, thereby undermining the Good Friday Agreement and contravening Labour Party policy of trying to prevent a hard border; and to propping up a failing government by voting against an amendment to Clause 18 of the Trade Bill when Tory whips had made it clear that defeat could lead to an immediate general election, an election which Labour is widely expected to win.

This CLP recognises Kate’s hard work as a constituency MP and that there have been many issues on which she has taken a principled stand which have not necessarily been supported by all local Party activists. However, we believe that the accumulation of her actions and statements over the years, culminating in her supporting this reactionary Government and a Tory Brexit which will threaten jobs, peace in Northern Ireland and the future of the NHS, and undermine workers’ rights and environmental and other standards, cannot be deemed to be compatible with Labour’s core beliefs and values. Examples of this go far beyond her views on EU membership and include:

Working for Boris Johnson when he was London Mayor; chairing the Countryside Alliance and supporting fox hunting, despite representing an inner city constituency; supporting elitist grammar schools; attacking Labour’s ban on hand guns following the Dunblane massacre;  colluding with Nigel Farage, UKIP and the leave.eu campaign during the referendum; failing to condemn the Breaking Point poster; acceptance of funds from Arron Banks (whose finances are currently under investigation); and her lack of endorsement or campaigning for official Labour candidates during the recent Council elections, instead openly praising Green Party candidates.

This CLP therefore requests

(a) That the Leader of the Labour Party and Chief Whip suspend Kate Hoey from the Parliamentary Labour Party and remove the Whip; and

(b) That the National Executive Committee declare Kate Hoey ineligible for re-selection or endorsement as a Labour Party parliamentary candidate.

Motion previously passed by Vauxhall Momentum:

As Labour members who campaigned for Kate Hoey at the last General Election despite many of us disagreeing with her about Brexit, we are appalled at the way in which she is demonstrating that her personal views take priority over representing her constituents and our Party by voting to enable this rotten, inept Government to stay in office.

Vauxhall is an inner city constituency whose diverse, multi-cultural and multi-racial community have suffered eight years of Tory cuts and austerity, yet our MP is voting to prop up that Tory government and for a Tory Brexit which threatens job, peace in Northern Ireland and the future of the NHS. For this we condemn her.

We will be supporting the motion of censure being put to Vauxhall Labour Party’s General Committee on 26 July 2018, and its demands that

(a) the Leader of the Labour Party suspend Kate Hoey from the Parliamentary Labour Party and remove the Whip; and
(b) that the National Executive Committee declare Kate Hoey ineligible for re-selection as a parliamentary candidate.