Oh, Laura Pidcock. The former Labour MP for North West Durham, former shadow cabinet member, and former leadership hope of the Corbynite left may be gone from parliament but she has not left the political stage.
Pidcock, it seems to fair to say, is on the left of politics. A proud socialist who said she could never be friends with a Tory, she was seen by some as the future of the left. Even in defeat, she has been feted: the Canary recently ran a column saying she ‘captures the spirit left-wingers need to have’ after the election loss.
I rehearse Pidcock’s left-wing credentials here because they’re important to understand what follows.
Pidcock has been writing about the election defeat and its lessons for the left in Tribune magazine. Her most recent essay is long, almost 2,000 words in all. But just 18 of them have caused some of Pidcock’s fellow socialists to declare war on her.
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