Although Labour MPs have been encouraged not to brief what happens at meetings of the PLP to lurking journalists, Jeremy Corbyn’s team have no issue briefing out what the leader will say at the meeting before it even occurs.
Today hacks were told that Corbyn would use the meeting to clampdown on party in-fighting as members are sick of MPs ‘parading on the media to give a running commentary’. However, what he actually said is another story. The Labour leader toned down his prose considerably — presumably in the quest for party unity — even though his harsher warning was already readable online.
Despite this slip-up, the meeting was one of the cheeriest since Corbyn became leader. The meeting kicked off with rapturous applause from MPs as they welcomed newly elected members. However, it was Labour’s man of the moment Sadiq Khan who won the biggest round of applause.
The new Mayor of London attended the meeting straight from having his first meeting with Corbyn.
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