The real reason Corbynites turned on Caroline Lucas and the Greens

Caroline Lucas’s plan for an all-female emergency Cabinet to stop a no-deal Brexit is a fantasy, with no prospect of success. But if the plan is daft, it has provoked a revealing reaction from Jeremy Corbyn’s loyal outriders.

Instead of laughing it off, many have taken it deadly seriously. Most have focused their attack on the ethnicity of the women Lucas chose to enlist: they were all white. Reasonably enough, they asked why shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, was overlooked. Recognising her mistake, Lucas apologised. But instead of giving Lucas – probably the most politically correct member of the Commons – the benefit of the doubt, the Corbynite response has been nasty and vituperative.

If Owen Jones merely expressed his disappointment, NEC member Lara McNeil called her that favourite Corbynite insult: a ‘melt’. Others assailed the Green MP’s ‘bigotry’. There is some genuine outrage at Abbott’s exclusion. But what underpinned this largely performative online fury was revealed by commentator and semi-professional potty-mouth Ash Sarkar when she