Statement agreed by WLG Steering Committee 15/12/19

We as Welsh Labour Grassroots send this message of solidarity to everyone who campaigned for Labour’s positive vision for a fairer country, under the caring and principled leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour produced a visionary manifesto, full of inspiring policies that command wide support across the labour movement and the wider public. Our campaign, led by Jeremy, was positive, policy-based and galvanised huge support at mass rallies and in doorstep campaign teams around the country.

We faced, however, the full might of a political establishment that realised its mistake in underestimating Labour in 2017 and ran an unrelenting campaign of vilification and misinformation.

The party must not be bounced into drastic decisions. We must defend the political record of a leadership that has done more to inspire people than any other in living memory.
No-one in the party has seriously suggested that our policies or campaign were wrong. Jeremy should be allowed to stay on as leader (if he wishes) until a new leader is selected. He has earned this right.

What’s most important is that the party and its activists are allowed to have a period of rest and reflection that doesn’t involve vilification of Jeremy and those who supported him: constructive criticism is fair, but an aggressive, vengeful response from others in the party will undermine the party’s claim to be a party of solidarity and compassion: these values are tested in the most difficult times, and that time is now.

We must stand together as comrades, help each other rest and heal, and then select a new leader in the spirit of mutual respect, compassion and democracy.

[ENDS]