#StayPutInLabour: Richard Burgon’s Twitter support for Jeremy Corbyn goes a bit left-field
Shadow justice minister Richard Burgon's attempt to take to social media to support his leader and ally Jeremy Corbyn in a time of turmoil hasn't exactly turned out as planned.
While the gesture was there, Burgon's tweet ending with #StayPutInLabour hasn't resonated with social media users as anticipated.
Labour members: whatever Labour's National Executive Committee decides today, #StayPutInLabour – key coup-backers *want* members to resign.
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) July 12, 2016
In fact, some people have taken the wording quite seriously.
#Corbyn survival hashtag is #StayPutInLabour. More proof Corbynistas & Seumas Milne useless at basic politics. pic.twitter.com/juPrmNWazK
— Gerry Hassan 🇺🇦 (@GerryHassan) July 12, 2016
Others have opted to focus on the lack of thought behind it.
This #StayPutInLabour isn't exactly ideal wording, is it?
— Rt Hon Sir Peter Mannion MP (@PeterMannionMP) July 12, 2016
Last year when the Labour leadership race was heating up, Russian President Vladimir Putin actually leant his support to Corbyn. Burgon, we assume, wasn't attempting to remind people of this.
Instead, it's likely that he wants the grassroots to rally around its incumbent leader in the face of challenges from the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
The party's National Executive Committee will be meeting today to vote on whether he can appear on the ballot for any future election without the support of at least 51 MPs.
Such is the division between the rival factions that the union Unite is reportedly flying in Michael Mayer, while a TSSA union delegate has cancelled her holiday in order to attend the meeting, according to the New Statesman.