Mr Leo Abse And The Labour Party

EDM number 361 in 1996-97, proposed by Nicholas Winterton on 17/12/1996.

That this House notes with interest the publication by the former Labour honourable Member for Pontypool, Mr Leo Abse, of the book, The Man Behind the Smile; appreciates his frank observations that 'A Labour Party denying its socialism and unashamedly stealing Tory clothes in order to appear inoffensive to all, may claim respectability but, in fact, becomes a strumpet of a party', offering 'fairy stories, the delusion that without struggle, without conflict, we can have a society where we can live happily ever after'; appreciates his astute observations that the Labour Leader, the Right honourable Member for Sedgefield 'as actor or performer doubtless brought pleasure; his small step from stage to political platform in search of identity may have assisted him in his personal resolution, but it left the Labour Party shorn; he has taken away the identity of Labour and reshaped it to suit his own psychological measurements', this operation Leo Abse describes as 'theft'; believes that the opportunism and shallowness of conviction so described are inappropriate traits in any individual seriously aspiring to national leadership; and invites Robson Books Ltd to ensure that no Opposition honourable Member's stocking is left devoid of a copy of this most authoritative work at Christmas 1996.

This motion has been signed by a total of 5 MPs.