Today's Update Labour Bi-elections by The WAUGH ZONE

* Paul WAUGH

by Paul WAUGH | Politics

Jim McMahon won a comprehensive victory in the Labour selection for the Oldham West and Royton by-election late last night. The Oldham Council leader won 232 votes to the more left-wing Mohammed Azam’s 141.

But ex-MP Chris Williamson getting just 17 votes was the fact greeted most with glee by moderate Labour activists who claim that Jeremy Corbyn’s long-time ally was being pushed hard by the Left. Momentum and Jon Lansman tried their best to help Williamson, some insiders claim, and the Oldham party were unmoved. 

At just 35, McMahon is certainly a wunderkind of the party in local government. Although he will be cagey about labels put on him (no one wants to be called a ‘Blairite’ anymore), he’s not a Corbynista when it comes to spending, defence or other issues. But McMahon’s strongest weapon is his genuine passion for his local area. And as I’ve said before, UKIP will find it hard to attack the patriotism of a bloke who has long backed local veterans and is next month picking up his OBE from Buckingham Palace. Still, we can expect Her Majesty's press corp to head up to the seat now (spoiler alert for sketchwriters: there's a train station called Oldham Mumps).

The Indy’s Andy Grice is no longer pol ed (he’s my ex-boss so I’m biased), but he’s still getting good yarns. Today he reports that Corbyn could be hit by a wave of resignations by moderate frontbenchers in an attempt to destabilise his leadership and pave the way for a coup aimed at ousting him.

“There will be an uprising in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] at some point,” one Labour MP told The Independent. “But we have to get our timing right. We may only have one shot.” The danger of this tactic of course is that there are plenty of new intake Corbynistas willing to step into the shoes of any mass resigners.

BuzzFeed had a neat story yesterday that Corbyn had used a PMQ from a former BNP members, when he name checked Gulf war veteran Kieran Devlin on Wednesday. Labour claims his contact originated via the Veterans for Peace UK organisation and “Kieran has rejected his previous involvement with the British National Party”. But it’s still embarrassing: imagine the outcry in Labour if Cameron had quoted an ex-BNP guy.

* Paul Waugh is the Executive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK.