As Jeremy Corbyn responded to the brick thrown through Angela Eagle’s constituency office window with a call for dignity, respect, and some modicum of calm, Eagle whimpered and declared, ‘That could have hit me! Ouch! That could have really hurt Jeremy!’.
The brick passed through a ground-floor window of Eagle’s Wallasey office sometime between 5 pm on Monday and 9 am on Tuesday, scattering glass in all directions in a mimic of current Labour disunity. It was discovered as the office manager opened shop, and described as ‘much larger than your average brick’, apparently the cornerstone of a wall over to the left which recently crumbled.
Supporters of Eagle have condemned the attack as a ‘vile’ and ‘cowardly’ instance of political bullying. Meanwhile Eagle, who formally announced on Monday her intention to challenge Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, continued to call on the beleaguered liberal to step aside, saying ‘Nobody here likes you Jeremy, why don’t you do us all a favour and get lost and good riddance!’.
The incident with the office building marks the first physical aggression, but Eagle has reportedly already been subject to hundreds of horrid messages via phone and internet. Noting that he too has received death threats over the past week, Corbyn made clear, ‘I utterly condemn any violence or threats, which undermine the democracy within our party and have no place in our politics’.
But this was hardly enough for Eagle, whose feathers are understandably ruffled. Desperately trying to push down a cowlick of hair, with watery eyes she muttered, ‘Jeremy says he is a nice man but this isn’t very nice and look just how upset it has made me. If he cannot control bricks as they hurtle through the air what hope does he have of winning a general election?’, adding ‘There will be no bricks if I become leader of the Labour Party’.
