The Moral Turpitude, Racism & Corrupt Vendettas of Iain McNicol’s aides didn’t stop them Fraudulently Living off Members’ Subscriptions Whilst ‘Going Slow’
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Dramatis Personae
Iain McNicol (General Secretary)
Tracey Allen (Manager, General Secretary’s Office - GSO)
Julie Lawrence (Director, GSO)
Emilie Oldknow (Executive Director - Governance, Membership and Party Services)
Patrick Heneghan (Executive Director - Elections, Campaigns and Organisation)
Simon Mills (Executive Director - Finance).
John Stolliday (Director, Governance and Legal Unit - GLU)
Mike Creighton (Director of Audit, Risk and Property)
Claire-Frances Fuller (Head of Internal Governance)
Simon Jackson (Director of Policy, Research and Messaging, Briefing and Rebuttal)
Fiona Stanton (Regional Director, Labour North)
Neil Fleming (Acting Head of Press and Broadcasting)
Carol Linforth (Director of Conference and Events)
Sarah Mulholland (PLP Secretary)
Holly Snyman (Director - Human Resources)
Greg Cook (Head of Political Strategy)
Anna Hutchinson (Regional Director, Labour North West)
Tom Geldard (Director of Digital).
Jo Greening, (Head of International Affairs)
Karie Murphy (Chief of Staff, LOTO)
Seumas Milne (Executive Director - Strategy and Communication)
Seumas Milne (Executive Director - Strategy and Communication)
This is the first of a 2 part article on Labour’s leaked report. The Report demonstrates in all its sordid details the amorality of Labour’s senior officials up to an including General Secretary ‘crooked’ Iain McNicol. They say that a fish rots from the head down. It is clear, with the 56% vote for Keir Starmer, that the rot has spread to much of the rest of Labour’s body.
This Report is not some neutral investigation of the misdeeds of Labour’s senior officials. It is a highly politicised and factional document. The fault line running through this Report is its acceptance that the false and malicious anti-Semitism campaign waged against Corbyn’s supporters, anti-Zionists and the ‘wrong sort of Jews’, was genuinely concerned with anti-Jewish racism.
This Report is based on the assumption that this ‘disinformation paradigm’ had some basis in fact and was genuinely concerned with rooting out racism. The Report rejects the suggestion that this campaign, waged for four years by the BBC and establishment journalists, from the Guardian to the Sun, was a cynical weapon deployed by opponents of Jeremy Corbyn.
This is the first of a two-part analysis of the Report. This is a Report in 2 parts – one good and one bad. It is a report that contains a unique window into what Labour’s senior officials were thinking and what they were up to and. At the same time it is both mistaken and dishonest.
This Report also highlights the real tragedy of Corbyn’s leadership. The fact that he and his supporters in Momentum came to believe that if they embraced the weapon of their adversaries that they could turn it against them and thus defeat anti-Semitism which had been directed against them. Instead they signed their own death warrant.
It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Corbyn and McDonnell that the more socialists, Black and Jewish anti-racists they expelled the more imperilled their own position became. They never sought to ask why it was that the Labour Right, which had introduced the ‘hostile environment’ policy, and the Tories who introduced the 2014 Immigration Act, were so concerned about anti-Semitism.
I will begin with the good part. This is a Report which resembles George Elliot’s Daniel Deronda, which was a book in 2 parts –brilliant novel and awkward Zionist sub-plot.
Who Was The Report Commissioned By?
This Report was almost certainly commissioned by Jennie Formby or those close to her. Its aim was to pin the blame for the failure to investigate ‘anti-Semitism’ on McNicol, Stolliday and above all Sam Matthews. Presumably the intention was to submit it to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Inquiry into Labour ‘anti-Semitism’.
Bogus allegations of breaches of the GDPR regulationson data protection and confidentiality are being used by the Party leadership to try and suppress this Report. I’ve taken a brief look at the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR Regs. Section 15 of the DPA 2018 makes provisions for exemption from the scope of the GDPR, e.g. Article 6 1(e) refers to the public interest. Articles 6(3) and 23(1) of the GDPR provide for exemption from its provisions.
There are a number of excellent articles on the Report which I’ve listed at the end of this article.
Craig Murray’s Reportraises the importance of storing the mass of data involved in compiling this report, the thousands of Whatsapp and email messages, of which this Report is only a selection.
Asa Winstanley’s excellent article identifies the author of the report as Harry Hayball, a senior officer in the GLU and Patrick Smith, a former organiser for the Alliance for Workers Liberty, a former Trotskyist Zionist group that provided the ideological basis to the witch-hunt, in particular the concept of ‘left anti-Semitism’.
Why is Starmer so intent on suppressing the leaked report and avoiding any discussion of the issues raised in it?
Before retiring I used to be the legal advisor to a charity. I specialised in Employment Law and represented workers at Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. I specialised in Whistleblowing see e.g. Lucas –v- Chichester Diocesan Housing Association which set a precedent on ‘good faith’.
In every single Whistleblowing case I fought, the employer, instead of dealing with the Protected Disclosure (such as dangerous conditions in a private hospital, fraud etc.) targeted the Whistleblower. Why? Because they were complicit in the wrongdoing and they were seeking to cover it up.
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| The Zionists are furious at the 'flagrant' Labour Party Data Breach - strangely enough they weren't outraged when the Compliance Unit leaked details of its victims |
It is widely accepted that employers should notto try and identify the whistleblower because that acts as a deterrent to whistleblowing. In some situations anonymity is guaranteed. For example in the Administration of the United States. The first thing that Donald Trump did during his impeachment hearings was to try and find out who blew the whistle on him so that he could be victimised.
Keir Starmer was involved in the PLP coup against Corbyn in 2016. There is no doubt that McNicol and others were in touch with the coup leaders and Tom Watson. Starmer’s reaction and his instructions to Formby to act as his lapdog have but one explanation – he was fully aware of what was going on at Labour Party HQ in Southside.
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Reading through the Report the overwhelming impression was that Labour’s senior staff, Matthews, McNicol, Oldknow etc. simply had no code of ethics or moral compass. They were both personally and politically corrupt. It is also clear that they should never have been employed as they are as far from socialism and the fight for a better society as it is possible to be. It is no surprise that such was the hostility of Labour’s staff to socialist activists, who they contemptuously referred to as ‘Trots’, a term embracing anyone from Marxists to left-Social Democrats and indeed anyone who is a democrat, that they would have felt comfortable working at Tory Party HQ. The pity is that they weren’t.
Supporting Anybody but Labour
Simon Jackson, the Acting Director of Policy and Political Research said about Iain Duncan-Smith that he was ‘better than most of our shadow cabinet”(42) This is the man responsiblefor the deaths of thousands of disabled people through his benefit cuts.
Lisa Forsyth believed that Corbyn had nothing to do with the victory in the Oldham by-election in December 2015 and hoped that Theresa May would give him ‘the boot’ at the local elections in May 2016:
It's in spite of him tho. Hopfullly May will be the boot (62)
Simon Jackson, had previously suggested to Anouska Gregorek, Head of Policy Development, that he would not vote for Labour in a general election when led by Jeremy Corbyn. (88)
‘Ultimately though, who votes for JC? If it's a choice btwn him & TMay how do WE vote for him?? I mean we're not fucking mad.’(42)
People have been expelled for previous membership or support of the Green Party or sharing tweets in support of George Galloway yet opposition to Labour was rife amongst Labour’s senior officers. To oppose your own party and yet live off its members’ subscriptions is the epitome of personal corruption.
This principle of not supporting another party did not extend to the Right of the party, still less Labour Party staff themselves, one of whom remarked that ‘with a bit of luck this speech will show a clear polling decline.’ (96)
Senior staff in “SMT Group” spoke openly with one another about hoping that the Liberal Democrats “can do it” in the Manchester Gorton by-election: (63)
Jo Greening hoped that ‘with a bit of luck this speech will show a clear polling decline.’(57)
John Bigham – being the admin of a Conservative Party Facebook Group is not enough to suspend
In January 2017 Rob Reddan complained about Bigham, attaching screenshots in which Bigham wrote that he did not support the Labour Party:
“I will always be a member but i will never get behind the party [while] Corbyn is leader”
“I will never allow Trotskyite and Marxist scum to drive me out of the party”
Reddan’s complaint was forwarded from “Legal Queries” to “Disputes”. The complaint was not logged anywhere, and no action appears to have been taken. (537)
In March 2017 another staff member flagged Bigham to Louise Withers-Green, attaching screenshots of him attacking Corbyn and numerous members of the shadow cabinet. Withers-Green responded “This, although not nice isn’t bad enough for us to do anything about”.(538)
Further complaints were received about Bigham on 18 and 21 December 2017, concerning posts in which he called Corbyn a terrorist sympathiser and, about Diane Abbott, wrote:
It’s about time she got put in a box with the lid fastened firmly
Andy Bigham is a well-known poster to members of political discussion groups on Facebook. He posts anti-Labour comments and articles so frequently that members of non-Labour groups often assume he is a Tory.
Julie Lawrence emailed the Head of Internal Governance Claire-Frances Fuller:
Hi CF, can you take a look and advise on action we should take? Fuller replied to Lawrence
I don’t think this would be considered a death threat by the police or would warrant a suspension.,, Unless there is any further evidence of addition posts/comments (539)
At 11.28am, Fuller emailed saying “Cancel that. We can suspend.” Oldknow messaged in “SKEI”:
[22/12/2017, 11:28:44] Emilie Oldknow: We’re suspending this character. It will go out later today. Please don’t brief until he has been told
Bigham was then suspended on the basis of his post about Abbott.
When Disputes Officer Megan McCann followed up in February 2018, however, she noted that “a warning seems to me most appropriate”. A series of questions about the post were then sent to Bigham, including:
Are you intending you stir up violence towards Diane Abbott?
How do you think you would feel if someone posted a comment like this concerning you? (539)
McCann then lifted his suspension and two days later Reddan submitted further evidence about Bigham, with screenshots of over 100 posts showing Bigham
· saying he had voted Conservative
· supported Conservative Party policies
· and posting a racist image that listed “Islamisation of the UK”, “Back the IRA & Muslim terrorists” and “open borders to ‘refugees’” as “Jeremy Corbyn’s 10 pledges to rebuild and transform britain”.
No action was taken. Further evidence was also sent to “Disputes” that Bigham supported Conservative Party posts encouraging people to join the Conservative Party. On 19 April 2018 Reddan submitted another complaint but Martha Robinson in Complaints replied that it did not warrant action. Reddan responded that:
People were suspended for 'liking' or sharing green party tweets, or agreeing with other parties tweets on twitter in the run up to the 2nd leadership election.
This individual has openly stated that he voted conservative at the last election... posted an offensive article about Diane Abbott, is forever praising conservative policies on social media... accusing anyone who voted for Corbyn of being as good as anti-Semitic and stating that anyone who speaks out against the state of Israel is also anti-Semitic and yet is happy to support his wife making remarks about Muslim immigrants as if it is ok to target Muslims and still nothing is done.
Reddan did not receive a reply. No action was taken. (541)
After a complaint was emailed to Jennie Formby, she forwarded it to Sophie Goodyear, Head of Safeguarding and Complaints who argued that being an admin of a Conservative Party Facebook group was not sufficient grounds for an auto-exclusion, but his statement that he supported the Conservative Party and had voted for them was. Finally on 11 June 2018, Bigham was auto-excluded from the party (541-542)
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| Labour Party headquarters where the plotting of the Blairite sabotagers took place |
Emily Benn
The GLU declined to act on complaints about Emily Benn, who had retweeted and posted on Facebook a tweet saying that
“Anyone disappointed by Corbyn's male dominated line-up should consider joining the Women's Equality Party [WEP]” (204/5)
On 6 November 2015, as criticism mounted, Oldknow wrote:
We are going to have to get some specifics on the Emily Benn tweet and quick.
We need to put to bed this in relation to not suspending her.(205)
Stolliday maintained that the post may have been from “some over-enthusiastic local volunteer running [the account] on her behalf”, and suggested that “next week we write to Emily asking her to clarify that point.” He added that he thought the cases were “entirely different”. Oldknow agreed arguing that “we aren't dealing with sane people here” although complaints had come from numerous Labour members, and members of Labour’s governing NEC.
Oldknow dismissed the complaints on the grounds that those making the complaints were insane. Such a comment by a member would, in itself, be grounds for investigation or suspension.
On 12 November, Iain McNicol wrote to Benn about her tweets.:
“In order to help me consider whether a formal investigation is required in this matter I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions”
No one else was sent questions from the General Secretary prior to a suspension or investigation. I certainly wasn’t. (206)
Owen Smith Challenges Corbyn in the Summer of 2016 – McNicol Did His Best To Stop him Standing
In July 2016 Owen Smith challengedJeremy Corbyn for the leadership. To do this he needed the nomination of 20% of the combined total of MPs and MEPs. The Right argued that Corbyn also needed to be nominated by the same number of MPs.
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| Solicitor's letter to Crooked McNicol reminding him of his responsibilities |
Prior to the NEC meeting of 12th July McNicol did all he could to stop Corbyn standing, necessitating a letter being sentfrom solicitors acting for Jim Kennedy of Unite to McNicol telling him he had a duty to act in good faith. It was like asking a fox to become a vegetarian.
McNicol sought advice from James Goudie QC, whose opinion was that Corbyn needed to be nominated. Mark Henderson QC advised to the contrary. Goudie proved that lawyers, like prostitutes, could always be bought if the price were right. Rule 2.Bii stated that:
‘where there is no vacancy, nominations may be sought by potential challengers each year prior to the annual session of conference. In this case nominations must be supported by 20% of the combined Commons members of the PLP and members of the EPLP. Nominations not attracting this threshold shall be null and void.
The rule was crystal clear. There was no vacancy as Corbyn was the incumbent not the challenger. Crooked McNicol invitedGoudie not Henderson to the NEC meeting. Notwithstanding this the NEC voted 18-14 to allow Corbyn to stand. A subsequent legal challenge by a rabid Zionist, Michael Foster, failedand Corbyn went on to win.
On 15 July 2016, the Director of GLU, Stolliday, who was responsible for overseeing the Party’s legal defence, said he was “praying we lose in court”. (119) McNicol said "this is the first time the unions have actually chosen to f*** the party rather than support it".
Judge Foskett took the unusual step of allowing Corbyn to have his own legal representation separate from the party. This was because Corbyn suspected McNicol might concede the case. The High Court acknowledged that Corbyn could not trust the party apparatus and McNicol to represent his interests fairly.
The staff got to work purging as many Corbyn supporters as possible. Staff boasted privately about creating a “new stasi system”, the scale of the operation was initially hidden from the NEC, with one staff member admitting “we don't want the NEC to have much of an idea how many there are to review (we're worried they'll get scared)”.(119)
One way of purging the left was to draw up a list of 68 MPs and their twitter handles. A list of banned words was drawn up for example. ‘traitor’ and anyone using these words to attack the MP was suspended. However no MPs from the party’s left was included so any attacks on them were deemed fair game. There was just one Asian MP and no black MPs on McNicol’s list. Despite high levels of online abuse directed at Corbyn, who in the 2017 general election received more abuse on Twitter than any other politician, he was not included in the list of MPs. (130/131) Right-wing abuse was acceptable.
The same day, Richard Shakespeare, Labour’s lead developer, suggested that Labour reject membership applications from anyone who came to the join the Labour Party via Momentum:
The appropriately named Councillor John Ferret, leader of Portsmouth Labour Group, was reported by numerous people for a string of abusive comments, including referring to Unite as “Stasi”; saying he would “rather vote Tory” than for “any… Trot outfit aligned to Momentum”; calling Corbyn a “terrorist(138/9)
John McTernan, a former Blair adviser, whom Jon Lansman welcomedinto Momentum, whilst expelling me, was reported from 25 July onwards for abusive language on Twitter including describing Labour MPs who nominated Corbyn as “morons”; tweeting twice that Corbyn was a “traitor”; describing “Corbynistas” as racist; telling an SNP MP that he should “Come down to Peckham and try saying that, mate”; and writing in the Daily Telegraph that Corbyn’s supporters were “online trolls”.
McTernan actually attackedthe Tory government for not ‘crushing the rail unions’ in that well known Labour supporting newspaper, The Telegraph on 10th August 2016.
No action was taken against him and the staff decision was “No action - removed at referral”. On 18 August, however, Dan Hogan did report a member of McTernan’s CLP, Omar Baggili, who - in response to an article by McTernan in “The Telegraph” urging the Conservative government to “crush the rail unions once and for all” - tweeted at him
“seriously John why haven’t you got yourself a Tory membership card. They’re anti unions & pro privatisation like you.”
Baggili though was suspended for “abuse”. (140)
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| Jeremy Corbyn greeting people after the 2017 election |
General Election – Protecting only Right-wing MPs
Protecting Tom Watson during the 2017 election was a high priority. £50,000 of members’ money was conjured up whereas Labour candidates in Tory marginals were denied any help whatsoever because McNicol and Labour’s staff worked on the assumption that Corbyn woud lead the Labour Party to disaster.
On 22 April Patrick Heneghandeclared that ‘we need to throw cash at Tom's seat, Even if just 50k for that. We can't let him lose for want of money’ to which McNicol responded: ‘Am off to bed. But obviously protect toms seat.’ (87)
Operation Cake – Launching a Coup Against Corbyn
Julie Lawrence, a former NALGO official in the South-East set in train what they hoped would be a new coup. Two parliamentary by-elections were coming up in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent and the staff were praying that Labour would lose.
Julie Lawrence, Director, GSO described Corbyn as ‘a proud and selfish man with a team to match.’ (so selfish that Corbyn was one of the few MPs not caught up in the expenses scandal) She hoped that if Labour lost the elections ‘we could have another leadership election.’ This was ‘Operation Cupcake’.(85)
However Labour held Stoke-on-Trent North though it lost Copeland. To Katy Dillon, a Press Officer and later Broadcast Officer ‘ the result on thursday was bittersweet’. She would much have preferred if the Tories had won both seats.(62)
It is clear that Tom Watson was kept informed about developments and was part of the planning for Operation Cupcake. McNicol told Oldknow told to ‘pull together. Operation Cupcake’. Oldknow told Lawrence and Heneghan that ‘Iain told TW to prepare for being interim leader.’ (85)
June 2017 General Election Campaign
‘The people have spoken. Bastards’ (103)
The General Election was a difficult time for Labour’s witchhunters. Most of them were desperate to see the back of Corbyn and if that meant supporting the Tories then so be it. You can imagine their reaction when Corbyn achieved the largest swing since 1945 and gained about 30 seats.
Even worse everyone else at Southside was celebrating. Labour’s witchhunters could hardly turn up looking as if they were in mourning (which is what some staff did when Corbyn first won the leadership). Fortunately Julie Lawrence was on hand to offer ‘some safe space time’ to these sensitive souls before they had to go and pretend to share the joy. (102)
However Iain McNicol made it clear that ‘I'm not in smiling and mixing and doing the 2nd floor.... It’s going to be a long night’. Tracey Allen spoke for everyone when she declared that
‘We will have to suck this up. The people have spoken. Bastards’. (103)
Teddy Ryan, a Regional Organiser was extremely unhappy now that Corbyn was back. He poured out his heart to Kat Buckingham:
I don't like living in a world where I'm not allowed to go round threatening people as I see fit (108)
You can see this point. Even worse they had to reinstate Christine Shawcroft, a left-wing NEC member who had been suspended for supporting the Independent Muslim Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lotfhur Rahman, whom the High Court, in an openly racist decision, basing itself on anti-Irish laws a century ago, had removed. (106/107)
In May 2017 Labour HQ assigned staff to a “secret key seats team”, based in a separate building, Ergon House - “all secret to LOTO”.(92)
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| Hundreds cram into Momentum meeting before Brighton Labour Party's AGM |
The Suspension of Brighton and Hove Labour Party
On July 9th 2016 at a packed AGM of Brighton & Hove District Labour Party, over 600 members voted for a new left Executive by a 2-1 majority. Momentum, which was then on the left, had held a monster meeting at Brighthelm Community Centre. I have never seen so many people at a meeting there. The large hall was packed, so was the cafe behind it and still people could not get in.
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| Warren Morgan, Progress Leader of the Council coordinated the making of false allegations of spitting against an innocent party member |
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| Another member of Labour's right-wing mafia, Sue Teddern, was prepared to lie and frame an innocent member, Matt Tully - the staff member denied that he was spat at and the CCTV confirmed that |
As soon as the AGM was over Council leader Warren Morgan and former Councillor Emma Daniels liedabout a spitting incident that never happened. They were backed up by Morgan’s successor, Daniel Yates. The allegations were bare-faced lies, invented to defeat the democratic will of the largest meeting in the history of the local Labour Party. Brighton City College where it was held had CCTV which proved that there was no spitting incident. The investigator, Karen Buckingham, who had made up her mind before even leaving her office, refused to look at the video of the incident because that would have put her in a difficult position. Her excuse was that looking at it would have been a breach of the Data Protection Act! Today ‘Confidentiality’ is the go to pretext for official liars.
Nonetheless the party was suspended courtesy of Ann Black, the then Head of Disputes. I have covered this in depth hereand here. Three days later Stolliday discussed overturning the result with Katherine Buckingham who was sent down to Brighton by Anne Black to ‘investigate’ what happened. The only problem was that she had already made up her mind.
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| Morgan even called for the innocent victim of his lying allegations to be expelled - there were no depths to which he wouldn't sink |
The lies and deception of Labour’s senior officials beggar belief. Warren Morgan asked in mock horror whether he was being accused of engaging in a conspiracy. The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Stolliday discussed overturning the result without even a cursory thought as to such minor questions as the morality of overturning the democratic will of 600+ Labour Party members. These people had the mentality of General Pinochet staging a coup d’etat against Allende.
The allegation that the ‘SWP and Trots’ marched to the meeting and stuffed the ballot box is an absurd lie. Membership cards were carefully checked. The meeting was so big that it had to be held in 3 separate sittings. Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who is now an MP, chaired the meeting. Stolliday wanted to overturn the AGM. Buckingham wanted to 'act now and worry about the rules and legalities later.
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| Buckingham going through the motions of holding an Inquiry when she had already decided that the Left was at fault |
The Labour Right engaged in a war against democracy with the support of Iain McNicol and the Labour Party apparatus including the local right-wing Council leadership under Warren Morgan. Corbyn and McDonnell didn’t speak out once. Their silence was deafening.
Anne Black, the Head of the Disputes Committee, agreed to suspend Brighton and Hove Labour Party on the say so of unelected officials. She paid the price when she was lost her place on the NEC. I have written to her to ask whether she now has any regrets.
Wallasey CLP was also Stitched Up
Wallasey CLP was also suspended in July 2016. A year later, 7 July 2017, Oldknow emailed Sam Matthews and Stolliday listed a number of allegations of “people selling socialist worker” then participating in a CLP meeting which was an absurd lie. Oldknow noted that the local MP Angela Eagle felt that, if the CLP’s suspension was lifted in the coming months, this would “not give her time to organise etc.”(114)
The SWP was a phantom. It doesn’t operate in the Labour Party. The SWP was mentioned in order to frighten the children. This lie was equivalent to the myth of the ‘stab in the back’ so beloved of German revanchists after WWI.
The allegations included bullying, homophobia and a broken window! The BBC swallowed the lies. Unsurprisingly it’s not reporting on the contents of the leaked Report. Once again Corbyn failed to speak up.
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| Sam Matthews |
This was an open discussion between senior GLU and GSO staff and Labour Party Executive Directors about ensuring that Angela Eagle and her allies were able to win the AGM and other votes at the CLP. They discussed how they had been “giv[ing] Angela “time” to “organise” to win those votes against the local Labour left.’ (114)
In theory the job of officials is to take orders from elected officials and the party membership but in practice the officials saw their job as policing the membership and protecting the Right.
Sam Matthews had ‘every sympathy for the fact that Angela is still in a difficult situation’. His worry was that ‘based on track record, no matter how much time we give Angela’ she would be unable to turn the party around. She was so unpopular that no amount of time could change the desire of her party to be rid of her. (114)
‘Crooked Iain McNicol’ – I was expelled for telling the truth!
The Report exonerates me of the charge of abuse made at my expulsion hearing in February 2018
My references to ‘Crooked McNicol’ had clearly annoyed the Compliance Unit. But it wasn’t abuse. It was blindingly obvious to me that when a purge of Corbyn supporters began in the summer of 2015 and again the following year, that the intention was to deprive Corbyn of a majority. This was so clearly a crooked act I wondered why others were unable to see it. Their behaviour was no different from Republicans in the United States who engage in voter suppression, seeking to keep Black people off the voters’ roll.
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| Part of the skeleton argument of Labour's barrister - it seems they didn't like my comments about McNicol's underlings! |
Over 4,000 voters including me, voted in 2015 for Corbyn and we had our votes fished out of the electronic ballot box. If anyone engaged in a similar exercise in local or national elections they would be arrested for electoral fraud and be doing time at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
With hindsight it is clear that my assessment of Crooked McNicol was spot on. On those grounds alone I shall be submitting an appeal against my expulsion. My only ‘crime’ was to say what was blindingly obvious when others preferred to turn a blind eye.
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| All the allegations of 'abuse' happened to be true! |
Part (4) of the Second Charge against me, paras. 64-66 in Labour Party barrister Thomas Ogg’s skeleton argument was devoted to 'Crooked McNicol'(21 February 2017 [121] The charges were based on a blog of 21st February 2017, Crooked Iain McNicol, Labour's General Secretary, Rides Again.
Ogg complained that I had ‘used the word "crook" or "crooked" to describe Mr lain McNicol no less than 17 times’. (para 64). Ogg explained that ‘A crook is a dishonest or criminal person. Mr Greenstein uses the work to abuse.’ I have never disputed the meaning of the word ‘crook’ but it wasn’t to abuse. Can anyone now seriously dispute that McNicol was crooked? Ogg described the word as ‘insulting and abusive.’ Maybe, but it was also true.
Ogg also complained that I had insulted Tom Watson ‘by saying that his behaviour reminds him of the comment that he has "every quality of a dog except loyalty". Can anyone dispute this? It is clear that he knew of the activities of the staff and was in close contact with them, to the extent of having them leak confidential Labour Party documents. Watson, contrary to the promise he made to Corbyn when elected, was seriously dishonest. It is clear that I was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Corruption and Nepotism
On 22nd September 2015 Stolliday, who resigned shortly after McNicol, openly incited Jo Green, the Head of Broadcasting, to come to work and do nothing in order to qualify for redundancy.
‘You'll be entitled to a decent chunk. Worth staying for it even if it means coming into the office & doing nothing for a few months’.
Staff discussed jobs being “stitched up” for fellow right-wingers. In January 2016 Sam Matthews, was encouraged to apply for a job by a staff member, but Matthews expressed concern that
“I’m mediocre (at best) at copywriting and got rejected from that job the last time I went for it”.
However ‘Matthews was reminded that the team “know you” and
all of the other people who apply will probably be internal Labour hacks with not that much legit copywriting experience outside of producing campaign materials or stuff for Labour students.’
Matthews asked ‘Won’t it be a stitch up for a Labour Student though?’ The response was: “Maybe under the Sarah regime, but now we’re under Tom management”. Matthews said he would apply for a role, but added:
As an aside, could you give me a heads up if it does end up being a stitch up for someone? I’ll probably go through with it anyway to pop back up on their radar that I want back in, but it would be useful to know.’
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| Mike Creighton - his incompetence was legendary, as I found out when I took the Labour Party to court over a data protection breach - I was sent 2 responses to an SAR because he had kept no records when he left! |
Sam Matthews, because of his worries that he was “mediocre” and didn’t “have the skills on paper” arranged in February 2016 to meet Mike Creighton, the Director of Audit, Risk and Property, for a coffee. He needn’t have worried. The corrupt nexus at Southside would look after him. After chatting with Creighton he applied for the new role of “Compliance Officer - Investigations”.
The only problem was that there was another more highly qualified applicant, Max Lansman, who had scored higher than Matthews on the pre-interview scoring matrix.
Lansman was a qualified barrister with an MA in “Legal and Political Theory”, with a wide range of compliance and legal experience. Lansman, a barrister with “specialisms including employment, family, housing, landlord and tenant, and civil law” might have been thought a shoe-in. However he was on the left of the party, notwithstanding his father Jon Lansman. On 21 March 2016, Creighton messaged Oldknow: Going to offer the job to Sam Matthews’, (115-116) So much for equal opportunities and anti-discrimination policies.
Another Labour refugee who has been inducted by Prentis’s corrupt regime at UNISON was Emily Oldknow. In a conversation with Emma Meehan she said: ‘Sarah tells me that your sister is looking for a job?’ Emma responded ‘Yeah she is’. Oldknow informed her that
‘We have an admin role coming up in the compliance unit.. but it gets her in the door and gives her some experience? On being informed that she would be interested Oldknow comments ‘That means she will be completely maleable....’
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| Caption from Panorama programme when Withers Green and others lied to the BBC and other enemies of Labour |
On 13 February 2017 Louise Withers-Green started as Disputes administrator. Formerly active in Labour Students, Withers-Green had, like Matthews, been a “Field Organiser” for “Britain Stronger In Europe” and he had then recruited her as a “Validation Assistant” during the 2016 leadership election. She had previously been an intern at Amnesty International and a self-employed English tutor.
Other candidates had worked for law firms, the police and other organisations, in roles that included administration of complaints and case management systems. However, Stolliday noted in advance of interviews that “there is one applicant who Sam would be more than happy to recruit for Disputes administrator”.
On 1 May 2017, Labour HQ press staff, including Head of Press Neil Fleming, established a chat to
“communicate through… so we arent on our phones all the time” - “And yes, tap tap tapping away will make us look v busy”. (193)
When it came to appoint a Head of the Governance and Legal Unit John Stolliday applied. He too had no skills or legal knowledge. His only expertise was in ‘political fixing’. But he too needn’t have worried. As Stolliday reported on 29 July, GLU staff were “actively helping me with my interview”. The requirements for legal knowledge, including of the Equalities Act, made him “gulp”. (113)
Before his interview in September 2015, Stolliday commented that the appointment was a “Bit of an Emilie stitch up”. Discussing how to bond with Stolliday in December 2016, staff noted that he “doesnt like trots”. (113)
Ben Jameson, the Safeguarding Manager, was assigned to be Jeremy’s Police liaison. He was given an explicit threat by Sophie Goodyear, his Head.
We’ll know if you tell them what we do, you’ll be out. They’ll be gone soon. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you this.” I believe Sophie was referring to her work on complaints and the work of the disputes team and she was making an explicit threat that I would lose my job
Going Slow
“tap tap tapping away will make us look v busy” (30,57, 88)
Staff also considered “go slow” tactics, making the election more difficult to win. On 21 April 2017, Labour staff joked about “working hard or hardly working”.
Sam Matthews – Asked to be paid more backdated
After the general election, Matthews asked to be back-paid at a higher pay rate, reflecting - although his “new role did not have a formal title” - Sophie Goodyear suggested it “might be worth mentioning the level of budget management”, but Matthews responded that he did not want to put the scale of budget in writing. He did note, though, that the party could “afford this”, and “I left 100k in that budget”
Helping Tom Watson leak confidential Party documents
Senior staff also spoke of facilitating Deputy Leader Tom Watson leaking confidential Party documents: (65)
Trot hunting and Comparing Corbyn to Hitler
As it became clear that Corbyn might win in 2015, it became necessary to ‘validate’ applications for membership and registered supporters. “priority right now is trot hunting” (70)
Labour staff resorted to the all-purpose insult ‘Trot’because these apparatchiks had nothing to say. It demonstrates their poverty of imagination and thought. On being appointed on 27 June 2016 Matthews first major task was to organise a second round of “Trot hunting” for the 2016 leadership election. (116)
Senior staff employed the very abusive language that was used to suspend Labour members during the 2016 leadership election. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. After retiring in March 2017, Mike Creighton, the Director of Audit, Risk and Propertytweeted that antisemitism in Labour was a
“Direct consequence of [Ed Miliband’s] decision to allow the Labour Leader to be selected by Tories and Trots’ (48)
Factionalism - Fixing and Annulling Elections
On 22 June 2016, Sarah Mulholland and Stephen Donnelly discussed organising NEC Youth Representative elections on a one-year cycle to ensure that a left-wing candidate would not win - which Mike Creighton was “happy with” - and making sure they had time to find a “decent person” to stand (109)
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| Dan Hogan lied to a willingly gullible BBC Panorama about his concern over 'antisemitism' |
Dan Hogan, who presented the expulsion case against Cyril Chilson, both of whose parents were survivors of Nazi concentration camps, told Maggi Cosins and the NCC that the fact that Cyril had asked me to be his legal representative should be held against him. In any judicial proceedings such a comment, about a Defendant’s choice of legal representative would have been ruled out of order but in Labour’s Kangaroo Court anything went.
Hogan had first started in Labour Students before becoming a Disputes officer in late 2016. His factional behaviour, including recruiting people to “Labour First” in staff time and saying that a staff member who cheered Corbyn’s speech should be “shot”. (116)
In December 2016 Fraser Welsh, Deputy General Secretary for Wales, explained that part of his work as involving “not conceding CLPs to Corbynite bullies”. (68)
On 22 July 2015, Stolliday told Claire-Frances Lennon, a Press Officer and later Head of Internal Governance that he was leaving press for GLU, describing his new role as “political fixing”, selections and “legal stuff”, and noting that they needed “to completely overhaul selections to stop the useless trots getting selected”.(112)
This wasn’t a joke.
These people represented the undemocratic core at the heart of Blairism. Their job was to make Labour safe for capitalism. The tragedy is that the Left did not rise to meet the challenge and instead got diverted into fighting the ghost of ‘anti-Semitism’.
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| UNISON's Corrupt General Secretary Dave Prentis recruited the corrupt Stolliday and Oldknow to key unelected positions |
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the most corrupt of them all – UNISON’s Emily Oldknow
In the competition to find the most corrupt witchhunter one is spoilt for choice. If a fish rots from the head down then that was certainly true of the Labour Party.
Imagine the highest official of a political party feeling down and depressed at their party’s magnificent performance in the 2017 election? A man who consciously engaged in deceiving his own leader, set up a secret seats team and refused to put money or resources into Tory marginals. McNicol is a very strong candidate but it would be too easy to lay all the blame at his feet.
It was the Defence of Nazi War Criminals at Nuremburg that they were only obeying orders. But this was untrue. Ordinary Nazis set about their tasks with relish and enthusiasm. And so the International Military Court ruled when Streicher, Keitel, Rosenberg and others were hanged in 1946. The Final Solution was not all Hitler’s doing.
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| Emily Oldknow - her ability to fabricate a case against members must have appealed to UNISON's Dave Prentis |
McNicol too cannot take all the blame. He was served by enthusiastic underlings. Undoubtedly the mediocre Matthews, who told such a compelling story to BBC Panorama, that he had considered suicide, was culpable. John Stolliday, who has since become Head of UNISON’s Members Relations Unit, is also a strong candidate but in my opinion it is Emily Oldknow, UNISON’s unelected Assistant General Secretary, who wins first prize.
UNISON is a union from which I was suspended for criticising Steve Terry, London Regional Organiser, for failing to support the unfair dismissal of Stan Keable. It has a ‘corrupt political culture’. Stolliday must feel at home working for UNISON since that is exactly the description of the atmosphere in Southside, the Labour Party’s HQ.
On 14 December 2016 Ben Westerman told Sam Matthews that Emilie Oldknow was ‘going for people that she doesn't like/her friends don't like and expecting us to be able to fabricate a case because politics which is ludicrous’
Oldknow was in a class of her own and despite strong competition she is the worthy winner of the most corrupt of the Labour Party’s staff.
Sexist Abuse and Comments About Other Staff
On 29 July 2015, staff said there would be “rampaging trots” at Labour annual conference, and “stewards [will] need pepper spray” or “body armour”.(48)
On 22nd November 2016 Tracey Allen described Karie Murphy as ‘pube head’ before Oldknow, who is now UNISON’s Assistant General Secretary described her as a ‘Smelly cow’ before saying that ‘Karie is actually fat too’ ‘There's a good old roll in that photo .’ (55)
On 9 March 2017 Sarah Mulholland, Julie Lawrence and Tracey Allan made lewd comments on a WhatsApp chat about the clothing of women Political Advisors, naming individual staff and mocking their appearance: (53-54, 93/4)
UNISON is a union has plenty policy on discrimination and opposition to sexism yet it has a bigot as its second most senior official. 20 members of UNISON National Executive and hundreds of members have writtento General Secretary Dave Prentis demanding an Inquiry. Prentis is standing by Oldknow as opposition to discrimination has always been tokenistic in UNISON.
On 18th April 2017 Patrick Heneghan, Executive Director (Elections, Campaigns and Organisation) pulled no punches over what he thought of Karie Murphy, Director of LOTO (Corbyn’s office).
Fuck u karie u silly cow (86)
During the same conversation Oldknow, Julie Lawrence and Tracey Allen shared abusive messages regarding LOTO chief of staff Karie Murphy. Allen called Murphy “Medusa”, Lawrence called her “crazy” and said her face “would make a good dartboard”:
On 21st May 2017 Oldknow and Allen made sexist and derogatory comments about Laura Murray, a member of staff in LOTO, following a negative story about her in the media: (53/54) According to Teddy Ryan, ‘clive lewis is the biggest cunt out of the lot’.(53)
Simon Danczuk was the MP for Rochdale who had sexted a teenage woman under 18 who had applied for a job. As he was in a position of trust this was a criminal offence. He had also offered to spank her. Danczuk had a long history of violence against women. But Danczuk was on the right of the party so he was acceptable.
Danczuk had been suspended by the party but on 18th April Tracey Allen informed people that:
‘I am expecting a call from Simon Danczuk in person to confirm he is restanding. Once I have it from 'horses mouth' will be handled by Governance.’(111)
As long as someone wasn’t on the left it didn’t matter to these sociopaths if they were a rapist, a wife beater or a serial abuser.
Ian McKenzie
On 20 May 2018 a Twitter storm arose after the comments of Ian McKenzie, the Secretary of Lewisham East CLP and an activist with “Labour First”, were revealed.
“Emily Thornberry is too old for ISIS. They won’t make a sex slave of her. They’ll behead her and dump her in a mass grave.”
“Maybe she’d agree sex slavery to one man only, provided he didn’t sell her on or insist on gang rape.”
“Islam/Islamism learned the trick from Israel: to criticise Israel is anti-semitic. No, religion is propositional. (158)
Matthews however opposed suspending him:
“I don’t think that two tweets, both from over two years ago would ordinarily warrant an administrative suspension (159)
Hogan did not declare a conflict of interest arising from his familiarity with and favourable views of McKenzie, which he had expressed in 2016 or his activism in “Labour First”, and he did not recuse himself from the case. Nareiser Osei told Hogan that “you need to be objective”. Hogan was not amused:
I do not need to be told to be objective or look at both sides of a case – I have been an Investigations Officer for longer than Nareser has. I reacted with muted anger and told Nareser that ‘I’m a professional, thanks. (161)
I am told that there are regimes in the world where torturers also consider themselves ‘professionals’.
The problem was the widespread support for Labour First amongst the investigative staff. In April 2016 Francis Grove-White, Labour International Policy Officer, met Luke Akehurst from “Labour First”, and commented to Greening that it was “very encouraging to hear how organised they are regarding conference.” (62)
Ignoring Islamaphobia and Homophobia
Islamaphobia was of no concern to the witch-hunters. In August 2017 a member emailed racist abuse about Naz Shah MP:
“Sack the Muslim MP Shah… get her out! She has no place in the country let alone the LP”.
This was forwarded to Sam Matthews who did nothing. Naz Shah was seen as on the left of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
In October 2017, a CLP Executive Committee reported a member for threatening and bullying behaviour. This was submitted to Disputes. In December 2017 further complaints were made to John Stolliday, the Head of the Compliance Unit, about Islamophobic posts such as:
“What do you call a man in his 50s who has sex with a 9-year-old girl? 1.6 billion people call him the Prophet of Islam”
Again, no action was taken. (301)
In November 2017 a member was reported for homophobic comments such as saying that Labour “look like the Gay party”. The complaint was forwarded to Dan Hogan who did nothing. In March 2018 Megan McCann, sent the member a Notice of Investigation (NOI). The case disappeared when she left in mid-2018. (302)
The number of virulent Islamaphobes was far higher than the number of anti-Semites yet, almost without exception, they were ignored. In the case of Manjit Panesar & Syed Siddiqi (see below) it was the victim of Islamaphobic abuse who was suspended.
Sarah Mulholland and Dianne Abbot
Sarah Mulholland was the main liaison between MPs and the Labour Party. She believed that ‘Death by fire is too kind for LOTO.’ (91)
In February 2017 she said Diane Abbott “literally makes me sick”. Senior staff discussed Abbott crying in the toilets and telling Michael Crick, a Channel 4 reporter, where she was: (43)
Victimising the victims of racism Manjit Panesar & Syed Siddiqi
“We have spoken about this one before but could you update me in writing please so I have it on record? Has any action been taken against Manjit Panesar?”
Head of Complaints Sophie Goodyear to Dan Hogan, the day before he stopped working for the party”
Syed Siddiqi received a racist and abusive call from Manjit Panesar, saying “You need to restore me to that group chat, or you and me are going to have a fucking big fucking battleground here”.Panesar threatened Siddiqi and engaged in Islamophobic abuse –
“you and me, it’s war now” and “You cannot give me this fucking Islamic bullshit… Islamic fundamentalist lunatic”. (164)
All investigative attention however was focussed on Siddiqi, with Dan Hogan proactively collecting and investigating even minor complaints against him. It was Siddiqi who was suspended, not Panesar, meaning he could not restand for the Council.
Eventually the NEC suspended Panesar and referred his case to the NCC, at which point he resigned. However the victim of racist abuse Siddiqi remains suspended.
James McBride – a vicious anti-Muslim racist
On 24 May 2017, after the Westminster Bridge attack, James McBride, who was in Labour’s Policy Unit, shared a clip of Douglas Murray, who was appearing on BBC Daily Politics, saying that all political parties were refusing to confront the reality that terrorism “comes from the religion” of Islam. McBride commented “find it difficult to disagree with this”: (46)
we can't ignore the fact that while one might be more typically 'terrorist' behaviour they still derive from the same ideology. And western liberal idelogy is reluctant to take it on And expose its roots. Which innevitabely involve hard questions- even for so-called moderate islam (46)
Douglas Murray, an Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society in a 2006 speech demanded that “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board.”: He authored a book ‘The Strange Death of Europe’ whose message was that Europe is dying — being murdered- by hordes of Muslim immigrants, aided in their task by craven liberal politicians. It is part of fascist and neo-Nazi discourse, the so-called replacement theory.
The fact that Labour staff found someone like Murray appealing speaks volumes. Even the Tory front bench under David Cameron cut links with Murray.
Alec Henstock
In February 2016 the party received a bundle of “about 150 pages” of Facebook posts by a Labour councillor, Alec Henstock. They were summarised by Regional staff as “posts by Britain First and UKIP, and posts which could be considered racist, sexist and not consistent with Labour Party values”. They included a range of openly racist, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant content, including a meme from far right group Pegida saying Britain should “BAN the burqa on security grounds” and an image of a train overflowing with BAME people, described as the Eurostar arriving at St Pancras, with the text “Don’t blame me, I voted UKIP!” (207) Stolliday responded:
It's horrific, nasty stuff & not in any way acceptable. However don't we treat "sharing" content on Facebook in the same way as a retweet on Twitter? (cf Emily Benn) If so I'd think it's hard to suspend, unless within the greater bundle there are actual comments or posts from this person, rather than sharing other people's content.
If we can make the argument that this is different to a retweet for X reason, and that therefore we should suspend, then great.
Stolliday did not seem to distinguish between retweeting and sharing an item expressing support for another political party, and sharing twenty pieces of Islamophobic, racist and sexist content. According to Stolliday sharing racist posts did not merit suspension.
Informed that Region had interviewed Henstock, and he had refused to apologise, Creighton asked: ‘What does the region want us to do?’
I would be happy to suspend given he has endorsed the stuff, but I think we can take advice from region on this one. (208)
This discussion of a “potential suspension” ended there and no further action was taken and it appears that the case, which existed as an email exchange alone, was not logged anywhere and was forgotten about.
Henstock remained a full member until autumn 2018, when he was auto-excluded for supporting an “independent (ex UKIP)” candidate against Labour. (208)
Rod Liddle
Rod Liddle, a ‘journalist’ at the Sunday Times, was a notorious Islamaphobe. He suggestedin The Spectator that elections should be held on days that Muslims couldn’t vote.
An ardent Zionist, Liddle suggestedin his column that suicide bombers should blow themselves up in Tower Hamlets, which he described as being a “decent distance from where the rest of us live”.
In May 2016, Rod Liddle wrote in The Spectator that antisemitism was “absolutely endemic” among “Muslims”.
For many Muslims the anti-Semitism is visceral, an ingrained part of their unpleasant ideology… [based] as much upon envy - at Jewish success, worldwide and in Israel - as anything else. If you handed over Israel to the Palestinians they would turn it into Somalia before you could say Yom Kippur.
Only after 3 May did Stolliday recommend his suspension. But even then Oldknow sent this recommendation to LOTO chief of staff Simon Fletcher as Liddle was a journalist:
It is my intention to agree with John on this one. He would be suspended under “bringing in the party in to disrepute”.(186/187)
However on 6 May 2016, Stolliday emailed Oldknow:
‘Apparently Rod Liddle is chummy with Ian Austin & by extension TW [Tom Watson]. I still want to do this but we’re not under pressure to do it – so may just sit on it for now (173, 184)
Oldknow replied: “Ok. I will speak to Ian”, presumably a reference to Ian Austin.
Liddle was suspended a week later, on 12 May 2016. In September 2016 he resigned. (187)
The Racism of Senior Labour Party Staff
This Report demonstrates that the concern about anti-Semitism had nothing to do with racism and everything to do with Israel and Zionism. Hence why they redefinedanti-Semitism. That should have been obvious to anyone with a few brain cells, even Jon Lansman!
If it was really about racism then why would the Tories, who presided over the ‘hostile environment’ policy and the Windrush Scandal, to say nothing of Britain’s racist tabloids, be so concerned by Labour ‘anti-Semitism’. Why were tabloids such as the Sun and Mail, who had employedKatie Hopkins, who describedrefugees as cockroaches, so disturbed about ‘anti-Semitism’?
Why indeed were the Tories so exercised about ‘anti-Semitism’ when they sat in the European Parliament, in the ECR group alongside people like Roberts Zile who took part in demonstrations every March with veterans of Latvia’s Waffen SS?
Why indeed was Tom Watson, who had ‘lost sleep’ over the decision of the High Court to removeracist Labour MP Phil Woolas from Parliament, after an election campaign in 2010 that was based on ‘making the White folk angry’determined to remove every last ‘anti-Semite’ from the Labour Party? All but 6 Labour MPs had abstainedon the 2014 Immigration Bill which introduced the ‘hostile environment’ policy. Indeed it was the Blairite Home Secretary Alan Johnson who first introduced the ‘hostile environment’ policy.
Why were Zionist groups such as the Board of Deputies, which have never fought the anti-Semitism of the Right, and which defend every abomination of apartheid Israel, concerned about anti-Semitism? Zionism arose from the belief that anti-Semitism could not be fought?
Using Disablist & Hateful Language
Stolliday described Corbyn’s adviser Seumas Milne as a “total mentalist” and “nutter” who he had previously told to “cock off”. Simon Jackson referred to new Labour members who supported Jeremy Corbyn as “nutters” who had “Invaded” the Party, while Head of Policy Development Anouska Gregorek joked about them getting “F U JC” - “Fuck you Jeremy Corbyn” - tattoed on their foreheads.(55)
On 10 April 2017, Tracey Allen, the Manager of the General Secretary’s Office described people who were joining the Party at the time as ‘Mentalists’.(53)
Senior staff including Mike Creighton said of a Young Labour member and Corbyn supporter who was suffering from mental health problems that they would like to see him “die in a fire” or “wouldn’t piss on him to put him out”:(55)and Sarah Mulholland wished there was a petrol can emoji (56)
General Abuse
On 15 June 2015, Head of Press and Broadcasting Jo Green suggested to Simon Jackson that “anyone who nominates corbyn'to widen the debate'deserves to be taken out and shot”. Jackson agreed: “quite.” On 15 September 2015 Dan Hogan said that a staff member who had “whooped” during Corbyn’s speech “should be shot”. (51)
On 13 August 2015 Ali Moussavi, Economic Advisor in the Leader’s Office and Sarah Brown (Press Officer) discussed “hanging and burning” Jeremy Corbyn: (52)
On 15 September 2015, Greg Cook sent Jo Greening a spoof video of Jeremy Corbyn as Hitler. “Love this”, Greening responded.(39) Other staff, such as Dan Hogan were also watching and sharing the video (51) Yet if you had compared Tom Watson to Hitler then you would have been expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’.
On 17 September 2015, shortly after Corbyn had been elected Leader, Anna Wright, a Labour Press Officer and Stolliday discussed saying “cunt more in the last 48hrs than you have in your life up until that point”. Wright noted that “yesterday I called the Leader of the Labour Party a sexist cunt”. She remarked that this may have been “uncomradely” but Stolliday assured her “It's not your job to be comradely to the leader”:
Steve Howell
Soon after, Corbyn appointed Steve Howell to work on strategy and communications in the 2017 election. Campaign staff were derisive of Howell, describing him as an “amateur” and suggesting it was a good thing he remained on the second floor of the office, where a plumbing problem had caused a smell of sewage to spread: (89)
At the final rally of the campaign in Islington staff joked about potential violence against Labour members and supporters and the use of “water cannons” and “truncheons” to “knock some trots”: (102)
Jeremy Corbyn appointed Steve Howell to work on communications and strategy in the 2017 election campaign. Staff at Labour HQ were immediately derisive of Howell suggesting it was a good thing he remained on the second floor of the office, where a plumbing problem had caused a smell of sewage to spread: (88)
28/04/2017, 12:24 - Carol Linforth: I am told 'steve' has moved upstairs already because of the smell .......
28/04/2017, 12:37 - Simon Jackson Mobile: Can we make the smell worse? 90
28/04/2017, 12:38 - Simon Jackson Mobile: Urgent action points: don't empty 2nd floor bins; buy Simon nose pegs. (89/90)
Staff hatred of what they term ‘trots’ i.e. socialism, is evidenced by their adoption of Tory economics: They opposed increasing Corporation Tax, Rail Nationalisation and higher taxes. As
“All [public ownership of rail] looks like is trots doing what trots do”.
Dan Hogan 11:42:
brace yourself. McDonnell just called for corporation tax to go up
Amy Fowler 11:42:
you're kidding me
On 27 April 2016, Collete Collins-Walsh, Education Policy Officer, and James McBride, who led on economy and business policy, discussed a Conservative Party critique of left-wing economics. Collette was of the opinion that ‘the UK is actually becoming more equal.’ To which McBride replied ‘very true.’(44)
What is staggering is that these people were in charge of developing Labour policy. 44% of the UK’s wealth is ownedby just 10% of the population, five times the total wealth held by the poorest half.
During the 2017 General election, General Secretary Iain McNicol responded to the announcement of a policy of free school meals with ridicule. (45) Senior staff also wrote how they could not understand Corbyn’s decision to oppose the widely-panned “dementia tax.” (45) which goes to show what a waste of space and money these officials were since the demolition of the Tory’s policy on social care marked their and Theresa May’s downfall.
Catherine Bramwell, Communications Officer for South East Region, said “i hate the trots, i hate the trots, i hate them x a million”, and claimed that the idea of rail nationalisation was not popular in South East England - “all it looks like is trots doing what trots do”.
Conclusion
Labour’s senior officials waged war on Corbyn from the moment he was elected. Corbyn’s appeasement of his enemies with his ‘kinder politics’ began from the moment he declined McNicol’s offer to resign immediately after his election in September 2015. Instead of appeasing his officials and his treacherous deputy Tom Watson he should have waged war on a Right that never accepted the legitimacy of his leadership.
Instead of accepting the false ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative he ended up adopting it and the harder he tried to appease his Zionist critics the higher he built his own funeral pyre.
It is no surprise that the Right and Keir Starmer are desperately trying to avoid discussing the contents of the Report. Instead they are trying to scare people with bogus threats that they will be prosecuted if they circulate or discuss the contents of the Report.
It is therefore disappointing that John McDonnell still does not get it. He writes in Tuesday's Guardian that not only should the Report not have been made public without redactions but that
'I fully support Keir Starmer’s decision to launch an investigation– one which, he has been clear, must be independent and swift.
McDonnell also declares that 'attempts to root out antisemitism in the party were also undermined' by the Compliance/Disputes staff. He still does not seem to understand that the Fake Anti-Semitism Campaign was not, and never was about combating anti-Semitism. It was always about getting rid of him and Corbyn.
Starmer has made it clear that his main priority is discovering the circumstances of it having been leaked. He has not displayed the slightest concern over its contents.
Anyone on the Left with a backbone will face this blackmail down and treat it with the contempt that it deserves. The officials named in the report do not deserve confidentiality. They conspired against the party and if Labour was a socialist party they would have been shown the door.
It is a sign of how much Jennie Formby has capitulated to the Right that she is leading the charge against discussing or distributing the Report instead of standing up for members of the Labour Party. It is the duty of the left to face down the Right’s attempt to close down debate on their treachery.
Part 2 of this article will follow shortly and concentrate on 'anti-Semitism'. It will be far more critical of the leaked Report and the motives of those who wrote it.
Tony Greenstein
Below are Other Reports that I Highly Recommend
That Leaked Labour Party Report Craig Murray
Leaks show how Labour sabotaged Corbyn Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada
‘It’s going to be a long night’ – How Members of Labour’s Senior Management Team Campaigned to Lose,Aaron Bastani, Novara Media
You can download the Word file of this blog here