Yesterday it emerged the Labour Party had suspended the membership of Gil House pending investigation for allegedly engaging in prejudicial conduct that was “grossly detrimental to the party”. Gil’s crime? Insisting that “only women experience the menopause”. 

Yet just last month, seven Labour Party MPs made very similar statements during the World Menopause Month debate. Throughout the discussion Carolyn Harris, Judith Cummins, Tonia Antoniazzi, Jessica Morden, Alex Davies-Jones, Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan, and Karin Smith made clear that the menopause is an issue unique to women. Who knew that their remarks were so controversial? 

This utterly bonkers row is causing huge internal upset. One embarrassed Labour source blasted the party’s position on Trans issues stating:

“UK Labour rules, unlike the actual law, are based on gender and not sex – therefore they go behind the law, or as they would like the law, just like Stonewall does.”

Gil House, a loyal Labour Party member who was planning to stand as a councillor, has now resigned from the party.

In the hour long debate the Labour MPs failed to reference the trans community once. Instead Alex Davies-Jones insisted that “the menopause is an entirely natural biological process“ and Carolyn Harris pointed out that “the menopause is something that every woman will experience at some point in her lifetime”. Guido worries that their statement of biological facts means they are Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) in the eyes of the party activists who reported Gil House. Is the Labour Party going to suspend these seven MPs for prejudicial conduct?

Keir Starmer wasn’t lying when he told Piers Morgan he’d been “listening” to Tony Blair’s leadership advice. Over the past few weeks, Sir Keir’s been pulling every lever within reach to fulfill the promise of a “total deconstruction and reconstruction” of the Labour Party. A “reconstruction” which, coincidentally, means appointing a load of Blairites…

Almost every organ of the party – from the Leader’s Office, to the frontbench, to the PLP, and to the National Executive Committee – has seen a wave of changes over the last few weeks. It hasn’t happened overnight, though now the purpose is quite clear: a doubling down on “New New Labour”.

In the Leader’s Office, Blairite Sam White was recently enlisted as Chief of Staff replacing Morgan McSweeney, joining new strategist Deborah Mattinson (Blair/Brown adviser), and interim director of communications Matthew Doyle (Blair adviser) replaces Ben Nunn. This, of course, follows Carolyn Harris’s resignation as Starmer’s parliamentary private secretary in May, along with Jenny Chapman’s unceremonious shafting as his director of politics a month later. Deconstruction and reconstruction, piece by piece.

Over in the PLP, Ben Folley (a relic of the Corbyn golden years) has announced today he’s leaving his role as General Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party, which follows Starmer’s ruthless purge of thousands of far-left loons at the National Executive Committee meeting last week. And of course, this is before you even get to the botched reshuffle of the frontbench…

UPDATE 28 July: Keir Starmer’s speechwriter and close aide Chris Ward has told colleagues he is quitting according to the Guardian. Which begs the question, who will be his new speechwriter? If he is recycling Blairites, he could bring back Phil Collins, the recently sacked Times columnist now with time on his hands. After all he did write some of the most memorable speeches for Tony Blair…

UPDATE 29 July: Tom Hughes, who worked on Starmer’s leadership campaign before joining the leader’s office as press officer and spokesperson, is leaving.

Starmer’s sacked PPS Carolyn Harris – even according to allies of Starmer – was “a bit of a liability”, so it is no surprise she has had to go. Or as a statement released by Starmer’s office to The Times put it, Harris said she was “stepping back from this role”, after she was asked to justify what The Times delicately described as “baseless rumours” she was said to be spreading about Angela Rayner. Guido’s not convinced the rumours are baseless.

Last October The Sun reported Angela Rayner had grown close to her Momentum backing leadership campaign manager Sam Tarry, under the headline “Labour deputy Angela Rayner strikes up close friendship with married MP after split from husband”. The Sun euphemistically said “Angela Rayner has struck up a close friendship” with Sam Tarry. In return Rayner helped Tarry win the Ilford South seat, going out of her way to campaign for him to successfully get into parliament during the 2019 general election:

Soon after Rayner gave the newly-elected Tarry a position which would mean he would work with her as “the Deputy Leader’s Parliamentary Lead on Campaigns & Organisation.” Carolyn Harris saw this as a dangerous opportunity for a Momentum hardliner to organise within the PLP and help rig candidate selections for the left. Negative briefing from Carolyn Harris about Angela Rayner and Sam Tarry therefore combined the personal and the political. 

When The Sun asked if Rayner and Tarry were having an intimate relationship, they got the reply “Any suggestion that she has made any appointment based upon anything other than professional merit, experience and ability will be considered highly defamatory.” Which is of course a denial that she gave his a career leg-up, not that he got a leg-over…

Starmer’s top aide, his PPS Carolyn Harris, has quit amid allegations of spreading rumours about Angela Rayner, the Times reports. It sounded like Starmer was searching for a new PPS this morning, following his shadow cabinet reshuffle on Sunday night, and Harris now has confirmed she is pro-actively “stepping back from this role”. This is the second post-local election resignation since Friday night…

It is alleged Harris had spread “baseless rumours about Angela Rayner’s private life”, with a senior Labour figure saying “She was briefing salacious rumours about Angela over the weekend and got caught. She’s a total wrecking ball and has done him a lot of harm in PLP”. Asked about the claims, Harris blocked the Times reporter on WhatsApp. Not the move of an innocent person…