As Guido reported yesterday, constituency Labour branches are currently up in arms over an edict from HQ banning motions in support of Jeremy Corbyn. Despite the new rule, many hard-left cranks are ignoring General Secretary David Evans and pressing on regardless, with some 36 CLPs backing Corbyn with the result that at least half-a-dozen local officials have been suspended. The hard left aren’t happy and are going on about Starmer’s suppression of debate and free speech.
Some digging through the Labour history archives reveals that it’s not the first time in recent living memory a Labour General Secretary has banned motions regarding individual disciplinary cases of hard-left figures. Under whose leadership did a General Secretary clamp down on such free speech? Miliband? Blair? Kinnock? It’s……… Jeremy Corbyn, banning local parties from voicing support for Chris Williamson:
“Please note that individual disciplinary cases that are being dealt with through the NEC disputes processes are confidential. Motions on individual cases are therefore not competent business for discussion at CLPs and will not be discussed by the NEC or any associated bodies.”
– Jennie Formby, 2019
Guido can’t recall many of the TrotsApp rent-a-gob crowd now whinging accusing Corbyn of suppressing debate and free speech at that time. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Jennie Formby has announced she is standing down as General Secretary of the Labour Party:
It has been a huge privilege to be General Secretary of the largest political party in Europe for the last two years, but now we have a new leadership team it is the right time to step down. I would like to thank Jeremy, our members and my staff colleagues who have given me so much support during what has been a very challenging period, in particular when I was suffering from ill health. I wish Keir and Angela the very best of luck in taking the party forward and leading Labour to victory at the next General Election.
It was always obvious that a purge of Labour HQ would see Len McCluskey’s former lover leave the building. She has also recently overcome a cancer battle…
The BBC have previewed details of their Panorama exposé on Labour anti-Semitism ahead of its broadcast tonight. The Labour whistleblowers are accusing two of Corbyn’s closest allies of interfering in Labour’s disciplinary processes around anti-Semitism – Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby and Corbyn’s right-hand man Seumas Milne. Helps to explain why the Labour response has been quite so aggressive in this particular case…
The Leader’s Office is accused of being “angry and obstructive” over anti-Semitism amidst numerous other allegations including Formby bringing in officials who “overruled” and “downgraded” disciplinary decisions, while deleting emails and using external email addresses to try to cover her tracks, and Corbyn’s office taking in various cases for his own aides to process them directly. Labour are sticking to the line that these are false allegations from “disaffected” former members of staff. Doesn’t look good…
Pete Willsman has now been suspended from the Labour Party after his outburst revealed this morning where he claimed that the Israeli Embassy was fuelling Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis. Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby emailed Labour NEC officers to say:
Dear all,
We have received a number of complaints, including from NEC members, about Peter Willsman’s latest comments, as reported on LBC this morning.
I am writing to let you know that we took the decision earlier this morning to administratively suspend Peter, pending disciplinary action.
Kind regards
Jennie
Willsman can’t attend NEC meetings while he’s suspended from the party but he’s still officially a member of Labour’s ruling body. What are the chances he ends up straight back on the NEC as soon as his suspension is lifted…
Guido understands that the newly selected Mansfield Mayoral candidate has now been suspended this afternoon pending investigation by the Labour Party, following Guido’s article exposing his Facebook rants defending Ken Livingstone, Naz Shah’s comments, and calling Zionism as as “foul” as Nazism.
Labour MP John Mann tells Guido he has personally referred the case to Jenny Formby for immediate action. Mann says “It is one of the worst examples I have seen”…
The Jewish Labour Movement are holding an emergency meeting tomorrow to decide whether to end their 99-year affiliation with the Labour Party. Given the number of times they’ve been snubbed, marginalised or ignored by the Labour leadership, it’s sadly not a surprise…
- In April last year, JLM wrote to Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby with 19 suggestions for a transparent investigations process. 11 months later they have still had no response.
- JLM were due to hold an anti-Semitism training session at Labour Conference last year. They were forced to withdraw after Labour “censored” their material.
- JLM have repeatedly offered formal training to the Labour NEC, NCC and Party Staff. Labour have repeatedly rejected their offer.
- JLM requested a formal investigation into Pete Willsman last July. Instead Willsman was re-elected to Labour’s NEC.
- JLM wrote to the Labour chief whip asking for action to be taken against Chris Williamson in August 2018. Six months later their letter had still not been responded to before Williamson was finally suspended.
- Two JLM representatives believed they had been invited to attend Labour NEC’s Working Group on anti-Semitism last May. They were forced to stand outside and barred from entering the meeting.
- After JLM were finally invited back, the Working Group presented three papers to Labour’s NEC including a new version of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism which they claimed JLM had signed off. They hadn’t.
- Last month, they called for John McDonnell to step down as President of the Labour Representation Committee which claimed that anti-Semitism allegations were “propaganda” from the “ruling class”. McDonnell ignored them.
- Given McDonnell’s failure to step down, JLM wrote to him asking him at least speak out against the anti-Semitism within the LRC at their conference last month. Instead, McDonnell gave a public defence of Jackie Walker.
- Just last week, Corbyn told Labour MPs that he had reached out to JLM following Luciana Berger’s decision to quit the party. Corbyn was accused of a “deeply troubling” bid to “mislead” MPs after it turned out his office had literally only contacted JLM two minutes after Corbyn started his speech.
Tomorrow we will find out whether they’ve decided to end the affiliation that has stood since 1920…
