These are the highlights of a rousing speech in defence of press freedom given by Jacob Rees-Mogg during last night’s Data Protection Bill debate:
“Mr Mosley was the authoriser of a leaflet… What did this leaflet say? As I say, this is so appalling that I am reluctant to read it out in Parliament. Under a heading of “Protect your health”, it said: “There is no medical check on immigration. Tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases like leprosy are on the increase. Coloured immigration threatens your children’s health.”
That is the view of the funder of IMPRESS. It is little wonder that our free press does not want to be associated with such a man. It is little wonder that, to its credit, the Labour party has now refused to take any further funding from this man, but IMPRESS has not. IMPRESS has not condemned this man. It has not said it will refuse further funding from the charitable trust he set up purely and specifically to keep IMPRESS running. IMPRESS has done nothing of this kind. It has a reputation of its own, and there is a certain irony in this; its chief executive is a man called Jonathan Heawood, and he tweeted, of all things, that the Daily Mail was “a neo-fascist rag”. Dare I say that he might know a good deal more about neo-fascists than one had thought when that tweet was originally circulated?”
Read Guido’s Impress File here. The Mogg’s not Impressed…
John McDonnell said Tom Watson “should consider his relationship” with Max Mosley and raised questions over the propriety of the Labour Deputy Leader accepting £500,000 in donations from the disgraced F1 chief. McDonnell said:
“Tom will really need to consider seriously exactly that relationship with Max Mosley and the finances as well because if he is reiterating his views from the past he clearly hasn’t changed.”
McDonnell was reacting to a Guardian interview published yesterday in which Mosley repeated his support for paying migrants to “go home”. Both McDonnell and Corbyn’s offices are wary of Watson’s set-up, which, as Guido reported, has a staff of nine and is seen as a rival power centre. Corbynistas have enjoyed Watson’s pain over the past week…
Max Mosley tells the Guardian it is
“perfectly legitimate to offer immigrants financial inducements to go home”
Why won’t Tom Watson hand back the half a million quid given to him by Max Mosley, despite Labour appearing to accept he isn’t a fit and proper donor? Well, Watson uses the money to fund his private office, which at nine full time staff members is the third largest in parliament. According to the Register of Secretaries and Research Assistants, Corbyn and McDonnell are the only MPs with more staff. Watson’s office has become a significant power base and giving the money back would weaken him considerably. That’s why Seumas Milne twisted the knife into Watson with his statement ditching Mosley earlier…
If this was a £5,000 donation rather than £500,000, there seems little question that he would give the money back. Watson faced with the choice: do the right thing and hand back the cash, or keep his bumper private office bankrolled by a former fascist…
Labour say they will no longer accept donations from Max Mosley, but will keep the £500,000 he gave to Tom Watson. Eh? How does that work? Either he’s not a fit and proper donor or he is – how can Watson keep his cash?
