The splitting of the ChUKs and the TIGs is not without pain whatever they spin to their media friends. A row is developing about “who owns the data?”
Legally The Independent Group (TIG) Limited controls the data. Gavin Shuker resigned as a director on 21 May, 2019. The company is registered as the data controller with the ICO. So far so clear…
Chris Leslie’s wife, Nicola Murphy, was appointed a director in his place, along with Anna Soubry’s other half, Neil Davidson. So the Leslie – Soubry axis of ChUK would appear to be in control of the political data of hundreds of thousands of people and, more importantly, the ability to tap them up for financing. Not quite.
Shuker quite properly argues the data was collected in the first instance on behalf of The Independent Group. Which is now back in business with the defecting MPs. Too bad say the ChUKs, we’re in control now…
Except the controlling shareholder is still one Gavin Shuker, with the legal power to hire and fire the directors. So the TIGs actually control the ChUK’s company legally and the ICO will probably side with Shuker if it goes to court. The ICO are unlikely to look kindly on two organisations sharing the same data…
The obituaries are being written, perhaps prematurely, for the Tiggers before they have even fought their first election. Guido’s hears that ChUK’s infighting is getting worse as their polling flat-lines. Chris Leslie and his wife Nicola Murphy are copping a lot of the flak. As you would expect from a party opposed to democracy, she was appointed as chief executive of the party without any pretence of a vote and he demanded she got a generous salary as well. This immediately annoyed other staff and activists hoping for jobs – in the main ex-councillors and even some council leaders knocking around looking for work, who joined thinking they would get taken on. A lot of second-raters have been disappointed…
Leslie and Umunna’s relationship has become strained. Chuka feels Chris abandoned him and threw his lot in with Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen. Soubry’s other half is the party treasurer, Neil Davidson. Leslie did a deal with them to control the party machinery. Chuka, Luciana and their small gang of ex-Progress kids who helped with the launch have been completely outmanoeuvred according to an inside source. In comparison to the launch of the Brexit Party it has been a flop and even made centrist Remainers appreciate the LibDem’s merits.
One observer with Labour sympathies speculates: “I think part of problem is Luciana being on maternity leave. She was a big asset because her interventions reminded people of anti-Semitism and the dire state of the Labour Party. Which was powerful and emotional. Without her it’s just the uninspiring centrist managerial politics of Chris Leslie and Heidi Allen.” Quite.
