The Labour Party could face a bill in the region of £4,000,000 for a legal case against Corbyn-era insiders, with the trial not due to take place until the second half of 2024 – right before a potential election. So far, the party has coughed up £503,260 in a suit against five ex-staffers, including Corbyn’s Chief of Staff Karie Murphy and Seamus Milne. The legal action was launched by Labour in response to the 2020 leaking of an internal report on antisemitism – with the staffers the prime suspects. Labour can’t be sure though… three investigations failed to identify the source of the leak.
According to The Guardian, the £503,260 relates to a failed hearing to try and access Karie Murphy’s emails – for which an appeal was denied – whilst the party was this month ordered by the High Court to stump up £90,000 for Murphy’s legal costs. Labour have also paid out £99,108 dealing with an application by the staffers to have the suit throw out and £103,626 in an anonymity application for those named in the report. A pro-Starmer NEC member described the case as a “monumental waste of members’ and affiliates’ money” pursuing a “pointless political vendetta”.
Team Corbyn are in Brussels today to meet with EU negotiators, poor planning meant they had a little taxi trouble when they realised they had no means to pay. Same old Labour: always running out of money…
This is the extraordinary moment Jeremy Corbyn’s top aide Seumas Milne was ushered into the Venezuelan Presidential Palace and embraced by the country’s tyrant Nicolas Maduro. Milne travelled to Venezuela in 2014 to record a Guardian interview with the socialist leader who was last night branded a “dictator” by Western governments. Introducing the film, Milne dismisses protesters who were then trying to overthrow the Maduro regime as “overwhelmingly middle class… the government maintains support in working class and poorer areas”. In a comically softball exchange, Milne offers Maduro a platform to peddle conspiracy theories about US intervention in the region, asking him:
“US leaders have said that you and Venezuela use them as a pretext or an excuse for your own failings. What’s your evidence for United States interference in the country and what do you think their aim is?”
He then sets up another question for Maduro to knock down:
“The United States has talked about Venezuela criminalising dissent?”
Later in the film Milne pays homage at the grave of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and interviews a pro-Maduro agitator. The love-in concludes with Milne asking the besieged leader to talk about his favourite pop music. A fawning homage to a man the international community considers a pariah.
Don’t expect Corbyn or his right-hand man to condemn him any time soon…
