A Labour adviser of eight years who quit his job last month, Simon Fletcher, has now gone public to slam Keir Starmer’s Labour Party for not standing for anything. Fletcher also accuses Starmer of fracturing the broad left within the party over various whipping decisions, which have resulted in a number of MPs resigning. He warns the party risks “creating the impression that it has fallen into a pit of self-loathing”. “Self-loathing” isn’t the half of it…
Fletcher served under Miliband, Corbyn and Starmer, acting as the latter’s strategic advisor during the leadership campaign, before being given responsibility for campaigns and election planning. In this final role, which he left after the May elections, he observed Hartlepool by-election voters were “uncertain over what the party stands for”. He now cites Joe Biden as the best political model to secure a path to power for the Labour party. Fletcher’s policy suggestions however are just as flimsy as his former employer’s…
The Standard reports Jeremy Corbyn’s aide Simon Fletcher is resigning over the direction of the Labour leadership. Not a great surprise as he had fallen out with Seumas Milne and John McDonnell months ago and been sidelined by Jez’s top team. Fletcher was Ken Livingstone’s former consigliere and was respected across the party. Interesting timing…
There has been some chatter that for electability reasons Sadiq Khan was distancing himself from Jeremy Corbyn – the actual evidence shows the opposite. Corbyn’s core backers are throwing their efforts into putting Khan in City Hall, not just out of gratitude to Sadiq for nominating Jeremy for Labour leader, it is as an essential effort in self preservation. If Khan loses, Corbyn will have demonstrably failed his highest profile electoral test…
The evidence is that the Corbynistas are putting their left-wing muscle behind Khan:
- Sadiq’s campaign HQ is the TSSA union HQ. The left-wing TSSA union were early backers of Jeremy Corbyn for Leader.
- The TSSA have seconded a campaign staffer full-time to Sadiq’s campaign.
- The TSSA gave Khan a £10,000 cash donation.
You might say that it would be unusual for a London tube union to not try and get a Labour candidate for mayor in their pocket. Khan of course publicly says he backs a Night Tube service – as do 78% of London voters – the TSSA oppose it and will naturally want to collect repayment of their favours if Khan wins. That would not be unexpected, a relatively normal quid pro quo by the corrupt standards of London’s loony left.
That would be if it were not for who else is based in the TSSA building where Sadiq runs his phone banking:
Momentum Campaign (Services) Limited’s two controlling directors are:
- Simon Fletcher – Red Ken’s former consigliere and now Corbyn’s chief-of-staff.
- Jon Lansman the veteran Bennite and key “Jeremy for Leader” campaigner now turned purger-in-chief of Momentum.
Judge Khan’s campaign by the company he keeps….
Jeremy Corbyn has finally found his new spin doctor. Communication Workers Union spinner Kevin Slocombe is wasting no time in trying to hide awkward stories from the past, already deleting his Twitter account. Turns out he’s not a fan of Jamie Reed:
This old tweet from Corbyn chief of staff Simon Fletcher is curious, too:
Oops…
UPDATE: During the leadership election Slocombe was head of comms for the CWU. Which means he was a major player at the union when its general secretary infamously said there was a “Blairite virus” in the Labour Party:
“We think that it is time for a change for Labour. The grip of the Blairites and individuals like Peter Mandelson must now be loosened once and for all. There is a virus within the Labour party, and Jeremy Corbyn is the antidote.
Not exactly a unifying figure then…
