2020 Labour Leadership Election

[Roblox]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

[CumbrianLefty]

Starmer and Rayner have issued a joint statement announcing an inquiry into the leaked report.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Starmer and Rayner have issued a joint statement announcing an inquiry into the leaked report.

Specifically to look into:

1. Background and circumstances of the report being commissioned

2. The contents, wider culture and practices in the report

3. The circumstances the report was leaked into the public domain

Point three is important. Most of the online drama has been about the various factional bunfight issues, but the data breach here is extremely serious: vast amounts of unredacted personal information concerning people who made complaints to the party. Not much doubt that there would be room for civil action from affected parties.

[Pulaski]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

Unlikely they will be. Many of them are now in the shadow ministry.

[Blair]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

Unlikely they will be. Many of them are now in the shadow ministry.

This is untrue & I would be careful about making comments about a report like this.

[Intell]

Starmer needs to remove the labour right from his cabinet and expel the blairites who opposed labour in 2017 and led the tories to the win. Disgusting behaviour is not to be tolerated.

[cp]

Starmer needs to remove the labour right from his cabinet and expel the blairites who opposed labour in 2017 and led the tories to the win. Disgusting behaviour is not to be tolerated.

There are a few people whose careers are probably dead for the next few years because of this, Iain McNichol and Emilie Oldknow* in particular. The latter could be quite significant as she was tapped for a big promotion.

More broadly, I think this will blunt the impact of the EHRC report in a few months and stymie the anti-Corbyn efforts in the party for a while. Fair or not, the behaviour revealed in this leak will make it easier for otherwise chastened lefties/Corbynites to dismiss the AS controversy as a stitch up (in extent at least; anyone denying its existence is untouchable even on the far left). Going forward, fewer will be cowed by arguments about Corbyn's electability/competence/leadership, as it's now quite easy to portray him as the victim of a conspiracy.

*Also, it seems Oldknow's spouse is Jonathan Ashworth, whose phone conversation with a Tory friend slagging off Corbyn was leaked in the final days of the campaign. Yeesh!

[Pulaski]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

Unlikely they will be. Many of them are now in the shadow ministry.

This is untrue & I would be careful about making comments about a report like this.

David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Jon Ashworth and Ian Murray are all in the shadow cabinet.

Jess Phillips, Pat McFadden, Wes Streeting, Stephen Kinnock, Stephen Doughty and Lucy Powell are all in the outer ministry.

With regard to your warning, I highly doubt the UK Labour Party cares about what a random man in Australia posts on a forum.

[CumbrianLefty]

Lucy Powell isn't really like some of the others you have named.

[Pulaski]

Lucy Powell isn't really like some of the others you have named.

She was attending rallies aimed at undermining and removing Corbyn as early as 2018.

(In fact, add Kate Green to the list - I hadn't seen that she'd made the shadow ministry too)

[DaWN]

For the record, 9 days is how long it took for my foolish belief that the Labour Party might be ready to change to be shattered.

[CumbrianLefty]

It is ready to change, just not in the way that you wanted.

Genuine question, though - do you find the sort of behaviour outlined in this report defensible?

At all??

[Filuwaúrdjan]

More broadly, I think this will blunt the impact of the EHRC report in a few months

Once again you are deluding yourself.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

1. Background and circumstances of the report being commissioned

This is unlikely to be particularly edifying, by the way. Certain things have already been observed as a result of some seriously sloppy errors. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

[Blair]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

Unlikely they will be. Many of them are now in the shadow ministry.

This is untrue & I would be careful about making comments about a report like this.

David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Jon Ashworth and Ian Murray are all in the shadow cabinet.

Jess Phillips, Pat McFadden, Wes Streeting, Stephen Kinnock, Stephen Doughty and Lucy Powell are all in the outer ministry.

With regard to your warning, I highly doubt the UK Labour Party cares about what a random man in Australia posts on a forum.

Thank you for telling me members of the Shadow Cabinet.

[DaWN]

It is ready to change, just not in the way that you wanted.

I wanted an effective and electable opposition.

Genuine question, though - do you find the sort of behaviour outlined in this report defensible?

At all??

Of course not, although I certainly dispute much of the Corbynite interpretation of it. I'm simply commenting that its leaking and the reaction to said leaking is perfectly indicative of why the party is never going to change and will be perpetually in opposition no matter who is leader. The shadow of Corbyn will be over your party for a long, long time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Both the thread and the article it comments on are worth reading.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1249998402563293184

[Zinneke]

I read through half of it and while the rest read out of a Thick of It script, what disgusted me the most (although obviously unsurprising) was the naked nepotism..."I heard you daughter was in need of experience"....this culture has to be stopped across the board, and not just in Westminster, in other European capitals too.

Also the Momentum guys are out doing these, which are quite amusing.

[cp]

More broadly, I think this will blunt the impact of the EHRC report in a few months

Once again you are deluding yourself.

Have I been delusional before?

In any case, I didn't mean to imply the report will be anything other than damning or that it will not induce the typical reactions from the usual suspects. I just think the accounts from the leak will complicate the discussion the party has about antisemitism going forward once the report is released.

Both the thread and the article it comments on are worth reading.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1249998402563293184

I may have some of the nuance wrong on this, but I think Bush and Wagner's assertion doesn't quite hold up. As I've understood it, some of the texts in the leaked document showed funds duringt he 2017 campaign being surreptitiously directed into a semi-clandestine generic sounding fund for the purpose of shoring up the reelection of select anti-Corbyn Labour MPs who were thought to be useful allies. 

[EastAnglianLefty]

More broadly, I think this will blunt the impact of the EHRC report in a few months

Once again you are deluding yourself.

Have I been delusional before?

In any case, I didn't mean to imply the report will be anything other than damning or that it will not induce the typical reactions from the usual suspects. I just think the accounts from the leak will complicate the discussion the party has about antisemitism going forward once the report is released.

Both the thread and the article it comments on are worth reading.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1249998402563293184

I may have some of the nuance wrong on this, but I think Bush and Wagner's assertion doesn't quite hold up. As I've understood it, some of the texts in the leaked document showed funds duringt he 2017 campaign being surreptitiously directed into a semi-clandestine generic sounding fund for the purpose of shoring up the reelection of select anti-Corbyn Labour MPs who were thought to be useful allies.

It's not clear whether incorrect election spending reports were submitted (which would be a very serious breach of the law) or whether the correct paperwork was submitted to the leadership and Electoral Commission, but that the description the leadership received of the contents wasn't quite what the contents actually said (which would be grossly unprofessional, but would also reflect poorly on the leadership for not realising they were being taken for fools.)

But in addition, it's not as simple as money being spent on entirely safe seats. There was widespread and justified suspicion of some of the polling numbers in the campaign and there was a belief that they were giving false hope to Labour. In fact it turned out to be wrong in the other direction, but some of the seats being mentioned would likely have been under threat if the polls had turned out to be wrong in Labour's favour.

[Blair]

If it was the former the assumption is that issue would have already been submitted to the police.

[CumbrianLefty]

And some of us have trouble seeing Adam Wagner as a wholly reliable source tbh.

[cp]

Yeah, I struggle with him. He seems very bright and capable in his field (human rights law) but when it comes to discussing Corbyn he seems to take leave of his senses. A lot of academic twitter is like that (Glen O'Hara, ugh).

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

the vibe I got from the leaks is grown up student politicians, which is to be expected. Not that I imagine the contents of other parties' groupchats would be particularly edifying material, but is it too much to want an apolitical party bureaucracy that isn't staffed by the spouses of MP's (freaking Phil Woolas's wife was in there, blast from the past) and union heavies rotating their guys out in turn?

[Pulaski]

Wow, that report is…Something. Serious chance Corbyn would be PM right now following the 2017 election if it wasn't for some of the stuff in it. I think its pretty obvious that people intentionally working to sabotage the party from the inside should be kicked out.

Unlikely they will be. Many of them are now in the shadow ministry.

This is untrue & I would be careful about making comments about a report like this.

David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Jon Ashworth and Ian Murray are all in the shadow cabinet.

Jess Phillips, Pat McFadden, Wes Streeting, Stephen Kinnock, Stephen Doughty and Lucy Powell are all in the outer ministry.

With regard to your warning, I highly doubt the UK Labour Party cares about what a random man in Australia posts on a forum.

Thank you for telling me members of the Shadow Cabinet.

No problem. I doubt I’ll be on here in 5 years when the next Labour Shadow Cabinet is sworn in, so you may have to look elsewhere for your information at that stage.