Anti-Corbyn Labour officials who worked to prevent the party from winning in order oust its leader regard the organisation as “their personal property”, Len McCluskey has said.
In an angry broadside published on Wednesday, the Unite general secretary said the “politically-crooked” officials on right wing of the party were only interested in fighting the left and had taken part in a “rancid, and very cruel, political culture”.
The intervention comes after the leaking of a report and cache of WhatsApp chats and emails that appear to show senior executives at the party’s HQ worked to undermine Labour’s chances at the 2017 election and were distraught when it overturned the Tory majority.
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“The only thing the Labour right are interested in, the only thing they are good at, is fighting the left,” Mr McCluskey said, citing socialist writer Stuart Hall.
“Bear in mind that these are the people who accused Corbyn supporters of only being interested in political purity and not in winning power. Even the most demented sectarian on the left has not championed a Tory election victory to win an inner-party argument.”
Writing for the LabourList website, he said officials who had been given honours for “for services to the Labour Party” should have them altered to reflect “services to the Tory Party”.
“Let us be clear what the officials whose cynical, abusive and factional conduct has now been exposed were actually doing,” Unite’s general secretary said.
“In working for a Labour defeat, they were working for a Tory victory – that is to say, empowering the party that stood for austerity and a ‘hard Brexit’. These politically-crooked officials were prepared to risk dramatic damage to the interests of the British economy and working people just in order to scratch their factional itch.”
Mr McCluskey said the episode was “not about legitimate political disagreement” and that those who opposed the leadership had a right to hold their views, but that they should do their jobs “diligently, loyally and professionally”.
The 860-page report, drawn up in the last days of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, is thought to have been produced as an annex to the party’s submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The EHRC is investigating Labour’s handling of antisemitism complaints. The report focuses on the conduct of the party’s governance and legal unit and argued that factional hostility inhibited the functioning of the Labour bureaucracy and made it harder to tackle antisemitism complaints.
But it is the report’s copious evidence of the extent of factional sabotage and abusive discussion by senior staffers of left-wing colleagues that has most incensed many Labour members and supporters.
They seem to regard the Labour Party as their private property and anyone a millimetre to the left of Tony Blair as a ‘Trot’.
Len McCluskey “The atmosphere exposed in the exchanges varies between what one might expect to hear in the toilets at a teenage nightclub – ‘she’s so fat’, ‘she smells’ – and the banter at a Trump rally – the black woman is ‘disgusting’, that left-wing activist should ‘die in a fire’. Mean Girls meets Mississippi Burning ,” Mr McCluskey wrote.
“They seem to regard the Labour Party as their private property and anyone a millimetre to the left of Tony Blair as a ‘Trot’. Andy Burnham has spoken out about how he feels the same apparatus undermined him on NHS policy.
“And we – the labour movement – were paying for all this. Indeed, it seems we were also handing over money that was, unbeknownst to the national executive committee, allegedly being squirrelled away into secret slush funds devoted to supporting those MPs who party officialdom favoured. At first glance there would appear to be a case to answer for breaches of electoral law as well as party governance procedures. Since Unite was by far the largest single donor to the 2017 election campaign, giving around 75 per ecent of total union donations, we have the right to expect an honest accounting for this.”
Speaking on Wednesday morning Sir Keir Starmer, the new leader of the Labour party, said he was “shocked” by the report. He has ordered an inquiry into its contents, as well as how it came to be drawn up and leaked.
“This is a leaked report into what was apparently happening before I became leader. I was shocked by what I saw and the circumstance in which it all came about,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“That’s why I have ordered an inquiry, which I want to be professionally done, independently done and quickly done, because our party needs to unite and face the future and get back to our historic purpose, which is getting a Labour government in so that we can actually change lives for millions of people for the better.”
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PA
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PA
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Jason Skarratt/Flick.digital
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PA
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Getty
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Getty
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PA
1/50 14 April 2020The new Nightingale Hospital in Washington, Tyne and Wear, being fitted out
PA
2/50 13 April 2020Walkers enjoy the bluebells in Wanstead Park in London
PA
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PA
4/50 11 April 2020A man jogs on an empty beach in Scarborough as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
5/50 10 April 2020Military personnel testing people at a coronavirus test centre in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures
Reuters
6/50 9 April 2020Posters drawn by children displayed in support of the NHS in a building near St Thomas’ Hospital in London
Getty
7/50 8 April 2020A street cleaner in front of Coronavirus messaging on Picadilly Circus in London
Getty
8/50 7 April 2020A jogger on the Millennium Bridge in London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
9/50 6 April 2020A Royal Signals soldier practices during training held by the British Army. They are preparing them to support the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust in the battle against coronavirus
Ministry of Defence/Reuters
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AP
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AFP via Getty
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PA
13/50 2 April 2020A child at Westlands Primary School paints a poster in support of the NHS in Newcastle-under-Lyme
Reuters
14/50 1 April 2020Staff wearing PPE of gloves and face masks, as a preactionary measure against Covid-19, disinfect an ambulance after it arrived with a patient at St Thomas’ Hospital in north London
AFP via Getty
15/50 31 March 2020Llandudno Pier remains closed and deserted of tourists during the pandemic lockdown in Wales
Getty
16/50 30 March 2020Waves break against the pier at Tynemouth, on the North East coast
PA
17/50 29 March 2020Waves crash over a car on the seafront during windy conditions in Broadstairs, Kent
PA
18/50 28 March 2020Derbyshire Police dye the “blue lagoon” in Harpur Hill, Buxton black, as gatherings there are “dangerous” and are “in contravention of the current instruction of the UK Government”
PA
19/50 27 March 2020A road sign advising drivers to ‘stay home protect NHS saves lives’ is visible on the M80 near Banknock as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
20/50 26 March 2020A postman wears a mask and gloves to deliver letters in Broadstairs, Kent, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put the UK in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. PA Photo. Picture date: Thursday March 26, 2020. The UK’s coronavirus death toll reached 463 on Wednesday.
PA
21/50 25 March 2020Members of the public out exercising on Brighton beach at sunset
Getty
22/50 24 March 2020Military vehicles cross Westminster Bridge after members of the 101 Logistic Brigade delivered a consignment of medical masks to St Thomas’ hospital
Getty
23/50 23 March 2020Commuters travel on the London underground during the Coronavirus pandemic
Getty
24/50 22 March 2020People walk on the seafront after recent incidents of members of the public ignoring government advice on social distancing on in Hove
Getty
25/50 21 March 2020A general view of an empty Trafalgar Square in London. There have as of now been 3,983 diagnosed coronavirus cases in the UK and 177 deaths
Getty
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PA
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PA
30/50 16 March 2020Shoppers form long queues ahead of the opening of a Costco wholesale store in Chingford
Getty
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Reuters
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PA Images via Reuters Connect
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35/50 11 March 2020Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak poses for pictures with the Budget Box outside 11 Downing Street ahead of Britain’s first post-Brexit budget
AFP/Getty
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PA
37/50 9 March 2020The Sub Dean and Canon Paster of Southwark, Canon Michael Rawson, left, blesses the statue of Santa Barbara and workers on one of the sites of the Thames Tideway Tunnel in London. Santa Barbara is the patron saint of tunnellers and by tradition a statue and shrine to her is placed at tunnel portals and the entrance to long tunnel headings to keep workers safe while underground. The 16 mile-long Thames Tideway Tunnel will prevent tens of millions of tonnes of sewage and rainwater run-off entering the river every year
PA
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PA
39/50 7 March 2020People taking part in the Million Women Rise march through central London, to demand an end to male violence against women and girls in all its forms
PA
40/50 6 March 2020Crew members take a selfie beside the cab of The Flying Scotswoman, the LNER Edinburgh to London rail service which has an all-female crew to celebrate International Women’s Day, before it departs Edinburgh Waverley station
PA
41/50 5 March 2020A poodle arrives for the first day of Crufts 2020 in Birmingham
Jason Skarratt/Flick.digital
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PA
43/50 3 March 2020A pedestrian wears a protective facemask while taking a bus in Westminster, London, on the day that Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK has risen to 51
PA
44/50 2 March 2020An artist at Madame Tussauds in London fits the museum’s waxwork of Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a baby carrier, following the recent announcement that he is expecting a baby with partner Carrie Symonds
PA
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PA
46/50 29 February 2020A home flooded after the River Aire burst its banks in East Cowick, East Yorkshire
Getty
47/50 28 February 2020Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a “Youth Strike 4 Climate” protest march in Bristol, south west England. “Activism works, so I ask you to act,” she said
AFP/Getty
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PA
49/50 26 February 2020Temporary barriers have been overwhelmed by flood water in Bewdley, Shropshire
Getty
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PA
In a statement released on Wednesday the Labour party branch of the GMB union, which represents some staffers at the party’s HQ, said it was “deeply concerned” by the report, and the means by which it was commissioned, created, and made public”.
The branch, which is one of a number of trade unions organising Labour staffers, said it was “extremely worrying that the report contains transcripts of private conversations between staff on private accounts using personal equipment”.
It added: “We agree some of the selected comments attributed to senior staff are absolutely indefensible, it is worth noting that they are not being seen within context and some comments attributed are being flatly denied.”
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk