LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Last week an explosive report exposed the bitterness, misogyny and racism which drove some Labour staffers in their fanatical battle to defeat Jeremy Corbyn. It is a report which provides the party’s new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, with an immense challenge and could have enormous implications for the future of the party.
A poisonous culture
The contents of the report are shocking. They involve the misuse of funds, a concerted campaign to undermine the party’s efforts in the general election in 2017 and the party’s attempts to investigate complaints of antisemitism.
The report finds that there was “abundant evidence of a hyper-factional atmosphere prevailing in party HQ during this period, which appears to have affected the expeditious and resolute handling of disciplinary complaints.”
Most shockingly of all perhaps is the language used to describe Dawn Butler and Diane Abbot. One staffer described Abbot as ‘repulsive’ and when another found her crying in the toilets in the wake of abuse she received in 2017, instead of consoling her, suggested telling a Channel Four journalist. One reply suggested he already had.
Dawn Butler’s promotion to the shadow cabinet was treated with derision and suggested “that her accusations of racism within the Labour Party were untrue”.
This open contempt for black women, especially, leaves a bitter taste and has understandably provoked fury on social media.
John McDonnell called for the immediate suspension of those named in the document, pending the results of an official investigation. Speaking to Sky News the Shadow Chancellor said the report should be sent to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission:
“I think the truth has got to come out…” he said, “if that means the EHRC comes to a finding saying that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic, well, so be it.”
Labour’s Iain McNicol meanwhile, who was prominent in the report has stood down from his position on Labour’s front bench in the Lords. He had been nominated for a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn after resigning as Labour’s General Secretary in 2018.
A spokesperson for Labour said: “Iain is stepping aside while the investigation is taking place.”
Shock and anger
The rage among some of those who were the target of abuse is palpable. Emma Dent Coad, Labour’s former MP for Kensington, said the allegations made her ‘blood run cold’ and that ‘petty and vindictive staff’ should be immediately suspended.
“It’s like the film Mean Girls, in that sheer nastiness was directed at people who they thought looked and behaved in the ‘wrong way,’” she said. “But pathetic and puerile comments about me are nothing like the comments directed at black women MPs, which made my blood run cold.”
She also said she felt vindicated in her belief that Labour’s HQ had been working against her, by refusing to offer help in retaining her seat at the 2019 General Election. She lost her seat by just 150. At the time, she had attributed the lack of support to general incompetence rather than malevolence.
“It felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall. But actually, people were not helping me because of my politics,” she said.
A new civil war
At the other end of the scale, Peter Mandelson decided the real person to blame was, not the people named in the report but Jeremy Corbyn himself. This was, he said, an attempt to rewrite history and offered what he describes as “a very partial picture of the culture and breakdown that enveloped Labour as a result of the Corbyn leadership”.
Other staff, meanwhile, accused Labour’s General Secretary Jennie Formby of not having their safety as her top priority over the report. Indeed, putting evidence of their own bullying into the public domain is, they say, another form of bullying.
The report is a serious crisis for a leadership team which pledged to end infighting. Not least because of the possibility that the report may have breached GDPR guidelines by naming individuals. The party has reported the leak to the ICO. Litigation by some of those named in the report could also be financially devastating for the party.
However, Starmer’s response will be critical especially as he praised some of those mentioned in this report for coming forward to the BBC’s Panorama investigation. He has announced an investigation into how the report was leaked as well as its contents.
However, the fact that those accused in the report have not been suspended has angered some. A party which is seen to turn a blind eye risks much more than financial ruin, it could alienate some of its key supporters. The journalist, Chante Joseph, told the Independent that the “party has a racism problem and they cannot hide it any longer.”
The repercussions of this report are only just unfolding. Starmer ran for Labour leader on ending factionalism and will have to demonstrate a determination to crack down on it, regardless which individuals are incriminated.
(Written by Tom Cropper, edited by Michael O’Sullivan)