Labour infighting

[DonnyOsmond]

As part of the report on anti-semitism in the Labour party that's been leaked it's emerged that there was a lot of infighting from people who even fought so Labour weren't elected in 2017 to oust Corbyn. There was bullying of members in a Whatsapp chat, such as with Abbott where she had been crying in a stall and members in the group alerted reporters to her location. Members blocked Corbyn from dealing with anti-semitism.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leak-report-corbyn-election-whatsapp-antisemitism-tories-yougov-poll-a9462456.html

https://twitter.com/RaynerSkyNews/status/1249053550665183237

None of these come out in a good light.

Tom Watson
Emilie Oldknow
Iain McNicol
Tracy Allen
Patrick Heneghan
Greg Cook
Simon Jackson
Jo Green
Ali Moussavi
Sarah Brown
Sam Matthews
Mike Creighton

[BillyStubbsTears]

Absolutely they don't come out of it well. That's an understatement. And there certainly needs to be internal disciplinary action.

But I'm still wondering about the motives of the people who leaked this internal report to the Press.

[tyke1962]

Whether people agree with Corbyn or generally didn't like him the fact remains he won two leadership elections extremely convincingly .

To deliberately set out to destroy him internally simply because he wasn't their preferred choice is absolutely unforgivable .

It's also even more unforgivable given the austerity measures many many working class people were and still are enduring under Tory governments for a decade .

These people have absolutely no place in the Labour Party , absolutely no place at all and should be slung out .

It boils my blood it really does that these people are in my party and representing nothing more than their narrow minded personal ambitions .

I was always only lukewarm on Corbyn but as I say he was our democratically elected leader and you offer the Tories nothing , absolutely nothing .

Scabs the lot of em .

[MachoMadness]

Starmer announcing an investigation into the leaking of the document as well as it's contents. Hopefully more focused on the latter.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It needs to be focussed on both. Factionalism needs rooting out entirely.

[wilts rover]

Definitely the first big test for Starmer - who needs to be judged on what he does rather than what people think he will do.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

It needs to be focussed on both. Factionalism needs rooting out entirely.

Most of you will know far more than I ever intend to on the inner workings of political parties.  But, is it actually possible to do that? Surely people are too vested and ingrained in it?

[BillyStubbsTears]

BFYP.

You're right, but the problem comes when the faction winning becomes more important than the collective winning.

Unfortunately for the Labour party, that has always been a problem, with all sides of the party as bad as each other in my experience.

This looks like a classic example.

Right wing officials deliberately undermining the left wing leader.

And then the odd response of a report that the new leadership appears to have been kept in the dark about, commissioned by...we don't know, authored by...we don't know, leaked to the press by...we don't know. Occam's Razor suggests that someone is getting their bit of factional revenge.

In light of this, the new leadership's response is clinical. Hold both set of bas**rds to account, and if necessary, chuck them out of the party.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RaynerSkyNews/status/1249722937000767489

[BillyStubbsTears]

And here's an archetype of the sort of factional t**t who crops up like cancer in the Labour party every generation.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1249725093967794179

How in hell can you read what Starmer and Rayner have said, then wind people up with comments like
"Emphasis is on how it was leaked though contents will also be investigated. For activists I’ve spoken to today, particularly BAME & women members, this will be an upsetting response."

The statement from Starmer says clearly that the issues raised in the report will be investigated thoroughly. In light of that, why should this bas**rd be spinning it as an insult to BAME Labour activists? Unless the faction is more important than the party...

[wilts rover]

It needs to be focussed on both. Factionalism needs rooting out entirely.

Most of you will know far more than I ever intend to on the inner workings of political parties.  But, is it actually possible to do that? Surely people are too vested and ingrained in it?

Billy is right about the factionalism in Labour - and he and I are just as guilty on that as a fair few on here - but this I think is where Keir Starmer is uniquely position to make a difference and be different.

Unlike any other Labour leader I can think of, probably any other political leader we have had in this country, he has a great deal of experience of running an extremely large and complex organisation - where judging people on evidence rather than prejudice really mattered.

In addition he is not associated with any particular faction - and has gone out of his way not to be.

Still it will be a big test for him to keep that balance and he should be judged on what he does - but I do think he is uniquely positioned to be able to do it.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Amen to that Wilts. Let's hope he can unite those who want uniting and get rid of the ones who don't.