Some of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies interfered in the independent process designed to deal with accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, former party officials have told @BBCPanorama
The former staffers say the leader’s office tried to provide ‘instruction’&officials brought in by the party’s General Secretary, Jennie Formby ‘downgraded’ some punishments to a ‘slap on the wrist’. Mr Corbyn insists his team has never interfered in disciplinary decisions.
But emails leaked to the programme suggest that Ms Formby tried to influence the selection of the disciplinary panel for the case of Jackie Walker, the former vice chair of the left wing campaign group, Momentum....
@later said that she would delete the correspondence on her official labour Party account. The emails also show that Jeremy Corbyn’s own personal email was copied in. Lab says that she temporarily stopped using her party email because of concerns a pol opponent had access to it.
The former General Secretary of the Labour Party, Iain McNichol, told Panorama that the evidence should ‘set alarm bells ringing across the party….to try to interfere politically within the NCC is just wrong."
Labour says the emails were "simply about ensuring the NCC is held accountable for the length of time they take to hear cases, and about protecting the party against any successful legal challenge on the basis of perceived bias if the same panel is used in high profile cases."
Another email shows Seumas Milne, one of Mr Corbyn’s closest aides, complained about the independent party process writing, "something's going wrong and we're muddling up political disputes with racism".
The party’s head of complaints at the time, Sam Matthews has told the programme this is, "the leader's office requesting to be involved directly in the disciplinary process".
He added: "This is not a helpful suggestion. It is an instruction." Labour says there was no interference, and claim the former staff making the claims are ‘disaffected’.
Panorama has also been told that on one occasion the leader’s office ordered batches of anti-semitism complaints to be brought to his office to be processed by his aides and can reveal that by this spring, there was a backlog of 1000 allegations of anti-semitism...
... and only 15 individuals had been expelled from the party.
A Labour spokesman said: "The Labour Party at all levels is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism and is determined to root out this social cancer from our movement and society."

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Chris Mason

Chris Mason Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ChrisMasonBBC

Nov 6, 2021
Former MP and former BBC reporter Martin Bell tells @BBCBreakfast he doesn't think any party will be able to "overturn" the majority in what was Owen Paterson's North Shropshire seat in the by-election to come…
The former MP stood as an anti-sleaze candidate in Tatton in Cheshire to unseat Neil Hamilton in 1997, as opposition parties stood aside (via @ionewells)
He said opposition parties in the North Shropshire by-election "might look back at the end and think maybe we should have tried something else."

He added that sleaze was an issue that "really cuts through to people in a way that others don't."
Read 4 tweets
Nov 6, 2021
Former Prime Minister Sir John Major @bbcr4today: "I have been a Conservative all my life. And if I am concerned at how the government is behaving, I suspect lots of other people are as well." bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Sir John Major: "Much of what they are doing is very un Conservative in its behaviour. There is a general whiff of 'we are the masters now' about their behaviour."
Sir John Major on how the government handled the Paterson affair: "shameful, wrong, and unworthy of this or indeed any government. It also had the effect of trashing the reputation of parliament."
Read 13 tweets
Oct 5, 2021
Justice Minister Victoria Atkins says the government wants to target the perpetrators of "so-called banter" against young women and girls in the street #cpc2021 bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Ms Atkins told the Conservative conference that she wanted to eradicate "disgusting" behaviour and attitudes within 10 years.
She said: "Targeting perpetrators, some of the banter, the so-called banter that our young women and girls have to put up with in the street is disgusting and we want to target that sort of behaviour..."
Read 4 tweets
Oct 3, 2021
"I think people should trust our police," the Prime Minister tells #Marr @BBCOne
Prime Minister: "We are not convicting enough rapists and we need to deal with it." #marr
"Too many women are waiting too long for their cases to be heard" -- Prime Minister
Read 13 tweets
Mar 30, 2021
NEW; THREAD: The Labour Party has been handed what it claims to be a business card for the financier Lex Greensill -- when he worked in government under David Cameron.
Mr Greensill is described on the card as a "senior adviser" in the Prime Minister's Office -- and it includes a Downing Street email address and what appears to be a direct line landline telephone number.
Labour say it was handed to a figure in industry in the summer of 2012 by Mr Greensill, shortly after he was appointed as an unpaid "Supply Chain Finance Advisor."
Read 6 tweets
Oct 4, 2020
It is Day 2 of Tie Minister. This morning’s beaten finalist on the left, taking on a new entry on the right. I’ll wear the winner @BBCBreakfast in the morn. In a major democratic advance, proper voting options tonight...in the tweet below. Polls close at 4am, when I get dressed Image
Tie Minister... over to you @BBCBreakfast
There’s a lot of love for these fellas at the moment. Which may or may not be a commentary on my neckwear options @BBCBreakfast Image
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(