They decided that whether that staffer was or wasn't put there by the leadership for political reasons, "some people" perceived him to have been, and that undermined confidence in the independence of the complaints process.
That's very interesting because in June, when a new Executive Director of Legal Affairs was hired to oversee GLU, the press was told he was Starmer's "trusted ally," his "enforcer," and GLU staff should fear for their jobs.
Didn't that undermine the independence of GLU?
Bringing this back to Corbyn, on an all-staff call on Friday—perhaps stung by NEC members having disputed that the General Secretary even has the power to suspend—staff were told he'd consulted Starmer's reported "enforcer." Just can't escape the charge of political interference.
Meantime, Friday morning, Starmer made a further breach. Instead of not commenting on Jeremy's specific case, he mischaracterised what Jeremy said and branded it "denial." That could itself constitute political interference. It could prejudice an investigation.
Jeremy Corbyn didn't deny there's a problem with antisemitism in the Labour Party, didn't say it was "just" exaggerated, and didn't say it was "just" factional. He said "Anyone claiming there is no antisemitism in the Labour Party is wrong." Starmer knows that, of course.
All this leads to two conclusions:
1) Labour flouted the EHRC report on the day it was published. There was political interference. That appears to be unlawful indirect discrimination.
2) If I was in charge of Labour, I really wouldn't want to have to defend all this in court.
Annoyingly, two tweets in the above thread are showning as unavailable to most people (although I can see them - weird). Here's what they said.
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Meanwhile, Iran described its action as solely aimed at Israeli military facilities, targeting the Nevatim air base, the Netzarim military facility and the Tel Nof intelligence unit.
There is no basis for the claim Iran launched over 200 ballistic missiles at civilian targets.
Ruth Smeeth says she spent 5 years as an MP “begging” Labour to ensure “politicians” weren’t involved in its disciplinary process.
She did this by marching to a disciplinary hearing with 30 politicians, & by calling on Corbyn to “name and shame” abusive members with no process.
Ruth Smeeth says “the thing everyone needs to remember” about messages sent by Labour staff about Diane Abbott, which the Forde Report branded racist, is it was under Corbyn’s leadership.
Smeeth knows the messages were sent by her factional allies working against the leadership.
Challenged on Labour’s failure to act on abusive messages about Diane Abbott sent by Labour staff, Ruth Smeeth cites the Forde Report, before flatly denying there is a “hierarchy of racism”.
But Forde himself disagrees, and has spoken out about this precise kind of denialism.
Labour says it's just ensuring the “highest standards of behaviour" from MPs in its treatment of Diane Abbott and others, not purging the left.
But if it's about standards, how come the following non-left MPs who have been accused of racism do meet the party's "high standards"?>
Steve Reed sits in Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet despite having had to apologise for calling a Jewish businessman a “puppet master” in 2020.
Despite Starmer’s purported “zero tolerance” of antisemitism, Reed faced no sanction and remained in Keir’s team. thejc.com/news/uk/labour…
Mike Amesbury was recently promoted to the shadow frontbench by Starmer. He previously shared what was described as an “antisemitic caricature” on social media, for which he apologised in 2019. thejc.com/news/uk-news/l…
It's become a fact that Roger Waters had a pig emblazoned with the Star of David at his gig in Berlin.
It has been used by MPs to call for his shows to be pulled, featured in headlines in the Daily Mail, repeated by the BBC etc.
Except, he didn't. Here is the pig in Berlin:
The inflatable pig is a reference to the album cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, which showed a pig flying above Battersea Power Station. That, in turn, was a reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm, which depicted pigs as tyrannical rulers.
The inflatable pig has been a feature of Roger Waters' shows for years. Each iteration has different symbols on it. In 2013, the pig featured the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent and star, and the Christian crucifix, presumably in a statement against organised religion.
"This is Keir Starmer you’re talking here" someone replied to me incredulously after I said he lived it up on expenses as DPP.
So let's look instead at the hospitality he's been enjoying lately: more than £22,000 worth in the last year alone—averaging £1,800 a month in freebies.
Starmer was gifted £1,600 of tickets and hospitality for Spurs vs Arsenal in January by Getir, the rapid delivery company that has just got rid of around 300 UK workers with no notice, leaving the laid off employees "crying and angry." chargedretail.co.uk/2023/03/23/get…
He got Google to buy him dinner—at £190 a head—when he felt peckish while cavorting with the elite in Davos (a place he prefers to Westminster because its full of people he "can see working with in future"). Google, of course, a company with no agenda.
NEW: Martin Forde, the KC asked by Keir Starmer to write a report on Labour's culture (that Keir ignored), breaks his silence, saying there's a hierarchy of racism under Starmer:
"Anti-black racism, Islamophobia, isn’t taken as seriously as antisemitism."
Forde: “Quite a high proportion of Black and Asian councillors or prospective MPs felt they'd been subjected to disciplinary action which had been deliberately timed to exclude them from qualifying processes or selection.”
The programme says: "In his report published in July 2022, Forde made 165 recommendations. He was surprised to have heard almost nothing from the party since."