Observer article shows how Labour insiders worked to oust Jeremy Corbyn
At last, it seems, we have proof, as an Observer article shows how Labour insiders worked to oust Jeremy Corbyn as the party’s leader.
The piece by Anushka Asthana details how Labour Together was formed by pro-Israel donor Trevor Chinn, Keir Starmer’s current advisor Morgan McSweeney [pictured] and hedge fund owner Martin Taylor to defeat Mr Corbyn’s soft-left politics and ensure a return to the neoliberal nonsense of New Labour.
Read:
Labour Together, as the operation became known, was explicitly not about trying to defeat Corbyn through any internal coup – they now considered that to be impossible. But it would try to defeat Corbynism – and the Corbynite who would inevitably run in any future contest to lead the party.
McSweeney was among those who took the 2017 result very seriously and believed that Corbyn, whose politics he despised, could win the next election.
So his detractors never believed that Jeremy Corbyn was unelectable. They always knew that he was highly electable. They feared that he would be able to transform global politics “for the good of the many” if given the chance.
McSweeney made clear his mission to those gathered in [the Labour Croydon North MP Steve] Reed’s parliamentary office: “to move the Labour party from the hard left
This is delusional. Jeremy Corbyn’s politics was centre-left at most – similar to that of Scandinavian countries.
when JC steps down as leader and to reconnect the Labour party with the country
Delusional again. Mr Corbyn’s Labour was more closely-connected with what the people of the UK want than Keir Starmer’s, as the number of people voting for the party under their respective leaderships shows.
[and] build a sustainable winning electoral coalition…”
Delusional for a third time. Starmer’s Labour only won because the right-wing vote was fragmented between the Tories and Reform UK. The article itself denies this but admits that Labour’s voter support is “fragile”.
In a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, McSweeney claimed that one of the key problems the group might encounter was “a Labour government” – making explicit that his concern was not whether Corbyn could win, but that if he were to become prime minister it would prevent the renewal they were focused on.
So now we see evidence (proof?) that people in the Labour Party actually plotted to prevent Labour under Mr Corbyn from forming a government.
The mechanism for preventing a Labour government was a manufactured accusation of anti-Semitism:
The group funded a small office in Vauxhall, and soon it reached out to former Labour advisers to work alongside them with a focus on online antisemitism. In an early review, they identified problem posts in hundreds of Facebook groups with links to either the party or leftwing politics. Some of these were aimed at Labour’s female Jewish MPs. They then farmed out the posts they uncovered to journalists who were themselves reporting on rising evidence of antisemitism on the left.
One source said the aim was to “shame” people out of being part of Facebook groups with unacceptable content but argued that it wasn’t really working. So, next they took aim at news websites they considered to be either alt-left or alt-right
Given the attack on Vox Political in The Sunday Times (and other papers that should have known better) in February 2018, I cannot help but question whether This Site was among those targeted.
As part of a “Stop funding fake news” campaign, they took screenshots of articles they felt had either racist or fake content
Felt? Or did they coldly calculate that they could make these articles appear to have racist or fake-news content?
then posted messages on Twitter aimed at brands that were advertising on the websites’ pages.
‘Stop Funding Fake News’ was, we were told, run by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. So this was a front for Labour Together? Is that what Ms Asthana is saying? Interesting…
While websites like This Site and – as per the article – The Canary were attacked and vilified, The Guardian was “shmoozed”:
I… found myself invited with colleagues to a dinner… listening to McSweeney, Cruddas, Reed, [Wigan MP Lisa] Nandy and [Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana] Mahmood tell us about Labour Together’s plans for renewal.
They had brought with them another MP who was just starting to do more with the group – Keir Starmer… Alongside me that night was Guardian news editor Dan Sabbagh, who has since told me he immediately wondered if Starmer was their candidate.
Labour Together tried to de-fund Mr Corbyn’s party by approaching donors behind the leadership’s collective back, with fairy tales designed to discourage them from supporting the Corbyn project:
Soon after seven MPs left [in February 2019, they resigned over Corbyn’s leadership and founded a new party, Change UK], Labour Together sent a document to prospective donors, which has since been leaked to me. It warned that the Labour party was “politically and morally in a crisis”, claiming the “Hard left […] will divide our party, condemn us to electoral defeat, attempt to drive out democratic socialists and corrupt our moral purpose in the interest of ideological aims.”
We know Mr Corbyn’s Labour was not “hard left”; it was Labour Together that was trying to “divide our party” (clearly); we know McSweeney (at least) did not believe Labour was unelectable under Mr Corbyn; and if anyone was trying to “drive out democratic socialists and corrupt [Labour’s] moral purpose”, it seems clear that those people were the members of Labour Together – so this document, seems to be nothing but a pack of lies.
The document set out three possible positions for Labour’s “moderates”, of which only the third was suggested as a practical option:
To “win a majority position from within the current Labour party when Jeremy Corbyn leaves his position and/or is defeated in a general election.
Again we see that Labour Together was working to undermine Labour’s chances of winning a general election with Mr Corbyn as leader.
If accurate (and it’s taken from a new book by the same author, so This Writer will assume for the time being that it has been libel-proofed), then this information shows clearly that Labour Together and its members actively participated in a campaign to sabotage their own party’s electoral chances in order to prevent the radical change in politics that Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership represented.
It corroborates information in the Forde Report and the leaked Labour dossier (remember them), claiming that Labour insiders undermined the party and its then-leader.
These people are now in charge of Labour and advising its current leader, Keir Starmer – who, from this account, appears to be nothing more than a puppet; a figurehead for their cabal.
If all the above is accurate, shouldn’t any remaining Labour members – of good faith – be demanding the removal from their party of all those involved in this conspiracy?
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The Labour right, which I fully accept is not a monolith, has always based its power on the idea:
“Look, you may not agree with us much but at least we know how to win elections”.
That was the entire basis of David Miliband’s Labour leadership campaign in 2010. No evidence was ever produced for this because there was no such evidence that I am aware of.
The claim was that the Conservatives feared him most. But he agreed with them on most things.
Do people really fear people who agree with them?
Similarly, the real fear about Corbyn was that he could win elections and thus would have destroyed their argument.