Who is the worst threat to Labour over the leaked report on right-wing factionalism?
For the many: it seems Labour’s apparent failure to live up to its slogan could do more damage to the party than a few defamation/data protection claims.
How surprising to see The Guardian reporting on a financial threat to Labour after a report was leaked alleging misconduct by party officers that meant the party lost the 2017 general election!
Instead of stating that rank-and-file party members were getting together to demand their subscriptions – that they could argue were taken under false pretences as party officers were working against winning the election…
I found that the people accused of the misconduct are planning to sue the party for defamation and data protection offences.
On one hand I am encouraged by this. I have taken Labour to court over data protection offences after (false) information about me was leaked to the national press by a party officer.
The fact that others are considering the same suggests that I was well within my rights to accuse the party (because, as data controller, it has ultimate responsibility for leaks).
On the other, it is doubtful that any defamation claims should be allowed to go anywhere – at least, not yet.
The information about party members in the report is taken from emails and WhatsApp messages that were placed in the hands of party investigators legitimately and it would be premature for anybody to launch lawsuits on the basis of it, until evidence is brought forward that disproves it.
Also, consider the words of the lawyer concerned, Mark Lewis. He said: “For four years, people in Labour have said there is no antisemitism in the party, it’s just a smear. Now they say that of course there was antisemitism, ‘but it just wasn’t us’. They have not noticed the absurdity of their change of position.”
Nobody in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership said there was no anti-Semitism in the party. I haven’t said that. None of the other higher-profile members who were accused has made that suggestion (to my knowledge).
So who, exactly made that claim? I notice that Mr Lewis did not elaborate on its origin and that is another reason to doubt the usefulness of these threatened lawsuits.
Are they just an attempt to bully the current Labour leadership? Why would anybody expect that to work?
On the other hand, going back to the wider party membership, it seems far more likely that action brought by rank-and-file members would succeed in restoring their subscription money to them.
If enough people do this, then it could put Labour in serious financial difficulty.
And it is entirely possible that the party would deserve to be put in that predicament – if the allegations in the report turn out to be accurate.
Source: Labour party faces financial peril over leaked report | Politics | The Guardian
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Most of the rotten apples have already gone, and any remaining should also go soon. Demanding refunds would only damage the party further.
Booting out the Tories should always be the main aim. Weakening the party will. Only make that harder.
“Most of the rotten apples have already gone”
Have they ? I still see plenty of them in the PLP, and who knows what is happening with the unelected officals, although I suspect they’ll just be replaced by more of the same.
“The information about party members in the report is taken from emails and WhatsApp messages that were placed in the hands of party investigators legitimately and it would be premature for anybody to launch lawsuits on the basis of it, until evidence is brought forward that disproves it.”
This simply demonstrates the arrogance of these people. They appear to have made little or no effort to hide their activities, they clearly felt they had little or no worries about repercussions for their actions. With an attitude like that I wonder how they got their jobs in the first place, it looks like some people on the administrative side of the party were effectively either corrupted, or infiltrated the party to cause as much damage as possible.
In my opinion, and it won’t be mine that counts, it was important that the public were made aware of this, it was clearly in the public interest that the .pdf file was realeased.