Corbyn calls out the Sabotage.
So Jeremy Corbyn has finally come out and directly accused former Labour staffers of sabotaging the 2017 General Election, which Labour narrowly lost, but succeeded in denying Theresa May the majority she thought she was guaranteed. For many of us on the left, this has been an ‘At Last’ moment, especially since the revelations of the leaked report into our losses was…well…leaked. He’s not alone in doing so. Former shadow ministers John McDonnell, Ian Lavery & Jon Trickett have stood by him on this, as have former staffers Seumas Milne, Karie Murphy, Andrew Fisher, Andrew Murray and Steve Howell and they have submitted evidence to the Forde Enquiry to this effect, an enquiry set up by Keir Starmer and headed by QC Martin Forde which was taking evidence to investigate the leaked report up until yesterday.
Let’s not beat around the bush here — we as ordinary Labour members were bitterly disappointed to have come so close to power in 2017 on the basis of a transformative agenda that would’ve radically changed how this country is run. When the leaked report came out and many of us were able to read what had gone on behind the scenes during that time, we were absolutely incensed. The sheer scale of sabotage going on within the party, how far up the chain of command it went, leading right up to incriminate the then General Secretary was horrifying. The insults thrown around in the WhatsApp messages are one thing, worthy of an article of their own and indeed Diane Abbott, the subject of many a derogatory message, wants these published in full, since those accused are claiming they’ve been taken out of context. But to be redirecting finance away from where it was needed to shore up safe seats, often held by a Corbyn-hostile MP should count as gross incompetence, not to mention misuse of funds. Tantamount to fraud in fact and indeed the Corbyn-led submission asks the Forde Inquiry to rule on whether this is the case.
Now whatever happens from this point onwards, the Forde Enquiry must be allowed to do it’s job thoroughly and without interference, but that hasn’t stopped the naysayers and the right-wing factions bleating already in an effort to again undermine investigation for their own ends.
A popular attempt to rubbish claims we nearly won in 2017 is to compare what happened then to what happened in 2019. One of the most common ones to crop up on social media is the argument that when Blairites were running the Party in 2017 we nearly won, but when Corbynites were running the Party in 2019 we lost horribly. It’s very much a selective description of what you mean by running isn’t it? If the contents of the leaked report are true, then we did well in 2017 DESPITE the way it was run, not because of it. In 2019, what had changed? We still had the same leader, we were still offering transformative policies — there’s an argument we offered too much, but it was all costed again just as was done in 2017. What had shifted was our Brexit position. We hadn’t been brilliantly clear on what it would be up until then, but ultimately we weren’t in power, so having a concrete Brexit position outside an election period wasn’t needed, it was on the govt to offer that, yet we were asked again and again and again for it. The Tories by contrast had a solid position, to abide by a then 3 year old vote, but offered no detail at all and were never pressed for any, despite being IN power. Our Brexit position shifted after a speech by none other than Keir Starmer calling us a remain party. Consequently, northern leave-voting Labour seats collapsed to the Tories. Our media made a name for itself for holding the opposition to account whilst giving the govt a free pass and it blatantly showed, but in the end that policy change, which I think Corbyn should’ve slammed did us in. Of course we’re now staring down the barrel of a no-deal Brexit thanks to Johnson getting an 80 seat majority and come New Year we’ll no doubt feel the effects of that. There are those who prefer to blame Corbyn for this, but frankly you’re letting Johnson & Cummings off the hook for failing to negotiate a deal, or not even trying because this was always their plan.
Another tactic habitual Corbyn critics are coming up with now is that despite the findings of the leaked report, all 860 pages of it I might add, there was no sabotage. Luke Akehurst tweeted this little nugget out, a right-winger who is trying to claw his way back onto Labour’s sovereign decision-making body, the NEC. The Forde Enquiry will debate that Luke, as well as anyone else saying similarly & they’ll rule on that, but for those of us who read that report at the time of the leak, it’s damning and we fully expect to be exonerated.
Should that come to pass, it’ll make life a bit difficult for Keir Starmer. The guy who changed our Brexit position and then became leader already has a mountain to climb to win back those lost Northern seats, seen as he is as the reason they felt they couldn’t vote Labour, but he’s also paid out £600,000 in compensation to people who featured in the Panorama episode Is Labour Antisemitic? Despite several of these ‘victims’ featuring prominently in the leaked report. Let’s remember here, Labour legal advice was reported to have been that we were likely to win in court, yet Starmer chose to settle. It remains an inexplicable decision and there’s been little attention paid to why he did this. It seems entirely reasonable to imagine he’s going to want a certain result from Martin Forde to keep himself from falling into a rather large hole of his own making, so I sincerely hope Forde is as good as his reputation on this.
The Forde Enquiry will take a while, it’ll be months at least before we hear back from it. Meanwhile there will continue to be people who call it a conspiracy theory when there’s evidence of a very real conspiracy, they’ll call it fake news, which the enquiry is there to investigate all claims and all submissions. There are allegations of fraud which is incredibly serious & coming from the former leadership team cannot be dismissed lightly. Let the naysayers naysay, they’ve got nothing better to do. We’ve got a leader currently who seems to struggle with the concept of opposition to the worst Tory govt in living memory and as such continues to trail in the polls. Let the enquiry happen, support the impartiality of it, call out any attempts by anyone to subvert it and wait until its published before you pay any attention to media reports on it’s findings. We’ve enough to do holding power to account, because at the moment, it’s up to the collective left to do that, without a great deal of support from elsewhere. Unity. The Labour centrists call for it, but never offer it. Well socialism doesn’t work without it & democratic socialist is written on the back of every Labour member’s card. It’s collectivism, it’s a movement, it’s more than just the sum of its parts & it certainly isn’t a cult devoted to Jeremy Corbyn. He lit the match, but we fan the flames.
If you want an insight into just what went on back in the day, then former John McDonnell staffer Joe Ryle has written a brilliant piece in Open Democracy about his experiences and if you want to read more on the leaked report itself, check out the Novara Media article by Aaron Bastani to that effect. Question Everything.
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