YES, WE'RE BLOODY ANGRY

THERE cannot be many members or ex-members of the Labour Party who are unaware of the leaked report from last  year, which came to be known as LabourLeaks and showed that many Labour staffers both undermined the leadership and worked against a Labour victory in 2017.

The 860-page document was the result of an internal investigation into Labour’s governance and legal unit in relation to antisemitism and gathered about 10,000 emails, thousands of messages and the contents of two WhatsApp group chats which appeared to have been created by senior management in Labour headquarters.

The leaked report showed Labour staff using racist and derogatory names when discussing allies and supporters of leader Jeremy Corbyn and lists examples of staffers using insulting and aggressive language towards Labour politicians, staff and members.

The report describes them repeatedly using derogatory mental health tropes, including terms like “mentalist” and “nutter”, and repeatedly disparaging the appearance of party staff and members, using terms like “pube head”, “smelly cow” and “fat”. 

It found they also made comments saying that certain party members should “die in a fire” and that a senior aide’s “face would make a good dartboard”. According to the report, Labour MPs were also targeted as they said that those MPs who nominated Corbyn should be “taken out and shot”, the hope that at least one would “die in a fire” and that a senior aide’s “face would make a good dartboard”.

There was also a lot of talk of the then leader himself, with staff talking about “hanging and burning” Corbyn, calling him a “lying little toerag”, and claiming “death is too kind for LOTO”. There is so much more in these 860 pages, especially after the result of the 2017 GE came in with the result that Labour had overturned the Tory majority which obviously upset those who had worked so hard for a bad result in the hope of toppling Corbyn.

One senior official said the result was the “opposite to what I had been working towards for the last couple of years”, describing themselves and their allies as “silent and grey-faced” and in need of counselling while another said: “We have to be upbeat and not show it,” and a third described the result as “awful”, telling the group that “everyone needs to smile”.

When the report was leaked to social media Labour members were justifiably angry, especially those who had trudged the streets and spent hours upon hours of their time knocking on doors and speaking to people; members who fought so hard for a Labour win, knowing how much the country needed it. We know we came within 2,500 votes of a win and could now be into our fourth year of a Labour government with lives inevitably improved. So yes, we are bloody angry!

When the document was leaked the new LOTO, Starmer, set up an inquiry to examine both the contents of the report and how it was authored and leaked – the Forde Inquiry, led by Martin Forde QC. This inquiry was originally to have been concluded last July, then by the end of 2020, and then early 2021. We are now in October of 2021 and instead of the report what do we have? Labour looking into who leaked the report, not its contents.

The Labour party has now accused five former party staffers, Seumas Milne, Karie Murphy, Georgie Robertson, Harry Hayball and Laura Murray, of leaking the controversial internal report, but without any evidence at all that they did so! They deny leaking the document and are said to be considering legal action against the party.

But even if they did leak the report, and as I said, there is no evidence they did so, surely they should be hailed as heroes for bringing to light the actions of staffers who worked to deny us that which we so desperately needed – a Labour government under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Thousands of members are said to have left the Party since the leaked report came to light and since the current leader, Starmer, is proving not only ineffectual, but duplicitous. I suspect even more will do so with this latest stitch-up.