The SKWAWKBOX has uncovered evidence of possible shady goings-on at Labour’s HQ that potentially implicate either General Secretary Iain McNicol or at least one member of Labour’s NEC (National Executive Committee) in the ‘mislaying’ of inconvenient documents to prevent them being discussed by the NEC in accordance with procedure.
This blog covered the motion approved and sent forward late last year by Garston & Halewood (G&H) CLP (Constituency Labour party) declaring no confidence in Iain McNicol. Similarly, last October the Welsh CLP of Brecon and Radnorshire (B&R), approved a motion declaring the unlawful addition of two unelected members to the NEC during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool (which the SKWAWKBOX has also extensively covered). G&H will debate a similar motion this month, but for now the evidence centres on the B&R motion.
In accordance with normal procedure, as soon as it was approved the B&R motion was sent forward by a member of the CLP’s executive for the NEC to discuss – and acknowledged by the General Secretary:
But the SKWAWKBOX has obtained emails between a north-west Labour member and a well-known member of the NEC, which culminates in the latter denying that the motion was ever received by the committee:
Another 3 NEC members are copied in on the correspondence.
Either Mr McNicol appears not to have sent the motion forward to the NEC or he sent it to someone in the NEC and they didn’t give it to the rest of the organisation committee.
Another NEC member, in a separate discussion, commented that
CLP motions never get to the NEC.
If the latter NEC member’s claim is true – and the confirmed instance involving the Brecon motion tends to support that conclusion – then it is further evidence of the apparent disdain with which many at Labour HQ regard their members.
The SKWAWKBOX has also learned that at least one front-bench member of the NEC is ‘thoroughly sick’ of the multi-layered structure of NEC sub-committees and the way in which these are being abused by the right-wing ‘old guard’. The Shadow-Cabinet level member said that all the Corbyn supporters on the NEC end up on committees with no real power, while all the committees with real clout are stacked with right-wingers and is of the opinion that it can’t be allowed to continue – that we need a new, simpler way of doing things.
This is just one more facet of the way in which Labour structures are rigged to maintain a status quo that the vast majority of the party’s members want to see ended – and on the ending of which Labour’s best chances of electoral success depend.
But the deliberate diversion and binning of communications from local parties to their National Executive is – must be – an immediate resignation matter, whether Iain McNicol or another NEC member is responsible.
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