Exclusive: letter suggests shady #fakenews dealings at NEC/Liverpool Riverside CLP

This blog covered the undemocratic imposition by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) on Liverpool’s Riverside CLP (constituency Labour party) of branch/delegate structures that hugely multiply the bureaucracy of running the CLP while radically disenfranchising individual members, especially with regard to candidate selection at a time when the membership looked like deselecting right-wing candidates.

The SKWAWKBOX also recently exposed the dysfunction of the NEC because of two additional members imposed on it – ridiculously – by voted-out NEC members before their departure, via unlawful measures at last year’s annual conference in Liverpool.

Some time ago, one Riverside constituent wrote directly to Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol and the NEC about Riverside’s situation, the reasons behind it and the then-imminent NEC investigation report. That report is not yet publicly available but, from the way it has been used to change the structures of the CLP in favour of the right-wing incumbents, appears to be as weak and unbalanced as the investigation that still has Wallasey CLP, just across the river Mersey, suspended in spite of being thoroughly discredited.

One name has been redacted but refers to a person who is well-known among members across the city considered by many to have an undue and unhealthy influence on the city’s Labour and council politics. The name of the sender has also been withheld. The name of the constituency’s MP has not been removed, as it’s a matter of record who she is – as is the fact that she is a former vice-Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group associated with Israeli attempts to influence Labour (and Conservative) politics.

Capitalisation is by the author of the letter. Emphases in bold are by the SKWAWKBOX:

Dear Mr McNicol and NEC members,

I am writing to you in advance of the report on Riverside Constituency.

Before you make any decisions regarding the future of our CLP I wish to remind you that the Labour Party officials who made unsubstantiated claims of antisemitism at Riverside meetings have a duty of care to all their constituents.

What they did amounts to inciting racial tension. The many years of work to unite the different communities in our city has been seriously damaged by their actions. The fact that these claims were not investigated by the CLP executive or NW Labour for 10 months has helped to create divisions both locally and nationally.

I am sorry to say I have no confidence in this investigation which I believe is a smokescreen to hide and excuse these powerful people.I fear that in an effort to protect Louise Ellman and [redacted], this investigation will produce a headline-grabbing false narrative using the words bullying,toxic,intimidation and antisemitism while the solid facts are cast aside.

There was no bullying and antisemitism. This is a fabrication and we will not let this slur against us and our city go unchallenged. Here are the FACTS:

FACT – TEN MONTHS AGO [redacted] the [redacted] of our city publicly claimed that there was antisemitism in the city centre constituency of Liverpool. This was followed up in the media by the MP Louise Ellman.

FACT – AFTER TEN MONTHS not one person has been charged or even formally accused but the lies continue.

FACT – THREE TIMES I contacted the executive of the CLP and the NW to investigate and I copied a screenshot of [redacted]’s tweet where he claims antisemitism.

FACT – [redacted] bullies and intimidates me on the PRIDE demonstration (I believe because I send copies of his tweets to the NW and CLP.) I complain to the whips office.

FACT – THE INVESTIGATING PROCEDURES AGAINST [redacted] ARE IGNORED by the Labour whips and instead state, I … “was asking for trouble” for carrying an A4 piece of paper because it has one word on it -‘” MOMENTUM.”

FACT – Both Cllr [redacted] and Louise Ellman promote an anonymously authored document which abuses Labour Party members and contains lies and libel. This is promoted, quoted and relied upon by the MP in the Murdoch press to call for the suspension of our constituency.

FACT – I write to you with a formal complaint about this and you advise me there will be an investigation.

However, the considerable efforts that are being made by this investigation to excuse the lies and libellous statements in this document as “a misunderstanding ” expose the fact that this investigation is not seriously opposed to the MP Louise Ellman and [redacted] promoting this anonymous document to discredit not only named individuals but the city centre constituency of Riverside itself.

Liverpool has had enough of its reputation being sullied and the use of this anonymous document promoted through the Murdoch press by this MP is not going to go unchallenged.

This is fake news at its most insidious, it’s lies,lies and more lies promoted by the Labour MP and Councillor [redacted].

The cowardice of this anonymous person and the readiness for Louise Ellman and Cllr [redacted] to promote this anonymous document are supposed to be the point of the investigation.

To make claims that our city centre constituency is antisemitic is a lie and people making false accusations must be disciplined for inciting racial tensions and divisions. These people have sullied not only the reputation of individuals and the Labour Party but it drags the city of Liverpool into the mud again and it’s reputation tarnished around the world.

It is not to anyone’s credit to paper over the actions of these two paid officials and fails our Party in the basic principles of transparency, accountability and democracy.
We need to unite our party to take the fight to the Tories and we can only achieve this by sticking to these principles not abandoning them.

KIND REGARDS,
[redacted]

No answer was ever received to this letter. The request for an investigation into the false accusations and the people behind them was fobbed off with a promise of an investigation that turned out to be into the people falsely accused – and, evidently, those accusations were used as an excuse for the anti-democratic structural changes that would never have been accepted by the members in a vote.

The fact that no report has been made to the police – also a feature of the discredited Wallasey allegations – is highly suspect. It may well be a factor that, while the Labour party clearly is not currently censuring people for spurious (and sometimes proven-false) accusations, the police have the power to prosecute people for making malicious false accusations. ‘Do the math’, as they’d say in the US.

It’s high time that Labour actually investigated the right people and, if they have made false accusations, throw the book at them – and them out of the party.

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