Former NEC member and current NEC candidate on the right-wing Labour First/Progress slate Jasmin Beckett appeared on Sky News on Sunday morning with a colleague and claimed they had been ‘turfed out’ of Saturday’s Labour Live.
There appear to be serious question marks over this claim.
A barrister who witnessed them leaving refuted the allegation unequivocally:
Another participant in the debate provided video footage:
The video footage appears at odds with their interview on Sky:
The orderly, apparently unaccompanied exit does not appear to support the idea of any kind of involuntary exit – and the image of them standing with banner unfurled is similarly unhelpful to the claim:
Brooks told Sky News that the protesters had:
unfurled it as Jeremy started speaking and then started chanting stop backing Brexit, at which point some of the people in the crowd were not too happy with us, some were very supportive and we were ushered out of the venue.
In the video shown by Sky, the banner is unfurled right among the crowd – yet the image published by the protesters is on a clear patch of ground. But Corbyn can be seen speaking on the screen in the background – so if the unfurling that supposedly led to their immediate ejection was ‘as Jeremy started speaking‘, the still image was taken after they were supposedly ‘ushered out of the venue’.
Speaking to the SKWAWKBOX, Jasmin Beckett insisted that her account had been accurate. Ms Beckett was asked about whether the Sky interview represented an accurate account of her experience at Labour Live and the answer was short and simple:
Yes… I was ejected, we were ushered through a back exit by a security guard.
Beckett was adamant that there were three security guards behind the group as they walked out. Here is the footage of their walk away from the crowd before they regathered to take a picture apart from the crowd with their banner:
The video, and the stills below showing several members of the group walking out, do not appear to show any security guards in attendance:
She also insisted that mainstream journalists had been present and had taken pictures of their removal and tweeted them – but was unable to name any, except “Kevin Schofield might have been one of them“.
Mr Schofield’s Twitter feed since Saturday does not appear to contain any relevant images – although three tweets contain images of the un-ushered group and their banner – and the SKWAWKBOX has been unable to find tweets from other journalists about it, nor do any members of the group appear to have provided any images when asked for evidence.
Jasmin Beckett is standing for election to Labour’s vital National Executive Committee (NEC) this summer as part of the Labour First/Progress slate. She has previously been accused of inciting false allegations against an opponent to win a place on the NEC as Labour’s youth representative.
The SKWAWKBOX attempted to reach Richard Brooks for comment. He had not responded by the time of publication.
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