Centrist MP Ian Austin seemed so eager to attack Labour general secretary Jennie Formby on Twitter that he re-wrote history.
‘Centrist’ Dudley North MP Ian Austin launched an attack on Jennie Formby – and Labour members in the Liverpool constituency of Wavtertree – on Saturday night.
Wavertree CLP (constituency Labour party) withdrew two motions of no confidence in their MP Luciana Berger last week, which had been tabled to criticise her for her media comments. Although neither motion mentioned antisemitism or anything related, her allies were quick to attack local members, claiming they were bullying and antisemitic.
Jennie Formby tweeted – and subsequently confirmed in an email to the CLP – that the members had done nothing that the rules of the party did not entitle them to do.
Austin launched his attack:
Now, the idea of Austin calling anyone ‘bullies’ is interesting enough, given that he has been personally called ‘thuggish‘ and an ‘unpleasant bully‘ for his behaviour in the House of Commons, attempted to launch an aggressive ambush on Labour MP Chris Williamson and was accused by poet and children’s author Michael Rosen of making a ‘full frontal assault’ on Rosen when the writer was an invited guest at a parliamentary hearing.
But in order to make his attack on Formby, Austin re-wrote his – and Margaret Hodge’s – recent history with the Labour Party.
Austin claimed that Labour was ‘forced to drop’ complaints against him and Hodge – but in fact, neither case was ‘dropped’, let alone ‘forced’ to be.
Austin received a formal reprimand from the party and a warning about his future conduct after complaints against him by party chair Ian Lavery and Derby North MP Chris Williamson. So the case was concluded, not dropped – and the conclusion included censure against Austin, as the SKWAWKBOX exclusively revealed last year:
Margaret Hodge received similar censure from the party – also revealed exclusively by the SKWAWKBOX – but claimed otherwise.
Ironically, the complaints against Austin concerned aggressive behaviour.
The SKWAWKBOX pointed out Mr Austin’s forgetfulness in a response to his tweet – and wrote to him directly to ask about the inconsistency of his public claim:
Your tweet claiming Labour was ‘forced to drop’ proceedings against you is untrue – you received a reprimand and warning. The letter was published on the Skwawkbox.
Are you so desperate to attack Jennie Formby and Wavertree members that you’re prepared to ignore and even rewrite history?
Mr Austin responded with a convoluted attempt to justify his claim:
As has been explained to you before, the letter to which you refer was sent in July. I told them the allegations that had been made about me were not true and refused to accept any reprimand. Subsequent letters from Jennie Formby in September and October showed the party had not dropped the matter. There was then a meeting at which I was able to show that I had not done what I was accused of and so did not accept any reprimand or warning. Jennie Formby then wrote to me in November saying the party would not be taking any further action.
Those are the facts.
Of course, ‘refusing to accept’ a reprimand does not change the fact that one was issued – but a follow-up question about that obvious conclusion did not receive a response.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
The attacks on Jennie Formby and on Wavertree CLP by some so-called ‘moderate’ MPs and by the Establishment media have been as groundless as they are disgraceful.
There is real desperation on the supposed ‘centre’.
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If ever this General Election that you’ve passionately wanted for so long ever comes along, all this infighting will cost us; the electorate will again rejectre the Tories and will put up againwith the incumbents. Why are Labour party members so intent on pressing the self-destruct button!?
You could rephrase that as “why are so many Labour MPs so intent on pressing the self destruct button “.
Absolutely.
We are picking up the legacy of pliant candidates being selected during the Blair years.
I’ve always held two complimentary views : that MPs should be subject to confirmation at every election – like most in local government butthe behaviour also that constituency parties should be very careful about playing narrow sectarian games with the selection process.
But the arrogant behaviour of some of the current PLP is way beyond the pale of what should be expected in their attempts to actively undermine the Party and, implicitly, support the Tories.
Objectively, I think Corbyn, despite admirable qualities, has been a bit slow to learn leadership skills, and doesn’t have a great advisory team, but he has been up against a barrage of right-wing propaganda and interference from the Israeli lobby that has no excuse.
P.S. Notice a common theme : the use of a victimhood narrative from the bullies. Thus the raging and disloyal Austin and Hodge paint themselves as victims.
Agree 100% with this victimhood mentality. The “cry-bully” tactic so beloved of those not wishing to actually debate an issue. Even Grayling himself tried this in a roundabout way claimed that his unpopularity was due to campaigns and victimisation by rail workers and unions against his “improvements”.
Could you elaborate Joe as to how you (supposedly) came to the conclusion that LP members are “so intent on pressing the self-destruct button!?”
You’re not a Blairite Tory are you by any chance?
I saw John Mann and Angela Smith on Ch4 news last night.
No warning was given and this was before the watershed!
‘rejectre’ should read ‘re-elect’
How long until Mann pipes up?
Also it appears Rowling and Riley are backing a new centrist ‘labour’ party according to GMB.
Well go ‘ed then…. The REAL labour party’d do well to see the supposed mass exodus of MP’s it’s apparently gonna bring.
Ain’t one of the maggots gonna be missed.
Unfortunately, the point in a celeb endorsed “centrist” party isn’t to win. It’s to draw just enough votes from Labour to keep the tories in.
Oh, and on this occasion I’m inclined to (partially) accept Austin’s version of events… Otherwise the gobshite might not have been so emboldened as to contradict and criticise formby.
If this isn’t an indication that far more stern and restraining/punitive action needs to be taken against Austin (and the rest of the twunts) behaviour, I don’t know what will be.
I see austin’s *ahem* ‘majority’ is just 22.
Doing his best to alienate his own constituents isn’t enough for him, that much is evident.
But you know what they say about men with tiny majorities…
And I suppose the only consolation of him enabling another toerag government is that at least he won’t be in parliament to continue assisting them.
The people of Dudley’ll just get themselves a tory what doesn’t breach the trade descriptions act.
A noble sacrifice indeed.
Labour is doing all it can to address AS, much more than other political parties.
Move on, confront potential rise Far Right, attack Tories as they are hammering working people and the poor.
Labour is not doing all it can to address the issue of false accusations of antisemitism. False accusations should be dealt with as seriously as any other false accusations.
It is unacceptable for the likes of Margaret Hodge to publicly accuse Jeremy Corbyn of being an antisemite (when he’s innocent) and to get away with it.
There needs to be marches and protests against false accusations of antisemitism.
I feel strongly about this because most of my adult life I’ve been obsessed with the Holocaust. Holocaust denial should be made a crime. The legacy of the Holocaust should be protected. Primo Levy’s books should be required reading – yet – false accusations of antisemitism are not just threatening the chance of socialism and a Labour government they are cheapening and devaluing the antisemitism label itself.
It’s a case of Peter and the wolf. The legacy of the Holocaust is being cynical exploited like a stolen credit card. Antisemitism must be taken seriously and so too must false accusations of antisemitism.
For the life of me I cannot see what there is about Jennie Formby’s polite and rather conciliatory message that has provoked Austin in to making such a confrontational, rude and public response. It would have been far more helpful had he outlined what in his opinion are the “constitutional” grounds for taking action against Wavertree CLP . For some strange reason he has not done so but has simply chosen to take another opportunity to be abusive towards his Party colleagues. This suggest to me that he is well aware that his allegations regarding Wavetree’s breaches of rules are completely spurious.
“For the life of me I cannot see what there is about Jennie Formby’s polite and rather conciliatory message that has provoked Austin in to making such a confrontational, rude and public response.”
Simple. Bullies always do rage and victimhood when they have no case.
Ian Austin heckled Jeremy Corbyn shouting “Shut up and sit down” when Jeremy was responding to the Chilcott report in parliament and the families of the war dead were in the gallery. Anyone capable of such disrespect is capable of anything
‘For the life of me I cannot see what there is about Jennie Formby’s polite and rather conciliatory message that has provoked Austin in to making such a confrontational, rude and public response.’
He does so to paint a false impression/picture of what was said – as the Blairite Tory saboteurs do all the time – knowing of course that the anti-Corbyn fascist-controlled media will of course dissemble it in their coverage.
Perhaps SB could enquire of Ian Austin WHAT constitutional basis there is for the NEC to take action against Wavertree CLP AND precisely WHO the bullies are that he maintains are now running the LP AND what they have done or said that warrants such a description.
And IF he doesn’t – or WON’T – provide answers, then he should be immediately suspended for bringing the LP into disrepute.
Ian Austin should be brought before the NEC and asked to explain WHO he was referring to when he speaks of the bullies now running the LP AND on what constitutional grounds he thinks action should be taken against Wavertree CLP. As should Tom Watson who – if I’ve got it right – went on some program and fabricated the lie that action WAS being taken against Wavertree by the NEC.
Please make a formal complaint about both of them (or formal complaints) to the LP.
Enough is enough!
Austin has directed many abusive tweets at others, he is rude, obnoxious and an embarrassment to the party and it is time action was taken against him. The CLP has the power to deselect him when the next general election is announced as does Waverly and Mr Umunna’s CLP, I sincerely hope they use their power and select someone more fitting to the job, this abuse should no longer be tolerated. Bullies ranting and raving because they cannot get their own way over whom they wish to lead the Labour party are an absolute embarrassment and it’s time they went and we can then get on with getting a Labour government elected. There are many excellent candidates who are so keen to get themselves into a position where they can help people in their constituency it’s past time we gave these genuine people a fair crack of the whip. Nothing would give me greater pleasure in seeing these people resign the Labour whip try to form their own party then get resolutely rejected by their former constituents, but you know something they haven’t got the guts, they are nothing but cowardly bullies.
Just had a text saying Dan Carden’s come out in support of berger.on the radio this morning’
Safest seat in the nation and he shits his kecks, alongside Wavertree CLP and formby?
The party at least had my vote….but now I’m seriously considering giving that to the greens now.
As I say – ‘Virtue Signalling’ as a political technique. Always a good litmus test of time-servers.
Small wonder people are reportedly leaving the party in droves – not because of this alleged antisemitism, but because of twunts like you who do nothing BUT NOTHING except make sneering remarks at those putting it as it is – Then theres likes of Carden & Formby who appease the rats who are squealing every five bastard seconds and causing massive damage to the party.
At least their masks have slipped. Yours was all too evident and you still wear it. We know what you are so you can take your virtue signalling and shove it right up your Arris you utterly fraudulent weasel.
When push comes to shove you’ll always be the one crying off sick then blaming everyone else for not getting the job done.
He has no choice and I would support her against abuse of any kind, it still doesn’t mean she cannot get deselected when selection time comes around and voting Green is is only going to give us another 5 years of Tory hell and real genuine people out here who are not hanging on every article and word written and said about AS and Labour really need a Labour government. We need you Toffee, us real genuine Labour supporters/voters/members need you, voting Green is not merely falling into the trap set by Berger, Umunna, Austin etc it’s diving on head first thrusting your scalp at them. They want Labour to do badly in an election because it’s the only way they can see of getting rid of Jeremy, it really gutted them that the party led by Jeremy did so well at the last election, just looking at the actions of Stephen Kinnock and Lucy Powell when a hung parliament was announced should confirm that!
@kierhardy I’m not a member for the reasons spelled out above.
Carden knows full well bergers even allowing the good name of her own constituents to be sullied in order to further her twisted agenda. Formby too. We all know it and they carry on as though that’s allowable and even placate Berger and others that pile in?
They can get to fook. I take their laissez-faire attitude every bit an insult as I do the clowns ‘supporting’ Berger letting rip on decent honest people.
Then there’s the likes of rh. A snide the party needs like a dog needs O level algebra FFS. With ‘comrades’ like ‘dicky’ you don’t need enemies. And he’s just one of plenty.
No, unless people within the rank and file start fighting fire with fire to combat their snide agenda hiding behind the antisemitism card then they’re unworthy of my support because they wouldn’t support me .
This latest episode proves it beyond doubt.
Here’s Tony Greenstein’s latest post, and whilst I agree with most of what he says – and as I have said time and time again – the very media that has dissembled the anti-semitism falsehood/black op is hardly going to report any attempt by JC and the leadership to counter and expose it (THEY will just double-down, as they HAVE already). THAT is up to US to do at a grassroots level, putting leaflets together and putting them through doors:
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-office-but-not-in-power-jeremy.html
I read the blog. I don’t think it helps the Labour Party. I don’t agree with Tony Greenstein about a second EU Referendum either.
The problem of false antisemitism smears needs to be handled differently.
One thing I do agree with is the double standards. Diane Abbott has received more abuse than almost anyone else, but the media ignores it.
I think Corbyn is in a difficult position. But something needs to change regarding false antisemitism accusations.
Tony Greenstein’s obsessive, intemperate , lazy “dog whistle terms” drenched, posts over the last 30 years or so have done the Left a lot of harm on the Israel and “Zionism/anti-Semitism” issues. He is not a good role model on how to counter either the huge number of false accusations of anti-Semitism against our members and Party , OR the much smaller number of genuinely , deliberate or ignorance-based, anti-Semitic comments that do hide amongst the imprecise and over-loose language employed by too many on the Left on these issues.
I don’t know what it is – or perhaps I DO – but you come across as a propagandist!
I think he’s more consistently on the ball than you.
I’m fascinated that you constantly erect fictional conspiracies of straw, whereas Tony Greenstein’s actual experience of being victimized by the Israel lobby is dismissed as ‘obsessive’ and ‘intemperate’.
I think many more would be a bit ‘intemperate’ if they’d been treated in the same (real) discriminatory fashion. A real Marxist – Moshe Machover has called it out.
If you genuinely think that Lobby is going to go away if people talk nicely, the pudding proof has already been eaten – and it won’t.
It’s time that the ‘Labour Friends of Israel’ is called out. Labour really can’t be friends with an apartheid enterprise mired in ethnic cleansing activities and flouting international law. It’s as simple as that. And Berger is up to her neck in the promotion of that discriminatory enterprise, as well as being a disloyal MP who has gone far beyond the bounds of legitimate dissent.
‘But something needs to change regarding false antisemitism accusations.’
Yes. But what?
And what has his post got to do with either helping or NOT helping the LP, he was merely expressing his opinion (and needless to say, I DIDN’T post a link to his article in relation to anything to do with the EU).
Tony has been at the fore-front in countering and exposing the ‘anti-semitism’ black propaganda op, and he has nothing but the highest respect from me – and many others – for his courage in taking on the vile and abominable so-called Campaign Against Anti-Semitism:
https://uk.gofundme.com/saying-no-2-the-antisemitism-libel
This is an excerpt from the blog you linked:
… “Luciana Berger is an obnoxious, whinging, self-pitying narcissist”
That kind of language is a gift to the Right. It only adds fuel to the fire. As much as I can’t forgive Berger for trying to sabotage a future Labour government, I would never use language like that myself.
Yeah, of course, as if they need a gift!
Tony is expressing his anger at this outrageous black propaganda op to sabotage JC’s leadership and his chances of winning a GE. These people – and we ALL know who they are – are not only traitors to the LP, but also to the millions of people who have been affected by numerous diabolical Tory/Establishment policies, and also to the tens of millions more who THEY and their fellow media conspiritors dupe and deceive on an almost daily basis.
loftkarlsson 11/02/2019 at 2:50 pm · ·
“Luciana Berger is an obnoxious, whinging, self-pitying narcissist”
Ok, you don’t like that description – So what is she?
A victim of A/S in her own party? Utter bollocks. How many LP members has she complained about; and of them complaints how many were found in her favour?
And then how many from her constituency that shes terrified to walk the streets of?
You won’t get an answer from the ‘victim’ or whatever you want to call her… But she’ll happily let the likes of watson & screeching make all sorts of unfounded allegations against ‘her’ constituents.
‘Gift to the right’ ffs – the gift is ALLOWING this sh*t to fester and giving these insidious, destructive fuckers carte-blanche by NOT fighting back and APPEASEMENT.
They’ve been given miles and they’re STILL trotting out the same old shite unopposed and unchallenged by anyone but the foot soldier,who are being badly, BADLY sold short by the hierarchy.
Turning the other cheek has permitted and emboldened the vipers to act exactly as they do. I have zero – repeat, zero. problem with that description of berger.
Far from being ‘abuse’ it sums her up to a tee. If only gullible bleeders would just scratch under the surface. If only the hierachy grew a set.
Perhaps there should be tribunals or hearings, whereby the person making the false allegations is questioned and all evidence is examined.
If it’s proven that the allegations are false and have no substance and that they are malicious in nature, then the person should be expelled from the party.
As for tribunals or hearings, I can’t help but think of the allegations made against Kelvin Hopkins for sexual misconduct, or whatever. Anyone on the planet – apart from the anti-Corbyn saboteurs – who has read his statement and the texts he was sent by his accuser, will know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the allegations are ALL falsehoods (except of course for the text he sent her in which he tells her, in effect, how fond he is of her). And yet he is STILL suspended from the LP some fifteen months later!
And my point is of course: Why has Ava Etemadzadeh not been asked to explain away the texts she sent him by the NEC, given that it’s obvious to anyone that she wouldn’t be able to. Anyway, here’s a link to Kelvin’s statement for anyone who may not have seen it yet (which of course MOST of the media omitted to reproduce, apart from SB and several others):
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15640737.Kevin_Hopkins__statement_in_full/
Anyone making slanderous accusations should suspended from membership. Anyone using the capitalist media to make such accusations should be expelled.
The party was quick enough to suspend Livingstone, Jackie Walker and Greenstein-three people who the whole world understands are incapable of anti-semitism- but Hodge, Austin et al go from strength to strength making accusations of a most damaging nature that, in law, would be actionable as damaging slanders and libels.
If the Party keeps on turning the other cheek it soon won’t have any thing above the neck left- not that that concerns Austin, Mann, Leslie or Berger all of whom have clearly decided that their future lies beyond the movement in which they have longed formed a Fifth Column.
If they were suspended they would obviously not be automatically eligible to run as official Labour candidates in the next election.
“Anyone making slanderous accusations should suspended from membership.”
Totally agree. Obviously, that presupposes a proper disciplinary procedure, but the Party needs to toughen up and make explicit that ‘accusation’ is a two-way street, not a free lunch for the accuser.
Please sign and share (if you haven’t done so already):
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/mineworker-pension-fight
Once again, odious Austin shows himself to be a liar.
It’s about time his CLP formally censured him, and found itself a candidate who will support Labour properly.
And here is the vile, fascist Sun:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8388763/john-mcdonnell-blames-luciana-berger-anti-semite-row/
Actually, it’s quite heartening. An alliance between ‘The Sun’ and jpenny is a sure sign of where the balanced view lies.
And here’s the Huffpost coverage (and check out the Comments):
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-chair-ian-lavery-says-local-parties-should-not-face-trial-by-social-media-after-luciana-berger-row_uk_5c5f138ae4b0eec79b23ec26
Just came across the story about the Jewish cemetary that was vandalised at the weekend in the latest newsletter from RT, so I then did a search to see if any newspapers were dragging JC and the left into it, and lo-and-behold, the very first result that I clicked on and opened did precisely THAT…… even before you get to the actual article.
We really have to expose these hatemongers and fearmongers for what they are……. with the TRUTH about their smears and lies. Enough is enough!:
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Jewish-cemetery-and-tombstone-desecrated-in-Manchester-580212