Labour MP and close ally of Jeremy Corbyn Jon Trickett has responded furiously to a claim in a New Statesman ‘whitewash’ of John McDonnell’s now widely-acknowledged take-over of Corbyn’s office.
The NS piece attempts to rubbish the take-over claims – and one of the planks of its argument is a claim that “All of Labour’s “Big Three” – the three shadow cabinet ministers to back Corbyn in 2015 and to serve continuously in his top team” – including Trickett – “have privately urged Corbyn to sideline his former chief of staff.“
This is presented as signifying a “long-term, broadly shared view among Corbyn’s parliamentary allies that Murphy’s wings needed to be clipped”.
But it’s untrue.
Trickett has furiously denied the claim, saying he was not asked by the NS before publication whether it was true and telling the SKWAWKBOX:
It’s absolute rubbish – and wherever Karie works her exceptional skills are vital to the party.
But it’s not just a question of accepting Trickett’s word for it. The SKWAWKBOX has seen, via a third party, correspondence sent not long before the move in which Trickett describes Murphy as “the best of the best of LOTO” – Corbyn’s ‘Leader of the Opposition’ team.
A senior Labour source described the Bush piece as a “whitewash” of the McDonnell situation, elaborating:
This is a clear attempt to deflect attention from what’s really going on.
The SKWAWKBOX has asked Stephen Bush, the author of the New Statesman article:
- where did you obtain the claim that Trickett participated in the attempt to ‘sideline’ Murphy?
- did you check with Trickett before publishing?
- will you be apologising to him
- why should anyone believe the rest of your article when it contains a verifiable falsehood?
No response had been received by the time of publication. If answers are provided, they will be added.
Many Labour and union insiders believe that Murphy was removed because of her success in resisting damaging attempts to force Labour into a ‘full-remain’, referendum-first position.
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“John McDonnell’s now widely-acknowledged take-over”
A bit an exaggeration. Widely acknowledged by who?
Wait for it…
Labour party is looking an absolute shambles at the top.
I don’t trust McDonnell, Starmer, Thornberry and Campbell etc.as far as I could throw them but that’s a separate matter. Members elected Corbyn as leader twice. He is being undermined day in day out by the public shenanigans of MPs and those within party structures.
Looks like members are being given the finger. This doesn’t bode well for LP keeping any election promises if it ever gets into power. Gov in waiting… dream on.
Members don’t count . Try and complain about an MP or process and you are put in your place . You are a third party and have no right to be informed of progress of your complaint . And here I was thinking the party was member led .
https://labourlist.org/2019/10/they-will-never-divide-us-mcdonnell-defiantly-tells-labour-rally/
I agree with Kerry-Anne Mendoza in this twitter thread and especially with the final tweet. Quote:-
“If they’ll capitulate on Iraq, they’ll capitulate on anything. We’ve been here before people. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Come the fuck on.” end quote.
https://twitter.com/TheMendozaWoman/status/1184017535810842629
Looks like members are being given the finger.
What has steve h to say about that, one wonders?
Answer there came none.
Oh well. we’ll bear that in mind next time you remind us that 70% of members wanted to remain…
…Or when you remind me I’m not a member, just a mere voter.
“One” might but not me. I am not a member and am just saying how it looks from the outside looking in.
You & me both…
Still no answer from steve h.
Not so vehement about this as he is about remaining in the eu, is he?
I think rees-smog’d say something like: ‘Res ipsa loquitur’
Well for starters I’d recommend that you read the article that I’ve linked to above where both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell gave speeches along with contributions from Tan Dhesi, Laura Pidcock, Dawn Butler and Diane Abbott. and then I would suggest that you take your lead from JC and instead of slagging off and undermining JC’s team in the run up to an election you wholeheartedly work with the people that he has selected to secure a Labour victory.
That’s someone else’s opinion, steve.
Why is it you usually answer people’s candid questions with op-eds or opinion poll results?
Got no opinion of your own? … One worth reading, that is?
🤷♂️
How profound. A mature response once again. I expected as much.
Not only do the floating voters not matter – nor do the members …Especially when they don’t make up your precious 70%
What a bad backsliding get, you are.
The Toffee (597) at 1:53 pm
Or an alternative interpretation might be that I simply can’t be arsed with your childish drivel.
Yes Steve H we need to be united at this time and stand together behind Jeremy Corbyn.
It is my understanding that the new head of LOTO’s office was chosen by Jeremy , her son works for us and her husband acts as Jeremy’s driver on occasion. Hardly a hostile take over then.
Karie has gone to take over our election campaign in Southside After the pigs ear Iain McNichol and his staff made about resources etc last time it is absolute essential we have somebody there we can trust to do the job. In Jennie Formby’s absence who better than Karie Murphy.
In relation to John McDonnell – he and Jeremy Corbyn have been friends and comrades for years – two sides of the one coin. There is NO WAY John would ever try to usurp Jeremy. He has had Jeremy’s back since day 1,stood by and defended him when he was being attacked and vilified. It was largely due to him that Jeremy did not step down at the start of the coup orchestrated by Hilary Benn,or since despite the hurt of the smears and allegations made against him..
We are facing a General election. Now is not time for” he said she said.” If we stand together we can can get Jeremy into No10 and have a Socialist government which will tackle the real injustices in this country – homelessness, poverty, the stater of the NHS, social care etc.
So please give the internal politics a rest.
Is the pressure getting to everyone?
Stand by JC and Conference policy.
Continue to get JC out direct to the people.
Activists sell the 201 policies on the high street, social media, letters to the MSM and on the doorsteps.
We are still in with a shout!
Solidarity!
SPOT BLOODY ON BAZZA exactly what I have been in a roundabout way saying in my last series of comments .The bastards in the PLP are well known and prefer us to loose against the Tories , vis the 18 MP who have signed the letter of intent to vote for the Tory deal .
Thus if they decide to do this , removal of the whip should be immediate , the forthcoming election will put paid to them as they will have to stand as independents , no longer Labour MPs or do a Chukka Uppa multi flit and eff off to the libdems
Claim by Stephen Bush:
“All of Labour’s “Big Three” – the three shadow cabinet ministers to back Corbyn in 2015 and to serve continuously in his top team, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, and Jon Trickett – have privately urged Corbyn to sideline his former chief of staff.”
If true… and it’s a VERY big ‘IF’…
How could a single informant other than one of those four people possibly know that?
How could any one of the three shadow ministers know of separate private conversations between Corbyn and the other two unless Corbyn himself or BOTH of the other two informed the informant?
The remaining possibility is that all three approached Corbyn together – possible, certainly, but three people jointly and successfully convincing Corbyn to act would have little reason for emphatic denials.
I think the article is most likely a ‘Boris Jobbie’ – a journalistic turd – bullshit fabricated to pretend nonexistent insider knowledge and that the bullshitter is worth its salary.
Toffee you are well out of order. No respect at all
You’re Goddamn right I’ve no respect for someone that’ll use the excuse of 70% of labour membership being a legitimate reason for disrespecting the wishes of 17million people, – plenty of them labour voters – while at the same time allowing the likes of watson & starmer and the right-wing faction (They’re NOT centrist as they have far too much in common with the toerags than they do with socialism) to act as they bloody well like without scrutiny or criticism, thereby undermining the TWICE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED leader of the party at each & every turn.
And I don’t give a flying one who disagrees with me on that.
I also notice steve h cant be arsed to make a defence for himself, because for the cunteenth time he’s been found out.
The Toffee
Cunteenth
Like (a lot)
“And I don’t give a flying one who disagrees with me on that”
Reciprocated.
Disagreement =’Disrespect’. What a load of old cobblers. Can immediately be turned round. re. the 63% who aren’t in the Brexit camp.
As daft a proposition as it gets.
Stephen Bush along with Rentoul and more than a few others are poisonous hacks who should never be afforded the term journalist
Another ‘Big Yawn’ bit of chatter, with Skwawkbox lured into the trap.
The only hard fact is that Labour has needed to get a better act together for quite a long time, with it all came to a head at this year’s Conference.
Any journo in the Westminster Bubble can find a story because there are so many incontinent and willing (and dubious) potty mouths to tap into. As much a symptom as a cause.
Another coup potentially in the making; at the very least it’s more RW PR shithousery, casting doubt in voter’s minds – and to you it’s nothing but ‘a big yawn’??
For: ‘The only hard fact is that Labour has needed to get a better act together for quite a long time,’
…Everybody should read: ‘We demand a visibly pro-eu leader, willing to put every effort into rescinding Article 50. Hell, even tom watson’d do’
We already knew what you were about, dicky. You’d gladly have Corbyn hanged, drawn and quartered if it meant staying in the eu.
Rodent.
Who says there is a coup, where’s the actual proof.
I don’t know….do you?
The RW press seem to think so, and people read the RW press. Hasn’t mouthpiece philips thrown her hat in the ring?
(Stop laughing – if you can)
Has anyone any hard evidence that any of the front bench has said they do NOT support conference policy
If there was it would be in plain view and JC would be under a mountain of shit to sack them,
There is no evidence of any shadow front benchers breaking with conference policy
Leaving the EU will harm the lives of millions of those with a uk/eu existence.
J Mc was an absolute fool for his answers to Campell. How could he possibly believe that Campell could EVER be welcomed back into the LP after the carnage Blair his boss helped to inflict in Iraq and who Campbell helped to defend? That however is a long way from asserting that McDonnell is in any way trying to engineer a coup against Corbyn.
This implication by Skwawkbox betrays a fanatisism with Leaving the EU which is prone to going into overdrive against anyone such as McDonnell who suggests that Remain in the EU could be our best bet.