Labour leadership hopeful’s head of ‘field team’ pleaded guilty in 2018
Labour leadership candidate Jess Phillips has appointed a number of figures from the Labour right to her campaign team including Ilford North MP Wes Streeting, according to LabourList and a number of other publications.
Among other appointments, as head of her ‘field team’, is Streeting staffer Matt Goddin.
Mr Goddin has a conviction for breaking electoral law. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to failing to include the details required by the Representation of the People Act 1983 on an electoral ad for former Labour/CUK MP Mike Gapes, which was published as a newspaper ‘wraparound’.
Goddin was reportedly not Gapes’ electoral agent at the time, but Streeting’s. According to the East London and West Essex Guardian, had he been working as Gapes’ agent, he would have been banned from acting as an electoral agent for three years. Instead, he received a fine for the offence.
Ms Phillips’ office has not yet responded to an emailed request for comment and neither her constituency office nor her parliamentary office was answering calls this morning. Mr Goddin has also been contacted.
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Not exactly an earth shattering revelation is it. Don’t think the millions of traditional labour voters will be sobbing weeping and gnashing their teeth about this somehow.
No, they’ll probably be impressed that she’s tapping into the trend for sticking two fingers up to parliamentary propriety, a la Johnson & Cummings!
I don’t disagree with either of your points Plain citizen.
It’s occasionally crossed my mind too, mauricen11, that some posts criticise our enemies on some pretty trivial grounds.
Looked at another way though, the small stuff helps to build a picture we’ll never get from the mainstream media, and we can’t expect a huge scoop every day.
I mostly avoid local papers and local politics – all a bit parochial and I’m not from here anyway – but I’m less well informed than I’d be if I didn’t.
Phillips is only there to make the soft left members think they have had a lucky escape when Starmer gets the job!
We are now witnessing the destruction of Labour as a Socialist Party, brought about with the connivance of people such as John McDonnell who not so long ago we never dreamed would be so stupid as to allow themselves to be turned over by the JLM. When I saw McDonnell deliberately walk past and ignore Chris Williamson on the street at our Brighton Conference it shocked me and it was obvious from that moment that Socialism in Labour was dead.
This was the outward sign of what had already happened within the machinery of the Labour Party led by Jennie Formby who had allowed the JLM to run riot with the disciplinary procedures to continue the witch hunt started by Ian McNicoll and Tom Watson.
Jess Phillips as a shill for the JLM is just another manifestation of how far backwards the Party has moved, to the extent that it may not be retrievable.
JackT, I agree – except – is Jennie Formby really to blame?
My understanding of party structure is rudimentary but doesn’t the NEC rule?
Isn’t the GenSec role largely administrative? Staff management?
Wasn’t McNicol’s perceived ‘power’ totally dependent on doing the bidding of the Blairite-dominated NEC and PLP?
David, Jennie Formby personally signed off on all the smears listed against Chris Williamson and others. If she didn’t agree with it, then as any person with integrity would have done, she could have refused.
David, and who were the ‘staff’ who insisted that Chris Williamson should face further disciplinary action? isn’t Jennie Formby in charge of these staff?
I tend to agree with David. Righting the inadequacies of the NEC and Party administration was never going to be just down to Formby. It’s a nest of snakes. And we can’t ignore those putting pressure on her, nor her illness, even though the conference performance was a dog’ dinner.
That said, whoever is considered responsible, some bloody awful decisions were made about the Right/Tory/Israel front using the antisemitism stuff.
Let’s face it, finding a Labour functionary or PLP member with spine is like searching for water in the Namib.
We are screwed for real talent at the moment.
JackT, the staff worked under McNicol for much longer than under Formby – many more will have been hired by him than by Jennie and the loyalties of many would have remained with him.
People have employment rights and we’re the Labour Party so wholesale sackings of Blairite staff were out of the question.
Before he left McNicol would likely have told the staff that Corbyn was a flash in the pan and that switching loyalties to him would be a career-ending mistake.
He’d likely also have hinted that obstructing Corbyn and the ‘hard left’ as much as possible would serve their careers well in the future.
Staff members appearing in, collaborating in and possibly even initiating the Pano Drama, staff slowing processes to a crawl, staff shredding and stealing files – will only have been the tip of the iceberg.
Jennie’s and Jeremy’s memoirs ought to be an interesting read. I hope they’re well under way.
David/RH, I’m afraid I’m not as sanguine as you guys. I’m fed up to the back teeth of excuses being made to excuse the actions of our enemies. Why are they our enemies? Because they do nothing to change the status quo in the Party which gives the Zionists massive amounts of influence behind the scenes. McNicol even went to court and wasted thousands of £ to try and prevent JC being on the ballot as leader. Before you can defeat an enemy you need to know who they are! Don’t forget, Blair boasted about being a Zionist and as such he made sure that those he encouraged were in his likeness.
JackT, I have no idea how any fool could imagine that I’m sanguine from what I’ve written. Ever.
Declaring our absolute determination to jail them for past subversion of democracy – with examples – is the only thing that will stop the media whores lying, but that would take balls, implacable determination and banging of fists on desks.
Socialism that mewls like a kitten instead of roaring isn’t for me.
I quit Labour weeks ago.
David, by ‘sanguine’ I meant giving the guilty a pass because they are perceived to be doing the bidding of others. I’m afraid I do not offer them that luxury. McNicol and after him, Jennie Formby, are in it up to their eyeballs. It’s fine to apportion the buck but it has to stop somewhere. In the PLP it’s with McDonnell and in the bureaucracy it’s with Formby.
pretty trivial – try to stay focussed on what actually matters Sqwawkbox
As I said previously – birds of a feather flock together.
Have the arrangements for the sending out of the ballot papers been given to Idox by any chance?
By all accounts they know a bit about vote rigging.
It was a longtime ago is what we will probably be told about this.
The real danger is not that she will win but that she will do well enough to get a shadow cabinet job. And she will then be a more viable contender next time.
So we need to ensure that she gets nowhere.
It may seem trivial but shows the mindset of the individual. It also shows how Jess thinks about those around and how if elected (I don’t think she’s got a cat in hell’s chance) the party would be in serious danger of a witch hunt against those of us on the left.
Underwhelmed.