Attack in Huffington Post on Corbyn’s chief of staff last night branded ‘disgraceful’, full of ‘absolute lies’ – but positive letter from other staff barely mentioned by newspaper
An article by the Huffington Post repeated in detail an anonymous attack against Corbyn’s ‘senior management team’ – but focusing on opposition chief of staff Karie Murphy.
But it skimmed over the fact that a letter of support for Murphy and her colleagues – which was not anonymous – was signed by 21 ‘LOTO’ (leader of the Opposition’s office) staff and endorsed by three more, who were not asked to sign but said afterward that they would have.
“She was always easy to talk to when you needed her advice or help”
Of the signatories to that positive letter, eight have provided comment that they wanted on the record, which were quoted in a letter sent yesterday by Murphy’s legal team to the Huffington Post.
The quotes on record are shown in full below:
Karie has always been a very supportive boss. She was always in the office, sitting in the same place as everyone else, and was always easy to talk to when you needed her advice or help. I have never ever witnessed her behaving badly in any way.
LOTO staffer Louis Mendee
I have always found Karie to be a highly competent manager, who treats staff with respect. In a political office, things are always very busy and stressful, but she always kept her cool and dealt with problems with a good sense of humour. She is always a good laugh and jokes with everyone.
LOTO staffer Janet Chapman
“Karie was a great manager from day one.”
Since I started just under a year ago, I felt like Karie took me under her wing. She gave me a huge amount of support as I was very new to politics, and I felt she always believed in me.
LOTO staffer Sam Harney
These allegations are absolutely ridiculous. Karie brought me in to LOTO and was a great manager from day one. She always made sure I had the support and guidance that I needed, in some incredibly difficult circumstances.
LOTO staffer Joe Bradley
I’ve worked with Karie for years – in LOTO and also in another office. She has consistently been incredibly supportive of me, and has always offered advice, guidance and help. She turned LOTO around when she came in and always had a good relationship with staff.I don’t recognise these allegations at all.
Former LOTO staffer Amy Jackson
“Karie has always supported me even when things were really tough”
Karie has always been really good to work with. She totally gets what working class people especially need to succeed in politics, and always made an effort to make sure people from those backgrounds had opportunities. I’ll always appreciate the support she gave me.
LOTO staffer Tommy Kane
I really enjoy working with Karie, and she has always supported me even when things were really tough. There was one event I was trying to deliver, and everyone was saying it would fail. Karie was behind me all the way, doing everything she could to make it a success. She stuck by me and shared the load with me. It meant a lot to me.
LOTO staffer Marshajane Thompson
Since I met Karie, she’s always had my back and helped me out when I needed her. She gave good advice and made sure I had what I needed to do my job.
LOTO staffer Zeyn Mohammed
Twenty-four non-anonymous people were prepared to put their names to a letter in support of the leadership and leadership style of Jeremy Corbyn’s senior management team and repudiating the attacks on them.
The quotes above – specific to Karie Murphy, who was not named in the anonymous complaint letter – give a powerful indication of why so many staff were prepared to go on the record to defend them.
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I wonder how many of the Labour Exeunt Stage Right Theatre Company’s directors, producers and cast – the ones that were loaned to the BBC’s Pano Drama Players that time – were also behind these anti-Irish attacks on Karie Murphy?
I’ve not seen any details of ‘anti irishness’ in these criticisms of Murphy.
Can you publish details and names of people who have stooped so low?. This would be execrable if true.
Eh?
So says the man from the former Labour stronghold of Bolton were the Victoria Orange lodge has been ressurected after years of fading away.!The rise of toryism goes inhand with the rise in racism and extreme right wing bigotry in my home town of BOLTON… And ps off tory boy!…..
She’s Scottish.
Guess what? There is no Labour theatre company, no directors, producers, cast and no Pano Drama Players (not going by that name anyway).
The whole thing was a lie.
Happy now?
The HofL committee, have these complaints,
Where are we on Panorama drama
Kick MSM and toilet papers into touch
If it’s good enough for Uncle Festa
Another knife in the back (or front) for Corbyn associates.
Don’t I vaguely remember that Karie Murphy was the one who said that if Labour shifted from respecting the EU referendum result to supporting a Second Referendum plus Remain, that would be a betrayal of the working class?
Not only was she right, but in the general election the working class agreed with her!
Had she got her way, she could have saved Corbyn and Corbyn’s Labour Party from electoral catastrophe.
Yet another case of: “if you want gratitude, look it up in a dictionary”!
Danny, the ‘electoral catastrophe’ ocurred because a) we had no proper strategy to deal with the A/S smears which were deliberately used to weaken Corbyn in the eyes of the electorate and b) nor did we have a strategy or commitment from day one to show that the Tory referendum was neither democratic nor necessary, no matter what the result.
This is why we should have resisted all calls for an election until people had had a chance to reconsider their original Brexit decision as more information came to light. The right wing and the lexiters resisted this option because they knew the tide was turning in favour of Remain.
Labour’s ‘strategy’ if you can call it that, has been abysmal over the last four years.
Jack, thank you for hitting important nails on the head.
Perhaps if the leadership had done the necessary things to neutralise the right who were constantly occupied with undermining them, then a better grip on events would have been the result.
I am afraid that the left has got some major decisions to make. These are all political, something which has eluded them in recent times. A kinder, gentler politics needs to be policed and one can afford such things when those who would see it as a weakness to be exploited are politically neutralised – I repeat my earlier point because I think it is important.
It is perhaps significant that the “media darling” amongst the leadership candidates was one of those involved in these constant shenanigans, and yet she claims to be the candidate who can bring everyone together.
Err……
Still in denial , sigh !
52 of the 57 seats( or something like it ) we lost all were Leave voting seats , what more evidence is needed .it really is that simple IMO and no amount of squirming , wriggling and BS to try and deflect from that truth will alter that fact. The root main cause was the remain option on the cards.
I really don’t want to get into a slanging match with the remainers here ( PS I voted remain)but really until there is a acceptance that this was the only real main cause of our defeat then there is little hope for the future , as this boil really needs to be lanced at top level. The sad thing is we are all now involved in a massive navel gazing contest for the leadership , and the vital lessons I had rammed down me throat on the doorsteps of Bolsover for 2 days solid door knocking will NOT BE LISTENED TO .Not one comment re AS , one comment re COrbyn not liking him and the rest … NO TRUST IN LABOUR TO DELIVER BREXIT ! WTF no one is taking note .
Really it matters not one jot here on the SB chatterbox bubble , but the stupefying bloody mindedness of those in the PLP who deflect and distract from the much needed debate and lessons to be learned , hold the same asinine view.
The prospect of Sir Stammer being Leader is the final nail in the coffin lid , that really is a big FU to those constituencies and the future chances of a Labour Govt in the next 20yrs.
Rob – It may have escaped your notice but we have now left the EU so anyone voting in a future GE on the basis of Labour’s past stance on the EU really is a numpty of the first order.
Rob, you are looking at the circumstances after the Tories had done their damage. Why do you think it got to that? You voted Remain, I assume it was because you thought it best for the country, so why didn’t the result reflect your view and that of the members?
My point is we had zero strategy to counteract the Tories and show the public that leaving the EU would be harmful to Britain. The damage was done way before the referendum result and it was exacerbated by the Lexiters who were constantly trying to drag Corbyn away from the majority view of the members.
I am no right winger and I know that if Starmer is elected as Leader, it will be a return to the Blair years.
SteveH leaving aside the stupidity of voting Tory , a given , then those voters ( numpties as you call them ) have delivered just that in a very loud and clear signal of , ” we don’t give a Duck” and you can bet those same stubborn minded voters will do EXACTLY that again if they perceive Labour is not listening to them .
However, you miss the point, which is to try ,, and I emphasise try , to regain the trust of those constituencies we have lost. Not having any meaningful analysis and concluding learning points will not IMO aide that ability to rebuild the missing trust .Thus the party will just blindly blunder on alienating the very supporters we need. Now that maybe by deliberate design viz RW PLP bastards distracting from that debate and enabling the placement of it’s RWingers Sir Stammer etc or by just straight forward incompetence.
Either way it’s not looking good at present
rob – I’m curious, apart from your obvious disagreement with KS’s stance on Brexit can you explain which of Keir’s policies are RW
JackT , yes I know that it is history but if we do not and cannot learn then it will be repeated by our own hubris.
IMO Lexit was as reasonable position as was possible given the result and circumstances we faced , and it was the likes of Weathercock Paul Mason ( a high profile player ) and a host of others all wanting a PV then a second ref , and then getting the ref option on the manifesto that enabled the defeat.
Dragging Corbyn away is not quit true is it , he did support the result and has been a sceptic for some time , more so it’s not what the membership wants that matters it’s what the voters in our heartlands demand , they demanded we listen , the PLP along with other key players in the background decided to sabotage that very successfully .
The strategy was Lexit .
And imo correct, Lexit and the initial attempts to explain the benefits of such as opposed to a Tory Brexit was where imo the massive firepower of the MSM /Tory party/ Establishment and indeed our very own MPs metaphorically screamed the house down around the Leadership team over Lexit and the result is history.
I want to avoid that happening again and until the Party and it’s membership is given some meaningful way of airing this , then the boil will not be lanced the necessary points not learned and future defeat assured.
Hence my growing belief that Labour as is , is not sustainable , the Leadership issue is papering over the cracks and the volcano will eventually erupt at some near future time , perhaps in mass resignations of the membership or a split.
SteveH , I suggest you look at Sir Stammers voting history to ascertain his true stance and personality , believing what he says is his policies is , forgive me , naive .
Now I don’t wish to be rude but I have other things to do this evening and wish you and JackT a good night
rob – So by your own admission non of KS’s policies are RW and you now suggest his voting record is the problem but rather strangely you neglect to detail any of these instances.
With the exception of any votes on Brexit which of his votes do you believe reveal his ‘true stance and personality’?
Rob, if anyone was guilty of hubris it was the Tories, Johnson is ‘Mr.Hubris’.
What they had from start to finish was a strategy, or rather two strategies. One to nullify Corbyn and one to kid the public over Brexit and they stuck like glue to both.
We had nothing and triangulation by following whichever way the wind seemed to be blowing was no substitute.
Your comment about voters “they demanded, we listen” is a bit of a giveaway. What happens if we don’t like what they demand…. capital punishment for example? Surely it is the job, especially of a Socialist Party, to lead with ideas and not just follow ‘demands’. Of course we should listen but then use sensible well resourced arguments to put our case.
The lesson which should be learnt from this is think a situation through thoroughly from start to finish and if anyone in the team is not on board, get shut of them.
SteveH@02/02/2020 at 8:35 pm
There is no admission or otherwise of anything by me in my suggestion to you re Starmers vote record , it is a suggestion take it or leave it .
Now I did say I didn’t want a slanging match with those strongly in favour of remain/rejoining, it is counter productive and achieves nothing , my aim was and is to highlight the inadequacy of debate and the opportunity to learn from the errors leading to Labours defeat.
One should focus on the fact that to date there has been none .
This is to the detriment of the Party as a whole , and the introverted preoccupation with who leads the Party is a distraction from a very necessary period of reflection and analysis ( as Corbyn suggested ) ,, not yet undertaken.
The record below tells me what I need to know re Sir Starmer , that along with the various trusted blogs I read and their fact based views.
And the fact that he and Nandy were both involved in the coordinated Chicken Coup mass resignations in 2016 , or have you conveniently forgot that .
Add in his “performance” as DPP , a particular unsavoury one at that , and the picture for me is complete.
Voted against investigations into the Iraq war Show votes 0 votes for, 1 vote against, in 2016
Voted for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system Show votes 1 vote for, 0 votes against, 3 absences, in 2016
Voted against greater regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas
I could go on but have no intention of wasting further time reproducing his voting record.
My assumption is that you prefer Sir Starmer because he is aligned with your views on one single narrow subject and that is the EU membership .
I prefer to take a broader view of all the behaviours exhibited by the candidates , and I have to say they are all , not up to much , compared to Corbyn.
” a betrayal of the working class”
When I see that dumb knee-jerkery attached to the idea of Brexit, I know I’m reading utter bullshit – usually from somebody who’s notions are gleaned from reading ‘Sociology and Politics for Dummies’ in a locked room.
Breaking News – Terrorist Knife Attack
Streatham, London – 3 victims injured, 1 critical. Suspect shot dead by police.
I just did a search re >karie murphy bullying allegations< to try and ascertain how widely this has been reported in the MSM, and only the Sun and MSN came up in the results (the latter of which just reproduced the huffpost article), and if that's the case, then I can only conclude that most of the MSM decided that the claims are totally OTT, which they are of course. That said, I have little doubt that the staff behind the claims did everything they could to try and frustrate Karie and make her angry – ie try to provoke her.
Anyway, re the 'headline' allegation – yes, exactly! – that Karie physically assaulted her, it's interesting the way she – whoever she is – described it:
"She physically came towards me and put her hands at the bottom of my neck. She’s had me up against the wall by my neck.
"She physically came towards me"! What an odd way to phrase it. Oh, and when Karie (allegedly) put her hands round her neck, she didn't take automatic evasive action as her hands came up towards her neck, as just about anyone would of course, and just stood there and let her do it. Yeah, sure she did! But what's even more interesting is that she DOESN'T say that Karie tried to strangle her, and yet she in effect says that the grip (on her neck) was so strong that Karie had her pinned up against the wall.
Just like the claims/allegations made in the Panorama hatchet job by the 'Jewish Labour Party members' (all but one – who stated her name – were ALSO anonymous), they are so WOTT it's laughable, or would be if it weren't so serious. And as I'm sure most people who read skwawkbox are aware, it transpired that seven of the ten were and ARE executive committee members of the JLM, and one of the other three was their former Campaigns Officer, and one of the other two was involved with the BoD, if I remember correctly.
Black propagandists know of course that the bigger their lie(s)/falsehood(s) ARE, the more it/they will be believed, precisely because it's inconceivable to most people that they could be lying about such a thing.
Hi Allan – I thought this might interest you
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – 324 parliamentarians from the 47 @CoE countries, speaking for 830 million Europeans.
The @CoE Assembly, in a resolution on media freedom, declares that the detention and prosecution of @wikileaks founder Julian #Assange “sets a dangerous precedent for journalists” and calls for his prompt release.
http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=28508&lang=en&fbclid=IwAR3nkkIAolkAFLwd2ugMc4xqFqbYype0P-twIblcVYK7UZt7yKVH3BbeKzQ
Steve, I only skimmed it but a couple of things occurred to me.
Firstly I’m curious to know if the MSM situation in the EU is the same as in the UK – ie a media owned by the rich and powerful and operated in the interests of the rich and powerful as it is here – I’d assume it to be pretty much identical.
Secondly, I can understand the emphasis being on States’ duties to provide a safe environment for journalists given the attacks on them there have been – and maybe there’s another document or report covering the importance of journalistic integrity and media honesty – but I saw no mention of it in this one.
I fear ‘providing a safe environment’ might mean restricting our right to speak disparagingly of journalists on some unsupported assertion that physical attacks result from written attacks.
The only attacks on and murders of journalists I can think of haven’t been linked to ‘internet hate speech’ as far as I’m aware, but to powerful people and terrorist organisations.
I suspect this report might be another brick in the wall and support for Assange might be a fig leaf.
I hope not.
David – I highlighted this report to Allan simply because I am aware of his interest in Assange. I don’t think your attempt to wrap a conspiracy theory around it is credible
I made no such attempt, Steve. The measures being called for by Lord George Foulkes, while apparently aimed at the most repressive States, would also have the effect of putting UK journalists virtually above the law in anything they do. Not quite diplomatic immunity, but no right of the police to search their homes, offices etc and special emergency contacts if they feel threatened in any way.
Let’s not forget we have a right wing press that lies for political motives, shall we?
From Wikipedia:
{{Foulkes was described by the media as an “ultra loyalist” to the 1997–2010 Labour government.[6] He was a strong supporter of ID cards, regularly speaking in favour of former British government proposals.[7] He also supported the Iraq War and described Tony Blair’s conduct of the war as clearly [“well” I assume] intentioned, carried through brilliantly and resulting in much improvement for the people of Iraq. Commenting on Sir Christopher Meyer’s testimony to the Iraq Inquiry in 2009, he described the inquiry as “a procession of primadonnas and the usual suspects grandstanding for the TV.”}}
And he tried to ban ‘Space Invaders’ machines ffs.
Yes, interesting, but the irony of it is that I doubt very much that it received any coverage in the corporate media and the semi-corporate BBC. Can I suggest that as many of us as possible write letters to local and regional newspapers drawing attention to this.
Can’t you block these EUphile/KS idiots Steve? They’re getting boring and they’re clearly out to make sure their man wins and fucks the socialists in the party – and the party itself thereafter.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/479595-brexit-eu-uk-future/
😘
Labregalloise…..and Rob can anybody think of anything that is not right wing about Sir keir starmer and his right wing moderates thats anything to do with socialism.Steve H thinks that he’s won the fight for the moderates.ITs only just begun!…and the membership are not complete fools.Starmer ?you can’t believe a word he says!?
Agreed Joeseph , see my reply to SteveH this morning 03/02/2020 at 9:08 am · …
I could go on to have said more such as
, it should be born in mind that those voters ( numpties as SteveH refs to them ) hold the power to elect Labour ,, or ,,, not and by putting a strong pro remain and now most recently pro re-joining candidate into the seat as Leader , then may I suggest that , this might just be seen by those heartlands as giving the finger to them.
This is where some intelligent forethought is required difficult for some I appreciate but , as no doubt over the coming next 10 or 15yrs as the impact of leaving becomes more clear in those communities I hope ( by no means a surety ) that they will be slowly persuaded and convinced of the need to at least vote Labour if not contemplate re-joining.
BUT in the immediate short term effectively giving them the finger, as IMO a Starmer election would do, will solidify their beliefs in voting Tory was the right decision , so IMO you don’t do that , not if there is any form of subtlety or intelligence in getting to power .
But I feel I have said as much as is necessary my main point remains regarding Labour learning lessons and analysis , there has been none .
labrebisgalloise, how is anything written in these comments going to “make sure their man wins” or fuck [up] anyone or anything?
I admire George Galloway for some things but not for this article.
Blaming the EU for privatisation ignores the fact that it’s the main plank of Tory policy too.
Globalisation & Neoliberalism, begun by Thatcher & Reagan’s deregulations, forced the EU and everyone else to jump aboard or be left behind.
Today, trade wars are about the only things booming in the world.
“We now can and should rebuild Britain as an industrial and trading nation of the first class [—] ‘Made in Britain’ must become brand new again. We can build Jerusalem in this green and pleasant land.”
Err… well… AI/robotics is going to make low wages irrelevant, so we might have been able to compete, if it wasn’t for the other problems.
China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico have the ten biggest populations on the planet.
We’re way down the list.
The financial and environmental cost of goods, raw materials and their transportation will be of prime importance to businesses once wages are out of the equation. No more free post on stuff from China, sadly.
Manufacturing will logically compete by either locating where the customers are or where the raw materials are, whichever has the economic advantage, including in transport.
Hopefully the sources of raw materials might get a fairer shake and some development for once.
UK hasn’t the population or the raw materials to be self-supporting, much less a world player. Tories will continue to crow about ‘inward investment’ though, as foreign oligarchs and their money buy ever more of the UK.
That’s only if the Tories are still in power – I suspect they may not survive for long if the City fucks off with its football to Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin.
FPTP overwhelmingly favours small shifts in the electorate, in this case Brexit / 2nd referendum
Contrary to received wisdom tories are shit at campaigning, they are utterly ruthless and corrupt, £20 million buys a lot of votes
My views on what we have to do are clear and I voted Leave
Have a fundamental clear out of saboteurs
Campaign on manifesto from here to eternity,
Labour good Brexit, Tory bad brexit,
The difference is fundamental for jobs and standards
Your a fucking anti semite and a racist
I’m sorry you feel that way
Everything that was wrong with PLP and JC is in that encounter
His legacy is worth fighting for, but every good cop needs a bad cop
Doug, it’s not clear who you’re referring to.
labrebisgalloise
On any other planet Pantomime Dame would have been sacked on the spot
As for the the people who are paid by Labour members to work for them but who flinch and sneer at the slightest opportunity (clearly the traitors who went on Panorama were just the tip of the iceberg) a sincere and thorough audit of Labour staff is required to root out the cowards and turncoats.
Anyone found guilty of bulling should be unceremoniously booted out of our party.
Kier’s RW beliefs were displayed during his role as DPP for which he was knighted – defence and cover up of police spies working in environmental protest organisations, refusal to investigate Jean de Menezies murder and also the murder of the newspaper seller by police at that big demonstration which revealed massive police violence.
Just Stand By Karie!
Re Breaking News – Terrible terrorist incident in Streatham, London.
Sympathies to victims & families.
But can you imagine if Jeremy Corbyn had won and was in power and the reaction of the Right Wing media and probably Right Wing Labour MPs too?
This is the second such terrible incident UNDER THE TORIES WATCH and they have had plenty of time to change the rules.
Now they say they are going to act tragically after the horse has bolted TWICE!
With terrorism we are all in it together and it doesn’t discriminate, I have always argued we need to work with the grassroots from the bottom up to address injustices – we need to get over you can peacefully and democratically transform the World!
Solidarity as left wing democratic socialists to diverse citizens on yet another very sad day.
RLB – Burgon!
Stand by Karie!
I’m pleased to see that Dawn Butler, having got the required number of CLP nominations, has made it onto the ballot.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has criticised “mismanagement and bad organisational culture” in her party and said that these factors “let down” staff in the 2019 election campaign.
Who was in charge of the 2019 campaign ?
https://labourlist.org/2020/02/long-bailey-criticises-mismanagement-and-bad-organisational-culture-in-labour/