Former Labour staffers Tracey Allen and Julie Lawrence have locked their Twitter accounts – but a public Facebook album includes video of speeches about their commitment to Labour and Labour government
Tracey Allen and Julie Lawrence are two of the former Labour staff who feature prominently in the leaked party report that accuses a group of HQ staff of undermining the party and its leadership. Both worked in then-general secretary Iain McNicol’s office.
According to WhatsApp messages quoted in the report Allen, for example, joked about Corbyn staff being ‘ready to join the dole queue‘ after the 2017 general election – and looked forward to them being ‘ashen and in tears‘ after the the electoral collapse she was expecting.
But on polling night, according to a WhatsApp chat shown in the leaked report, she described voters as ‘bastards‘ for flocking to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and said that the result was the ‘opposite of what I had been working towards for the last couple of years‘.
Lawrence said that a left-wing colleague’s face ‘would make a good dartboard‘, discussed launching leadership challenges if election results went badly and talked tactics for stacking a selection panel to secure a right-wing candidate.
On 2017 election night, in the same WhatsApp chat she is seen saying she was ‘stunned and reeling‘ at Labour’s surge after the exit poll showed Labour neck and neck with the Tories from being 25 points behind.
“28 days and they’ll be ashen and in tears”
Tracey Allen’s WhatsApp comment about Jeremy Corbyn’s office, according to leaked Labour report
Both former staff were part of a right-wing group in Labour’s HQ under then-general secretary Iain McNicol, which the internal report accuses of undermining the party’s electoral efforts in 2017 and obstructing disciplinary processes.
Since the report was leaked, the pair have locked their Twitter accounts – but in Allen’s public Facebook album titled ‘Tracey and Julie leave the Labour Party’ they can be seen posing proudly, in 2018, with letters from Tony Blair praising their service to the Labour Party and wishing them well, as well as with figures from the ‘hard right’ of the party.
“if we lose these elections we could have another leadership election”
Julie Lawrence’s WhatsApp comment, according to leaked Labour report
And in video of their leaving speeches, also contained in the album – which is publicly viewable even without signing into the social media platform – the pair are seen:
- boasting of their commitment to the Labour Party – and in Allen’s case her passion for getting the party into government
- praising the ‘loyalty’ of boss Iain McNicol, and the team he built that was supposedly ‘all contributing to a goal that will build a better country’ – presumably a Labour government. McNicol has just resigned the Labour whip pending an investigation into the findings of the leaked report
- talking of the need for ‘gallows humour’ and the way in which politics ‘can knock you completely off course’, in apparent references to the ‘Corbyn surge’ of 2017 that left them ‘stunned and reeling’ and ‘silent and gray’ on polling night
Tracey Allen was contacted for comment about the contents of the report. She blocked further communication. Iain McNicol was also contacted but did not respond. The SKWAWKBOX was unable to locate contact information for Julie Lawrence.
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