Shameful and hypocritical as Labour call for government to extend furlough scheme while turfing out its own people into the middle of a crisis just as ban on evictions ends
The Labour Party is ending the furlough scheme for its own staff while calling for the government to extend it across the country.
This is the second time the party has done this. The SKWAWKBOX exclusively reported in June that the party was sacking furloughed workers a whole 3 months before the end of the national scheme – because it didn’t want to pay even the small percentage that was going to become its responsibility from 1 August.
That plan was aborted after Unite’s Howard Beckett led unions in reading the party the riot act – but new general secretary David Evans and co are at it again and have sent staff a letter, tweeted by a Times journalist, telling them they’re out of a job from the end of this month:
Labour has tried to excuse this action by claiming the staff affected were ‘linked to Shadow Cabinet posts’ and would have been out of a job anyway when Keir Starmer became leader.
But there is no excuse for turfing out staff – while thanking them for their commitment to the party – into the middle of a pandemic and mushrooming jobs crisis.
There is even less excuse for doing so when it undermines your call for the government to keep millions of other people out of poverty by extending the furlough scheme – and absolutely none for doing it just after the Tories have removed the block on evictions from rented homes.
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Unfortunately following the abysmal results of the 2019 GE some redundancies were always going to be inevitable Less MPs means less ‘short money’ to pay staff wages.
Or:
Unfortunately, following the abysmal pay-off to the Panorama scum and the exodus of members this triggered, some redundancies were always going to be inevitable. Fewer pounds in the kitty means less ‘short money’ to pay staff wages.
tcliverpool – Which would be all well and good if it were true. There is no evidence to support your assertions about a mass exudes of members. On the contrary all the reports from the NEC and other sources indicate that the Labour Party has had a substantial nett gain in membership numbers following the low point prior to the 2019 GE.
Ooops – The above was intended for timfrom
….fewer MPs StevieH; fewer not less. (smile)
I already made that point!
Fewer not less – and the massively reduced membership-fee income (which I’m thinking of contributing to)
‘Starmer’ is becoming a swear-word.
As above.
Oh dear the grammar police are fighting amongst themselves for primacy.😀
Less membership fees more likely scenario
Hilary – On the contrary whilst the membership increased since the GE we’ve lost more than £1 million pa in ‘short money’.
SteveH membership increased since GE by how many? figures please as I cannot find the latest figures for the membership numbers anywhere. I’m going off Twitter and the amount of people with ex-Labour Party Member in their handle. Please back up your figures with a link as well, thank you!
Hilary – Sorry for the delay I forgot to post this
The number of fully paid up members at 5pm on 20/01/2020 was 552,835
It was widely reported that over 100,000 new members had joined the party since the GE
The statistics of the Labour electorate for the 2020 leadership contest show that of 784,151 people eligible to participate, 490,731 voted – 62.6%. 114,000 new members had joined since December 2019, plus 13,626 in the registered supporters section who paid £25 for the privilege of voting. Starmer won 56% of full member and 78.6% of registered supporter votes.
https://labourlist.org/2020/04/labour-is-a-soft-left-party-the-2020-leadership-elections-prove-it/ which would indicate that it is not unreasonable to assume that the membership was around 450,000 and very substantially less than 500,000 prior to the GE.
Since then there have been a number of reports by NEC members that the membership numbers currently stand at about 580,000 “Labour now has around 580,000 members. This may be the highest membership has been in modern times.” [see link in comment below] given that this figure has also been reported across multiple outlets (including Socialist Worker) I see little reason to doubt its accuracy. You may recall that SB recently wrote a short lived article claiming there had been a drop in membership. I’m guessing there was a good reason he took it down.
We will all know for certain in a few weeks time when the NEC election results are published.
SteveH thanks for the reply but I wanted to know the current official figures for the membership, I thought you had them.
I know lots of people paid to vote in the Leadership election & a lot joined the party 2019 for the same reason but that doesn’t mean to say they are still in the party now they’ve had time to assess his leadership.
Oh! well we’ll just have to wait until the NEC elections to find out.
I think it was a little unfair of you to says lots have joined since KS became leader if you didn’t have the proof.
Hilary – You think I’m being unfair and yet you’re the one that’s making completely evidence free claims that I’m wrong when the published evidence across multiple news outlets agrees with my figures. I’m more than willing to reconsider and accept that they are all wrong if you are able to support your assertions with some credible evidence.
SteveH you are being pedantic & I’m not claiming anything, I was clearly pointing out my observations in a respectful manner, I never once said you were wrong. You said you would give me the up to date figures & I assumed you had them.
The GS reported party membership around 570,000 & many more have joined the party than left. It is also clear that proportion of BAME membership is rising rather than falling
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/keir-starmer-labour-membership-88370
Hilary – https://labourlist.org/2020/06/action-over-leaked-report-virtual-meetings-nec-elections-alice-perrys-nec-report/
Unfortunately following the abysmal results of the 2019 GE caused by funny tingers and remain fanatics like SteveH, who wanted to throw Corbyn under a bus, some redundancies were always going to be inevitable Less MPs means less ‘short money’ to pay staff wages.
Plus paying six figure compensation to former staffers, couldn’t have helped.
Less MPs…But MORE members’ subs, eh, little steven? I mean, stammer’s got them queuing around the bastard block, climbing over each other to be the first to hand over their memberships fees, hasn’t he?
Labour party members who identify as being socialist…THIS is what the party has become. What more proof do you need that socialism within labour is moribund?
What more proof to you require that shows they have NO shame? That party should be replete with cash…But where has it gone – stammer?
WHY continue to fund a shower of shite that are doing the same with your fees as the toerags are doing with your taxes? Is this not a portent of how stammer’s party would act in government?
WHY continue to fund a bunch of self-preservative careerists who give about as much of a f**k about you than they miss the dodo or the quagga?
Just wait and see…That rat bastard and his stooges will be openly supporting the toerags penalising those unable to work and those millions on benefits LONG BEFORE thinking of taxing the corporates and the wealthiest when they decide it’s payback time. Then it’ll be the lowest paid he’ll go after, and so on.
You all know the drill…Do you want that on your consciences? By continuing to fund the fucker you’ll be complicit in it. No ifs, no buts, no equivocation…YOU will have facilitated and enabled it, and paid for the privilege.
The knight and his misfits are having a issy fit at the number of members leaving,with many like me allowing the membership to lapse.Today I received a begging email from the “Labour team t”to rejoin filled with promise of better days and strong knightly leadership.We are little more than a commodity to the Labour party and the last nail was the realisation that the members actually voted for a Knight to lead the Labour party.Chris Williamson and the thrown under the bus fiasco finaly did it for me and the words of a Lady?in Reigate who said to me whilst as a serving Labour councillor..” Fuck off you’re all the same “resonated with me to this day.I didn’t think I was the same but by propping up a corrupt party with my fees and donations to the Labour party I was indistinguishable from the actual members that voted for the knights treachery.ITs taken nearly my whole life for the penny to drop and I feel whatever contribution I made in civil rights on the ground in Nlreland and Pretoria was the only meaningful moment,and the Labour party has been a disaster for me and many more Democratic Socialists…So the end of a sad 😢 story.thats turned into a nightmare by the people who voted for the criminal knight..
I sincerely hope you told them what they can do with their ‘invitation’, Joseph?
I also had a begging email for dosh. Started asking for £7 up to £26 then other!! It used to start at £2 When Corbyn and Formby were running the show. They’re in trouble.
I note RH is pushing the usual Centrists memes in our ‘under new leadership’ Red Tory Labour Party, he then proceeds to pour cold water on the fact that the Party has wasted a six figure sum in paying off SCUM who destroyed Corbyn, not withstanding any, and all payments necessary to both Solicitors and Barristers for their advice on such legal issues, such advice that don’t come cheap.
Further, we then have SteveH instructing us that Party funds of course have taken a hit, but that membership figures are now significantly above where Corbyn left-off – we’ll wait until December for that verdict SteveH as most who have left the Party in disgust have done so by simply stopping their Direct Debit payment, rather than instructing the Party, via the CLP and Membership Office in London that they have renounced membership out of disgust.
Of course, one may be biased, I mean I am once more Banned from the Party for having the gaul to slag off the Kinnock Clan, which is why I’m somewhat amused at the incopetence of the Party following the delivery of a nice note on behalf of Starmer requesting I join the new, Racist, Nationalist, Fascist Party under new leadership. Indeed, a begging note for funds from an individual they deem a danger – obviously they like my money, not my opinion.
Glad to see my Twitter feed of 5,000 persons full of outrage about Starmer with many, finally renouncing their own memberships given the Right want the Left gone, and speaking personally, we should oblige them, that or get Purged in the coming months as the Party welcomes former National Front members into its own membership.
I wouldn’t worry too much. Starmer’s got huge problems ahead of him. Wokes and the identity politics mob won’t be voting for new, new fascist Labour. The working class leave voters will never vote for him, Liberals might vote for him and nationalist Tories will just think he’s realised that everything they believe in, including voting Conservative, has been proved true.
christopher I have just short of 5000,00 followers on Twitter and I can concur that all my followers are in full blown outrage at Starmer and the RW in LP, there are an awful lot of people not following me that are tweeting their disgust as well. #StarmerOut
It’s hard to see what else the party can do if it hasn’t got the cash to pay wages and donors are unwilling to stump up extra money.
SKWAWKBOX ARTICLE: “ Shameful and hypocritical as Labour call for government to extend furlough scheme while turfing out its own people into the middle of a crisis just as ban on evictions ends.”
DONT DO AS I DO, do as I say….
Top-down managerialism and a large dollop of hypocrisy is Keir Starmer/ David Rockefeller’s’new management Labour Party to a T.
Maybe if they hadn’t given away £600,000 to the Whatsapp group they may have been able to afford to keep them,
If only someone hadn’t made a badly judged statement there wouldn’t have been any liability or court case to settle.
I believe the Party lawyers advised against settling out of Court, they were of the opinion that the case put forward by the former staff didn’t hold water.
What is it that the Party hasn’t publish the advice given by our own Counsel?
Haven’t heard anything about John Ware taking Corbyn to Court for quite a while. What would that be? scare to lose the case to Corbyn now that John Ware knows Corbyn has the funds to defend Court action against him?
Maria – The original legal advice was actually that “Labour had a strong defence” so not quite the slam dunk sure fire win that you seem to infer.
Of far more significance though is that the original legal advice may have changed quite significantly once Labour had read the EHRC Report and seen the initial findings of the Forde Panel (I doubt that Labour receiving the EHRC report and the admission of liability was a coincidence). Unfortunately neither of us in a position to make an informed judgement on the decision to settle until we’ve had the opportunity to analyse both of these reports. Plus this decision to settle must have had NEC approval.
Also I can’t help wondering why (way, way back in March) RLB very clearly declared that she would apologise and compensate these ex staffers. What did she know then that you and I still don’t know now.
SteveH23/09/2020 AT 11:37 AM
”If only someone hadn’t made a badly judged statement there wouldn’t have been any liability or court case to settle.”
If only someone hadn’t made a piss-poorly (pre)judged capitulation, there would have been court costs to recover…
But he’s not one for prosecuting tories, is stammer….Care to enlighten on on the reason for that, little steven?
After all, you’ve appointed yourself the go-to twat on everything about the ins and outs of stammer and his train of thought, and are forever telling us what and why we’re wrong…Until we’re proved right.
So do, please enlighten us, we pray…
Has the legality of that payment been settled yet
Methinks not
Reply to Steve H at 1.52pm.
Having read most of the leaked document which was an annex to the party’s submission to the EHRC I believe that it is absolutely clear that those acting in the party’s name who delayed and obstructed the investigations into antisemitism will cause the EHRC to issue a finding against us. The EHRC is unlikely to take into account the political differences within the party or that right wing elements deliberately sabotaged the antisemitism investigations in order to undermine Jeremy Corbyn and add weight to the spurious and vile accusations of antisemitism made against him. Therefore like other posters here I strongly object to settling with those concerned. We would have been far better to have let all the issues be aired in open court. We certainly had plenty of documentary evidence with which to defend ourselves but chose not to. Is it any wonder people are leaving the party in droves?
The ones “linked to Shadow Cabinet posts” are presumably suspect in Starmer’s eyes – guilty by association with Corbyn.
Naturally they’d be the ones selected for redundancy.
If this news has just been released to those staff affected – and their jobs end in a week – I hope they get some kind of ‘golden handshake’ as compensation for this shitty treatment.
Centrists Are as Centrists Do.
If mainstream capitalist morality decided that it were permissible to eat one’s Grannie, Sir Keir would be arranging Grannie Barbecue’s – for the good of Families, the Country and Communities you understand.
We’re moving beyond Orwellian Doublespeak with Sir Keir.
We’ve lost our Moral Compass.
SteveH still in denial I see. Thousands of members including me left the party when it made remain a policy. That was before the election yet you choose to see Labour’s lost votes as a comment on the leader not the disastrous policy that saw Labour wiped out in leave voting constituencies.
lundiel – Given that you decided to desert him whilst he was still in office your often professed support for Jeremy Corbyn seems a bit fickle and disingenuous.
It’s called crossing a red line and has nothing to do with Corbyn. I warned the party in advance what my intentions were.
It’s the opposite of fickle, my actions were unwavering.
lundiel – So are you saying that you left way back in 2016 when Jeremy was tirelessly travelling the length and breadth of the country campaigning for Remain.
little steven, you were asked to provide evidence to back up your unproven claims.
https://skwawkbox.org/2020/09/23/labour-again-kicking-furloughed-staff-out-early/#comment-158750
…And yet again you’ve refused to. You’re THE biggest whinger if someone does it to you, but this is just further evidence you’ve NEVER had the common courtesy or the decency to answer others’ questions.
So, to demonstrate you’re NOT a snivelling hypocritical shithouse, I suggest you answer hilary’s question. I’m sure just about every other contributor to the site would like to see evidence to corroborate your highly dubious and contentious claim.
…We’re waiting.
Toffee – Thanks for your interest, are you referring to the request from Hilary, I’m surprised and flattered by your response because I simply had no idea that you were hanging onto my every word whilst eagerly checking for my latest contribution. I’m sorry but I’ve been busy, I’ll get round to replying in due course. Until then you’ll just have to try and be patient.
ps: I haven’t refused to answer Hilary’s quite legitimate question, on the contrary I’m quite happy to provide the information I have knowledge of. You’ll just have to try really, really hard to be a good boy and wait patiently until I get the chance to dig out the links again.
‘Hanging on to your every word’ am I? Christ! But your hubris and delusions of self-importance know NO bounds. What a conceited bellend you truly are.
As I’ve already told you – don’t flatter yerself. Your words aren’t worth a carrot, lad. All they’re designed to do is deliberately antagonise people so you can claim the moral high ground when you’re told to go fuck yourself for being a slimy, hypocritical little ersatz-toerag shitehawk by all and sundry.
So desperate are you to escape me for a while you’ve now resorted to trying the: ‘Make it appear as though I’m the one being stalked, instead of being the stalker for a change’ tactic.
Pitiful.
Now answer Hilary’s question. And while you’re at it tell us why stammer’s never prosecuted a tory or those who have conspired against socialism within the labour party or the establishment?
Toffee – “Your words aren’t worth a carrot, lad. All they’re designed to do is deliberately antagonise people so you can claim the moral high ground when you’re told to go fuck yourself for being a slimy, hypocritical little ersatz-toerag shitehawk by all and sundry.”
…… and yet like a moth to a flame even a big strong man like yourself has been irresistibly drawn to respond.
“Now answer Hilary’s question”
Oh my, you’re so strong and masterful
And still you haven’t answered Hilary’s question though, have ya? That’s because you thought nobody’d notice; seeing as you have just about everyone else on this site down as intellectually inferior to yourself.
Your trouble is, there isn’t anyone left that hasn’t got the measure of you; and have done so for the last 18 months – 2 years at the very least.
You’re so far up your own arse you’ll be expecting a ticker-tape parade when you emerge from the other end.
Lad, you’re a running sore, as well as a running joke. Only imbeciles have your lack of self-awareness.
You gonna answer the questions you been asked, then – Or are you content to be continually viewed as having all the courage and guile of a used colostomy bag?
Toffee – Your inferiority complex is not my problem.
…Still waiting
Patience is a virtue, apparently.
You’d know…You – who never fails to get on his high horse because someone’s risen to your hypocritcal, cowardly tripe.
https://skwawkbox.org/2020/09/23/labour-again-kicking-furloughed-staff-out-early/#comment-158793
Answer the questions.
While reading the comments on here I am also listening to a radio report on PMQs. Here we have Starmer pointing out (quite rightly) the devastating loss of jobs announced yesterday partly to do with the ending of the furlough scheme.
Meanwhile we have the Labour Party GS sending out emails/letters notifying employees they’re surplus to requirements because the furlough scheme is ending.
Wait till the usual suspects in the media start using this against the party. The conclusion will be the party has no credibility and sadly many will agree with them.
Just a thought…It will also remain to be seen if the party suddenly finds the finances to employ replacement staff who are cheerleaders for the ‘new leadership.’
Fucking hell…
https://www.facebook.com/KeirStarmerLabour/videos/1218047291864897/
‘Backing up businesses and safety for workers’
That’s right folks…That’s what the gobshite said
Unbelievable!
Stopping perfectly safe crowds from attending sporting events, not least Horse Racing
What say you
Yet they can afford £600k to pay out to ex-staff working against the Party like Oldknowe & Chalmers.
Mark – If only.
Who made this ‘badly judged statement, and what exactly was it?
And while you’re at it, let’s see if you have the courage of your convictions for your dear leader to actually defend hi fro these thinly-veiled accusations…
Why did stammer fold at the drop of a hat despite the legal team advising him to contest the case against those who conspired to lose the last election? Could it have been to aid the tories and maintain the anti-socialist, mass media ethos?
Why did stammer point blank refuse to prosecute shapps – And, indeed, resign on the very same day that the Met publicly stated shapps’ actions may have constituted fraud? Could it have been to get the toerag(s) off the hook?
And what about damien green – why does stammer want Assange hanged drawn and quartered when he refused to prosecute damien green for EXACTLY the same thing? Could it be to have aided the toerags?
And most recently WHY did stammer openly brag about writing ‘private and confidential’ letters of support to a toerag PM – THE weorst PM in the entire history of the planet, nevermind the UK?
Could it be because he’s a toerag himself? The form mentioned certainly points towards it.
Anyone cheerleading stammer deserves to be labelled as tory as he is. So, before you retort with you limp-wristed ‘self confessed tory-boy’ drivel, let’s get one thing straight….You’re NOT a labour member by any other skwawkbox poster’s standards. And a load of them are (still) labour members themselves, so they’re even better qualified to judge you in that respect.
So then, little steven – Have you the courage of your convictions to defend our messiah from my slanderous and vicious testimony?
Or will you forever be content to be viewed as the paltry little rodent you are?
(Doesn’t take a genius to know the answer to that one. 🙂 )
YOUR messiah…D’oh! 🤦♂️
And so, little stevey, idiot savant extraordinare makes an accusation of someone unknown, saying something unknown….and when challenged to expand upon it, scurries off back under his rock once again.
And he demands people take him seriously?!. Ho-hum. 🙄
Since the “Party” (whose party anyway?) has decided to save on employees, I’ve decided to save on the Party, and reduced my dues from the maximum contribution to the minimum of affiliated union. I suggest you do the same (with the appropriate message).
That’s the spirit, Ron. Still slightly short of ideal, but kudos all the same 👍
Stammer & co are availing themselves of more toerag values with each passing day, so I see no problem with members keeping more of what they earn rather than handing it over to them to spunk on themselves and their mates….Even if they do remain as members!
Labour members are more likely than the middle classes to have had their incomes reduced to subsistence levels by lockdown.
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if a lot of them reduce their membership subs to the minimum.
I would if I was still a member.