Group leafleted in 2018 to raise funds that would be ‘held independently’ by Darren Jones to campaign as independent if deselected by Labour
This article is a repost of one first published in December 2018. While Labour has suspended the officers of Bristol North-West Labour and of neighbouring Bristol West on unspecified grounds (though believed to be linked to simply tabling motions of support for Jeremy Corbyn), the BNW constituency’s MP, Darren Jones, still sits as a Labour MP – despite raising funds while a Labour MP to run against Labour if he was deselected:
Bristol North West MP Darren Jones is a literal, self-defined Blairite. He has said that the politician he admires most in history is the former Labour PM now reviled by many for taking the UK into an illegal – according to the UN’s then-Secretary General Kofi Annan – war:
Now Jones has stirred fresh controversy – and engaged in an almost-certain breach of Labour’s rules – by launching, or at least agreeing to participate in, a campaign to raise funds for an ‘independent’ re-election bid.
A group calling itself ‘Friends of Darren Jones’ is circulating leaflets to residents in the constituency outlining Jones’ alleged credentials to be elected – even if, as the group indicates it expects, Jones is deselected by local Labour members:
The group’s website, indicated on the form, gives no information about who is behind it – but the leaflet states that Jones is personally – ‘independently’ holding all funds raised.
The leaflet claims that the next parliamentary election in the constituency will be a ‘two horse race’ between ‘anti-Brexit Pro-People’s Vote independently minded’ Jones and the Tory candidate, a clear demonstration of contempt for whomever Jones’ replacement as Labour candidate might be.
Jones did not respond to the SKWAWKBOX’s enquiry on Monday. He was asked:
1. the leaflet says funds will be ‘held independently’ by you and the imprint states it is promoted on your behalf – did you set up or have you sanctioned this fundraising effort?
2. the leaflet says the campaign is for ‘those of us who support Darren but don’t want to donate to the Labour Party’ – neither the friendsofdarren.co.uk website nor the leaflet identify individuals involved with it. Are any of those involved in the fundraising Labour members?
3. standing against Labour or supporting a non-Labour candidate are auto-exclusion offences under Labour rules. On what grounds do you think that any Labour members involved should not be expelled and that you should not have the whip withdrawn?
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Labour’s rules state that members who stand against a Labour candidate, or support a party that puts up candidates against Labour, are liable to ‘auto-exclusion‘ – automatic expulsion from the party.
The SKWAWKBOX has asked Labour to confirm that this would apply in this case, but it is hard to imagine an MP retaining the Labour whip and his membership of the party while actively preparing to compete against it in the next – and possibly imminent – general election.
Any Labour members involved in this fundraising effort must surely also be expelled for this explicitly anti-Labour fundraising campaign ‘for those… who support Darren but don’t want to donate to the Labour Party‘.
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Does “friendsofdarren.co.uk” exist. I’ve tried it and got nowhere. Ditto Twitter.
David Walsh …Don’t ever set up as a private detective Sherlock Holmes you are not.but I am sure there’s a place in heaven for people like you comrade.
Yet the last four and a half years were dedicated to appeasing his lot by doing “everything they asked” – John McDonald MP.
What happened to the money they raised? Did they raise any money?
Do all roads lead to Phil Gaskin
It’s odd that this bloke hasn’t been expelled. Here’s a similar tale from 2005 but with a different result. The party picks and chooses . .
Last Updated: Friday, 23 September 2005, 13:53 GMT 14:53 UK BBC
Labour peer expelled for donation
Lord Haskins
Lord Haskins said the Lib Dem candidate was a friend
Labour peer Lord Haskins has been expelled from the party for giving money to a Liberal Democrat candidate during the last election.
The wealthy businessman gave £2,500 to Lib Dem Danny Alexander, who beat Labour’s Dave Stewart in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey.
Labour said the donation to the Lib Dems broke party rules.
Lord Haskins said Mr Alexander was a friend. The peer said he also donated cash to Labour on the same day.
Labour’s National Executive Committee has now expelled him.
Lord Chris Haskins, former chairman of Northern Foods and Express Dairies, was ennobled by Tony Blair and was one of Labour’s leading donors.
He said he would not be seeking a return to Labour nor would he be joining the Liberal Democrats.
This bloke will go far. Just the sort that Sturmbannfuhrer Schtarmer & Schütze Evans need by their side.
The LP rules governing this sort of thing basically say that to support another party or to encourage people to vote for another party or to stand in an election against a LP candidate is to effectively resign from the LP. No one has to expel you because you have automatically rendered yourself ineligible to remain or to be a member.
Can someone stand both as an independent candidate and the official LP candidate in the same election? How I wonder who the returning officer thought he was representing. How was he described on the ballot? There could well be one or more election laws that have been broken here like restrictions on election spending and accounting for spending. Did he provide two sets of accounts one for the independent candidate and one for the LP candidate? If he provided only one set of accounts from the LP he must have misled those who donated and didn’t want contribute to the LP.
Another lawyer it seems who doesn’t appear to have acquainted himself with the most basics of electoral laws let alone his own party’s rules (assuming that’s not some independent party of course)
If this goes ahead we could see him standing against himself??
Albert Swift25/11/2020 AT 1:27 PM
You ask “Can someone stand both as an independent candidate and the official LP candidate in the same election?” Albert, dont be silly. Your talking with the grown ups now.
But OK Im going to indulge you for a minute. The answer to your question is: obviously not. But (big but coming up) . That is not what happened here. And you know it.
If a sitting MP(any party) is threatened with deselection (which I believe a constituency party, any party, has the right to do: deselect) then that MP has also the right to say ‘Deselect me and I will stand as an Independent candidate’. That is in my opinion democracy in its purest sense and I think that is what has happened with Darren Jones in Bristol North.
Ive never heard of Darren Jones until I read this article. This is why I love The Skwawkbox. it is so informative. If I have unpicked this article correctly, (the interpretation of Skwawkbox articles requires practice and dedication) I am sure the name Darren Jones is one we will hear again. .
Or
The Class Action goes to court and we get rid of Red Tories once and for all
Or
The Unions negotiate a division of assets, as long as we keep our party I would happily sell my granny and her flat
Would be a huge 10 for Len if he negotiated the orderly movement of Red Tories into their mythical centrist party
Challenge is to flush out end game for Cockwombles
Bevin summed it up, nothing but the destruction of the Labour party will suffice
The rot started by Kinnock, pushed along by Bliar is now in the capable hands of Haredim Kier as he had his kind demolish a socialist political party from the inside. Fine. Everyone out except the neoliberals and leave them to it.
I would be more than happy to support a socialist party with Mr Corbyn and the socialist MP’s that could (20% needed) instigate a leadership challenge but do not.
With CLP’s being illegally dismantled and unions threatening to withdraw their support, it is now time for the grassroots and MP’s to move on and leave the carcass that is Labour to die its slow and painful death.
‘Haredim Kier ‘: not acceptable language’.
Asshole. Haredim means sir in Hebrew! I use it sarcastically moron.
Simple abuse below.
barrierreid – your “Haredim Kier” is a violent juxtaposition. Severely inaccurate in many points of fact.
Haredim includes many Orthodox Jews who despise secular practises. Starmar seems happy to embrace all secular practises. Haredim REJECT the idea of the modern state of Israel having spiritual relevance / authority / supremacy. Max Headroom has certainly never shared that view in public.
Traditional Jewish religious laws are STRICTLY observed by Haredim who are a definition of devout.
Unsurprisingly barely reported, were Orthodox Jews ie Haredim, being battered black and blue INCLUDING WITH WATER CANNONS, by the super armed and kitted out “authorities” of the modern state of Israel. Kitted out by Tory governments Blue and Red. WHY were they bashed, and beaten? ANSWER – They refuse to join the agents of obscene compulsive and compulsory brutality Israeli military service demands.
Those protests by Orthodox Jews got ZERO coverage on MSM radio. Quite unlike the vast square kilometres of printed bilge and what may have been 666 hours of MSM radio coverage of one particular person claiming to have received over 2000 abusive messages while having coffee with a journalist friend. So distressed by all the “abuse”, yet the individual declined ALL invitations extended by privately by Jeremy to meet. The individual stated that they declined the last invitation because they were –
“not going to miss a 40th birthday party of a friend to meet with Jeremy”.
P.S. Orthodox Jews have ALWAYS been supported by Jeremy, with singular distinction as far as MPs go.
As ever, intended a short reply. Just as well. More evidence that the politically motivated allegers of anti-Semitism, could not give a jot about Jews, Muslims, Christians, Jedi or levitating mushroom worshippers.
The self-serving liars’ PRIORITIES are money and power staying in the claws of the one percent all over the world, of faith or non, black, pink, green, sunset yellow, brown, purple … ALL is about the monopoly of money and power benefiting only the few – the one percent.
🌹🌹🌹
… It is severely inaccurate in many points of fact. Apologies
Great info and an all round ace post. Regards ☮️ Wobbly
I use it sarcastically asshole.
Asshole, you did not take any notice of the first sentence that I wrote did you, superior asshole fill of shit.
signpost
They have also destroyed any semblance of a free market, this is pure socialism for the 1%
Spot on Doug. Socialise losses and failure. Privatise profits and banditry. PPE scandal typical. Banking crisis typical. Security at Olympics. Leaking MOD ships …
The many pay for the few. This year alone Ten BILLION GBP plus on useless PPE. One million per day to store container loads of more unusable PPE despite hospitals crying out for PPE.
Who is profits from these scandals? Always Tories and those who parasitise Labour. Heads they exploit. Tales they exploit.
Twenty Million to a Tory chum middle man to source PPE from China. What is his expertise? An unknown jewellery designer. Have you heard our Max Headroom saying he is determined to stamp chumocracy out of the Tory party❓ No. Or drive racism out of the Tory Home Office Ministry❓ No. Has Sir Keith Bollardhead Starmar ever done anything decent as DPP or politics ❓ ❓ ❓ No. All his doings have been to serve the dreadful interests of the one percent.
One of those interest is the intimidating of any who try to speak truth to power. Hence Starmar’s claws in the caging of Julian Assange. Types like Keith are DESPERATE to get their turn to swan about with despots. Note well, even Major, May & Blo Job are quite content to quietly rake in millions. But Starmar and Bliar have an extra taste to be loved by the 1% oligarchs, kleptomaniacs etc. That was perhaps the warmonger Bliar’s top six hundred and sixty six degenerate traits. The creature fawned at the super wealthy and the millions they appeared to have. Bush’s suppository believes people with tons of money gained by raping the world are “great”, “talented”, “smart”.
Honesty, truth, justice, humanity, care, kindness, equal opportunity for all… are used by Headroom & used pessary Blair, as instruments of deceit. That’s how Headroom deceived some of the members. Their hope misguided them to look away from his long record of being bad news for all that is good.🥀🥀🥀
This double standard has always existed in the LP. Nye Bevan was expelled for a sharing a platform with a communist but Blair snuggled up to Murdoch and Bush. It’s fine to be Labour PM and to be in cahoots with a right-wing war-monger who launches shock and awe on some of the poorest people in the world. At its grassroots, Labour has many members who are socialists ie they are happy to see capitalism reformed out of existence. In the PLP, you can count the socialists on your fingers and toes and probably have some left over. Parliament attracts the ambitious, the egocentric, the greedy for money and power. Mostly, they are good at pretending to be on the side of the common folk. But overwhelmingly they will back corporate interests over the people. Careerism has always dominated the PLP and hence hatred of the left.
Parliamentary research doc -Social Background of MP’s 1979-2019. Table 11 shows. 49% of Lab MPs were party or TU staff/officials (Not members) – 12% were professional charity workers -18% lawyers or lecturers/teaching – only 5% were NHS/Social Work and appallingly only 1.5% were Manual Workers . Can anyone else detect a bit of an imbalance?
Thank you for this important detailed info. It shows THE pivotal Labour party flaw. The party reflects the likes of Starmar and the war criminal sucker upper of George Bush Jr. The party does not reflect the many. It fails to respect or prioritise even the most basic needs of the many. Those who elbow their way to the greased pole, then clamber all over others to hog control in branches, whole CLPs, regions etc could not give a flying fox about the many. They scorn those outside the metropolitan set. They feel manual workers should do as they are told. When they say start from the grass roots they mean, tell the grassroots what to believe and do. That includes the “Left”.
QUESTION: Have you heard any sustained pursuit to results / eg help for victims or even a few words to the general public re: Grenfel plus the cladding fallout, the Windrush victims, the repeated MP pay-rises, robbing blind by the 1% eg SERCO, G4S, A4E, ATOS now renamed, CARILLON now defunct most likely absorbed by other bandits… ❓
The list is endless. Yet all we get from the “Left” are occasional noises but ZERO pursuit to get a result. Yet there is ALWAYS more time for reading groups, writing useless statements of “solidarity”, especially about issues which we are even more unlikely to influence, protesting for crumbs, the lamest requests etc. It gives an impression of concern / action but is really the minimum effort to deceive the gullible.
Do we twit about brushing our teeth and consider them brushed❓ Do we post on social media about feeding the baby thus consider the baby fed❓Do we run a race 1/4 way and consider it a victory when we we are more than capable to run to the finish line❓ To date, we have all been hoodwinked big time. 🥀🥀🥀
What ever election laws have been broken I am not sure, what does seem apparent is the issue of fraud, the police can find out if any money has been given to Darren Jones [bank account] and retained by himself or transferred to the Labour party as it should have been or returned to donors.
That was a great post about the jobs and professions of our betters. Now one can see that Max Headroom is their natural leader. Annointed and loved. He’s secure, don’t kid yourselves.
Remember when Hodge called Corbyn a “F—ing anti-Semite racist” Journalists were briefed that the probe was abandoned after she expressed “regret” to Labour chief whip Nick Brown for the way she raised her views, but Dame Margaret strongly denied the suggestion.
In a letter from her lawyers Mishcon de Reya, posted on Twitter by Dame Margaret, the firm accused Ms Formby of an “entirely disingenuous” attempt to save face over the party’s climbdown. The letter accuses Jenny Formby of telling lies in order to save face SEE full letter here.. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-hodge-labour-antisemitism-latest-row-jeremy-corbyn-racism-investigation-a8480396.html
This means no apology was ever made, so Hodge stands by every word, methinks another complaint about her should be made. Mr Walkers complaint [about Starmer] is only 5 months old with no resolution, don’t worry I have a complaint about Tony Blair which has been acknowledged several times but no hope of a conclusion 18 months and counting
On any other planet or in any other walk of life the Pantomime Dame would have been sacked on the spot
Never mind reported and hopefully prosecuted for hate crimes
Any other planet, that is, that wasn’t run and controlled by psychopaths!
Meet The Wrong Type of Jew, The Media Doesn’t Want You To Know Exists | Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
PW25/11/2020 AT 9:50 PM.
Well done
Thank you Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.
There is is a terrible reckoning to come.
Thou shall not kill.
Thou shall not steal.
Something practical to do – Labour Activists 4 Justice are crowd funding for their legal action with files being prepared. Sixteen days to go.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-4-labour-party-members/