Mail’s libel was amplified by Labour right and damaged electoral campaign
The Mail on Sunday has today printed an apology to Maria Carroll, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, for a grotesque smear it printed during the 2019 general election campaign. The apology is unusually prominent, on page two of the printed edition as well as on its website:
What the Mail’s apology does not mention is the ‘significant’ damages it has also agreed to pay to Ms Carroll in an out-of-court settlement for its libel.
The paper’s foul claims were – of course – gleefully and shamelessly amplified by the Labour right and the rest of the so-called ‘mainstream’ media.
Gynis Millward, a supporter of Ms Carroll, told the SKWAWKBOX:
I am incredibly pleased with this outcome for Maria. I hope that those who were so quick to condemn her based on false allegations will apply the same alacrity in apologising to her.
The chair of the local constituency party (CLP) added:
After 14 months the Mail on Sunday have finally printed an apology to our Candidate and secretary Maria Carroll, for the false but still very damaging article they wrote back in GE19.
Though this will never compensate for the abuse and horrendous treatment Maria received after this article it is a step in the right direction.
Let’s hope now that all those who used this article to drag Maria’s innocent name through the mud will follow suit and many need to look towards their own many failings whilst doing so.
SKWAWKBOX view:
Yet another vile smear against Labour candidates and activists has been exposed. Tragically for a nation blighted by Tory mismanagement of the pandemic and of the economy, as well as for those defamed, the damage is already done.
Labour must investigate and take action against those who leaked the lie to the Mail on Sunday without delay.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
I hope she forces everyone else who libelled her to spill their giblets too.
More court actions please – got to stop the lies somehow.
Two years for justice. Thumbs up for tenacity and persistence. Well done and thanks to Skwakie for the good news. Regards ☮️
You’ll be paying Glynis Millward damages for spelling her name wrong!
https://twitter.com/standup4labour/status/1323689834209267717
I used to live in Llandovery, one of the towns in the constituency, which at the time had one of the best constituency MPs in Britain, Adam Price of Plaid Cymru, a leading opponent of Blair’s war on Iraq, a position that guaranteed the seat for Plaid Cymru during this century.
Maria Carroll was a great candidate but she wouldn’t have won in 2019 regardless: Keir Starmer and Tom Watson made sure of that.
My father (from a mining family in the Rhondda) also lived in the constituency and was a perfect weather-vane for British politics. He was a personal friend of Rhodri Morgan but hated Blair and switched to support UKIP. Many other people in the constituency were of like mind and the Labour vote declined from 1st place in 1997 to 3rd place in 2019 – from 43% to 21%, returning briefly to 30% in 2017 as a result of the Corbyn surge.
Had my father still been alive in 2019, I have no doubt that he would have voted for Bojo, despite having to hold his nose to do so. I have no doubt also that he would have been delighted at the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Labour as back in the day he was a big fan of Tony Benn.
This is one of the reasons why many people like me could see the car crash that was Labour’s performance in 2019 coming from miles off. Lavery, Smith and Trickett have drawn the correct collusions but Starmer and co are determined to hurtle off the cliff edge and act as handmaidens for the extreme right.
The handmaidens for the extreme right were the Lextremists who openly SUPPORTED the extreme right Brexit.
NO JackT it was the ‘Remoaners’ aka Starmer; Blair; Watson et al that sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn’s BREXIT plan that included closer liaison with the EU single market. Jeremy Corbyn; Chris Williamson; Dennis Skinner ‘Lextremists? The Labour Party now a pale imitation of the bourgeois Liberals.
Except they weren’t really Remainers but anti Corbynites, end of story. It was a trick to split the party as they feared JC might actually win.
Jack T10/01/2021 AT 1:09 PM
The handmaidens for the extreme right were the Lextremists who openly SUPPORTED the extreme right Brexit.
Sure it wasn’t the remainer zionists that Steve Richards mentions, jackanory? Sure it wasn’t stammer shthousing his way to a second ref and alientaing the already pissed off electorate by telling them they’d have to have yet another vote if they voted for labour in 2019?
Nah, course not. stammer was absolutely spot on to do so, weren’t he? .
Right up until the point stammer dropped the brexit pretence you were excoriating zionists and the LFI, BoD and every other pro-israeli, right-wing jewish, organisation or influence.
Now stammer’s adopted a full-on zionist attitude and has allowed zionists a far greater degree of powwer and influence within the partry you’ve turned to exclusively blaming leavers… Those ‘knuckle-dragging ukipping racists’ or whatever you described us as…
Oh, we know it’s because you’ve never been a jew, a zionist or a leaver which you think gives you licence to blame them all.
Anyone but yourself…
Steve et al, you Lexstremists cannot accept the fact that Brexit was a right wing ideal championed by UKIP and Farage and the whole of the far right including the far right of the Tory Party. Get it into your Lextremist heads that Brexit was a project of the RIGHT to cause splits and divisions within Europe AND YOU LOT SUPPORTED IT. Nothing could be clearer and simpler and in doing so you split the Labour Party, the vast majority of whom favoured REMAIN.
If it wasn’t so serious it would be comical to see you trying to turn facts on their head to blame Remainers for the current problems, you are the Trumpians of the Left. Some of the Lexstremists even support the type of violent revolution we saw from the far right orchestrated by Trump. You are bedfellows of the far right and no amount of bleating from you can change the facts, the REAL facts.
What is truly remarkable Jack T, is the way you and the hardcore cadre of remainers like you have adopted the language, personality and obsessive compulsions of UKIPers. You have become the epitomy of loud, brash, angry, tribal, political outsiders for whom the referendum was only ever meant to be advisory, a phrase that has become a mantra to you. Something that’s met with polite silence when you bore your friends to death again and again. The incredible reality is, all of you have always been far more anti-eurosceptics than rabidly pro-eu. I think it’s time you considered your position.
lundiel ‘the hardcore cadre of remainers”
What planet are you on? The only hardcore Brexit group in the Labour Party is the small but fanatical Lexstremist group which supported UKIP. The vast majority of Labour members supported Remain. You may be kidding yourself and others by pretending otherwise but for you and other Lexstremists to receive praise from Farage damns you as splitters and faux left wingers.
No we did not!
Unfortunately for you Jack, you won’t even be able to say ‘i told you so’ because the next generation of the balanced budget loving EU is going to have to pay €2 364.3 billion for Covid-19 bailouts.
Thank God we got out when we did.
Lundiel, as usual, you have little understanding of finance or figures, you need to keep away from that right wing Labour Heartlands site. Projected UK cost of Covid is £2trillion, which according to the LSI will be doubled by Brexit. Considering that the EU now has a population of 450 million and Britain 67 million, who has the highest per capita cost?
I told you so!
Ummm, that’s the 2021 budget not projected cost which no one knows yet.
I’d have thought you’d have more understanding of the crisis facing the EU. It means either more integration or disintegration and if they plump for closer integration that would have pushed us out if we had remained in. Either way, the EU has its own crisis ahead of it and more countries leaving looks inevitable. This year’s budget is only to shore up the 17 weakest economies, not a cure, just s sticking plaster.
So if the voters can’t have the left they’ll choose the extreme right instead?
Seems illogical but I’m not disputing it – the existence of Ukip and the NewTories of the ex-Labour-heartlands seems to prove it, but I kind of hoped they’d recognise their mistake by now.
The country desperately needs a genuine left wing party for people to vote for.
We did have a genuine LW Leader not so long ago but it was the LP and. Left voters who decided he wasn’t what they wanted. So that was that, game over. They were/are actually desperate to rubbish the man and nobody is saying they were wrong and are sorry.
It would be good to have this debate in our clubs, lodges etc but we can’t. Pity that. Do all of those who opposed the second ref know that they were acting for the extreme right. I didn’t so I’ve learnt something today which is a good thing. Fancy that. All those A and E visits and all those stitches from the 80’s when we were fighting ourselves. Misspent youth par excellance.
People did not “chioose the extreme right”” They voted to leave the EU, an option the left did not give them!
Yes cough up Skwawkbox! 😁
No time for scabs who crossed the line holding their noses
And no time for those who failed to honour the result, they are an insult to democracy
Ancestors spinning in graves, methinks
The extreme right Brexit was brought about by those who would not accept a democratic decision. We could have left with most of what we had intact had we accepted a democratic decision. We could have gotten a Labour election victory if we had suported the best leadership we have ever had.
How I would very much like to agree with you Colin.
Please don’t be offended.
You’re in Cloud Cuckoo Land pal.nt
We are were we are because of (BREXIT!)
The LIES that Johnson spun about his ready made deal then coming back with a worse one than the other Crazy!
When will the voters wake up to this right wing government along with the right wing press
indoctrinating those who can’t think for themselves?
The Daily Mail is a failing rag that has consistently undermined us. I hope every person it libelled in the past or libels in the future sues it into liquidation.
Begs the question why JC didn’t
I think that at the time that is what they were hoping for e.g. we had Margaret Hodge who had previously said Jeremy was NOT an antisemite calling him an antisemite or a f…ing antisemite She did not dispute calling him an antisemite just that she used filthy language.
She knows mud sticks and how hard it is to prove a negative ie to prove that you are NOT what you are accused of being.
We could have expected all the well known anti Corbyn MPs former Labour Cabinet Ministers and PMs, Labour Lords, press and conservative Jewish leaders such as the Chief Rabbi (who has boasted about influencing the outcome of the 2019 election ) to line up beside her if Jeremy had sued her. The negative press and TV reports would have increased and even if he had a fair hearing and won the case he would have lost the trial by media which was the aim of his detractors.
I think however that others who are maligned should take action right away as this candidate did but I also think Jeremy should do so now as well.
He has been put in a position where he has nothing to lose so he should sue the backsides of anybody who repeats the vile slander that he is an antisemite. There are now sufficient funds for him to do so without bankrupting himself but I have noticed that since we crowd funded him in relation to the John Ware case there have been no new accusations of antisemitism.
They are all now running scared now that he is in a position to defend himself but unfortunately the slanders and libels against Jeremy served their purpose and instead of this decent man we have Johnson the clown in No 10 and duplicitous Starmer, Johnson’s echo as leader of the opposition.
You will never drain the Rothermere fortune
“Begs the question why JC didn’t”
If JC had sued would the Labour machine have supported him in any way?
Of course not.
Should Jeremy have risked personal bankruptcy to defend CORBYNISM?
Remember it wasn’t just himself he’d have been defending, but ALL OF US.
Would that have been a viable course of action when the Labour right was the instigator of the false accusations and would have done everything possible to save their own lying arses?
NO. NOT viable.
Smartboy the money that was collected for Jeremy Corbyn against the libel case (John Ware) cannot be used for anything else only libel cases since it was set up with trustees its in their constitution and cannot be used for anything else. I asked if the money would be used for his suspension & that’s the reply I got. I got my money back and waiting for a new crowdfunder to set up and will give it to that, unless there is another one that I don’t know about if there is please point me in the direction.
I paid into the crowd funding too. There are so many of us willing to support Jeremy that each of us has only to make a small donation to enable him to take on any individual or newspaper etc which defames him. I would like to see him sue some of the most malicious of his accusers for as I said above he has been put in a position where he has nothing to lose .
I don’t know of any new crowd funding appeal but as before I am willing to subscribe if the need arises. However it may be Jeremy doesn’t want to waste his time in a courtroom trying to prove what most people know already – that he is the victim in all this- but I’m sure it is a comfort to him and his family to know that despite the wall to wall vilification he still has the backing of so many of us.
Smartboy he has my backing 100% I just wish he would take on the RW his suspension & the whip,I’m convinced he would get all the financial support he would need. I just don’t understand why it couldn’t be used for his suspension which to me was a damn more urgent than any future libel case this is what happens when bureaucracy takes over, there is all that money sitting there doing nothing, that’s my thoughts anyway.
hilary772013 my donations were also returned when I requested it – I got no reply when I asked if the fund could be used to defend Jeremy against other libel suits, or other kinds of suits, or only against Ware.
A tightly-written constitution to protect the fund is sensible to a degree, but it was just too restrictive.
I haven’t had an update email in a while.
I’d like nothing more than for Jeremy to take the initiative and sue the lying fucks instead of waiting to be sued – I’d dig very deep to support that.
Reply to David McNiven
The constitution has to be tightly written and restrictive in order to protect Jeremy and the trustees. Can any of us doubt for one minute that if any of this fund was used for a purpose other than the Ware case there would be allegations of fraud, complaints to the police and Jeremy’s name and the names of the trustees would be dragged through the mud. We have seen the damage a dishonest MSM , PLP, Tory party and the establishment working together can do so the people administrating the fund are just being sensible.
Smartboy – no.
There were already threats of legal action by others – GameshowGirl for example – the constitution could have been drafted to cover use of the fund to defend against other accusers or for Jeremy to initiate suits against others as appropriate.
Nothing can prevent more false allegations being made by any cunt with enough defamation insurance – duh.
The fund could have been Jeremy’s insurance but instead it’s trapped in limbo until Ware either proceeds his fake “case” or dies of fucking Covid – which I hope will be tomorrow.
2nd reply to David McNiven
Surely the Constitution which was devised by/for the trustees can be amended by the trustees if necessary and the money released for similar actions?
As I said I think it has to be tight because we both know that there is every chance that a donation will have been made in bad faith in the hope that future legal action can be taken against the trustees. That’s why every i has to be dotted and every t crossed.
In any case I think that the fact we were able to raise so much so quickly has scared off many of the liars and haters who have apparently made it their life’s work hurt Jeremy as much as the can.
Jeremy has nothing to lose now – this is a very good place to be – and if anyone wants to take action against him we’ll cover his defence costs either through the existing fund or if you are right and this is not possible through a new crowdfunding appeal.
Smartboy, I suppose I’ll have to explain why I think the constitution being rewritten is unlikely. Note, I don’t say “impossible” – I never did accept that to be the case and still don’t, despite what follows.
I emailed Carole but didn’t receive a reply regarding the limitations to spending the fund.
Not sure how long afterwards this update was posted on the site, but I requested refunds of all my donations because of the implications.
“You may have wondered why I’ve been quiet over recent weeks. Rest assured that Team JBC Defence Ltd have been working away in the background to open a bank account for Jeremy’s Legal Fund. We have encountered an unexpected problem however and it is taking some time to set up the account.
The government is giving grants to small businesses who have been impacted by restrictions imposed due to Covid19. This means that all the high street banks and many others we’ve looked at are inundated with new business account applications, causing serious processing delays. Banks are now not accepting new applications from anyone who does not already have an account with them. We will however continue to work to open an account until we are successful and I will let you know as soon as that happens.”
The following is the relevant part imo. Though it says “lawsuits” (plural), it also says “or any other future issues” which if nothing else is extraordinarily shortsighted.
As written it gives JC’s accusers the ability to block the fund in perpetuity and that now appears to be their intent. With no further word on rewriting the constitution I’m not hopeful the need is even recognised by the trustees.
“At present the funds remain in safe keeping with Go Fund Me. I must reiterate that we can only use the funds for the purposes for which the fundraiser was originally set up. The law, and GoFundMe is very clear about this and it means the funds can only be used to defend Jeremy against defamation lawsuits. This, in turn, means they can’t be used to campaign for the Labour whip to be restored or any other future issues.”
Sorry but you’ll be waiting a long time for the Labour right to apologise. No they’ll just keep their heads down knowing full well no other media outlet will question them.
Time and time again Labour members who are accused of AS have this information leaked to a hostile right wing media.
Yet you don’t hear Starmer and co setting up an investigation of who is leaking this information. It’s almost as if they know who the culprit is and they have their full backing.
The significant sum paid to Maria is tangible recognition of the damage and distress caused to her by the false allegations. I hope the Mail undertakes better scrutiny of its so called “sources” in future.
“Labour must investigate and take action against those who leaked the lie to the Mail on Sunday without delay.”
As if that’s likely to happen!
The brilliant brain boxes of the JVL would certainly offer advice on how to achieve that.
Leaks would have come from the new labour front bench as we see them now in their glory every week in parliament streeting would be a top candidate a scab for the torys
And thus our shameful media continues in very much the same vein.
Financial penalties need to properly reflect the harm done. Individuals may be prepared to accept the undisclosed damages paid- and fair enough on the basis of personal transaction- but I and many others have also been wronged/betrayed! If the Mail wears the label, ‘newspaper,’ then that is what we should expect to receive.
The latest from Sputnik: Tony Blair planning a comeback. The Tories are thinking of putting him in charge of Covid response. It was his advice that booster injections should be postponed until everyone had the partial immunity of one jab!
Tony Blair a disease in human form.
Tony who? Oh you mean that guy who started an illegal war that cost an estimated 1 million lives, who made himself into a multi millionaire afterwards, the man who started the privatisation of our public services, introduced tuition fees and who openly stated that he would prefer we lost an election than won it on a socialist platform?. Now he’s a public health expert is he – I expect if we follow his advice tens of thousands more will die but not good old Tone. He’ll not take his own advice – he’ll trample over the rest of us to be first in the queue to get his booster injection.
Smart boy..I think it was Milksnatcher who started the Privatisation game Tony Blair just normalised it whilst bombing johny foreigner into the stoneage…Once the Labour party were on board then in reality the establishment won the Privatisation monopoly game.and the Labour party was finished.I left the Labour party as a serving councillor and regret ever coming back.still being a socialist,forever the optomist and forever at least in my lifetime living in the wilderness,or in my case the jungle.
This must be the mutation that we have dreaded. Jock the Hat, recently said on one of his platforms that few will survive the scam, sorry virus. Bet those two will be of the few.
This is just the first of many court cases being taken out to expose the lies and smears that many left wing Labour party members have suffered from the factional right in the coming year a lot is going to come out and a lot of people are in for some big shocks. The good news is there will be some big changes in the Labour Party.
Margaret Hodge MP for the borough with the most Covid cases in London “We’ve got a very good council leader who goes into ASDA and tells people off for not wearing masks”.
C’mon. Let sleeping children’s homes lie.
If you had to pick one day a week when any use of the word ‘Brexit’ got you banished from Skwawkbox for the rest of the day, which day would you pick?
Some strange applications of logic………….Brexit being a right wing conspiracy? The Labour Party has traditionally been euro-sceptic ever since ‘yatchsman’ Edward Heath negotiated entry into the European Economic Community. Thatcher; Blair; Starmer are not simply anti-Socialist (Corbyn) they are globalists who believe in & always supported the globalist European Project aka ‘the Rich Man’s Club’. ensuring wages & manufacturing in the EU continues to collapse & outsourced.
Jack is right about Labour Party Membership being pro-Remain, which explains why Starmer was overwhelmingly voted leader. The Labour Party is no place for the ‘working class’ who appear to be hated, but the bourgeoisie ironically always have. I am now accused of being Trumpian although I suggest that I am more a ‘Deplorable’. The usual attacks are accusations of ‘racism’ or ‘little englanders’, which is somewhat ironic as Scottish nationalism is driving independence from one Union but integration into another. Socialism is not a priority, more identity politics.
The LP lost its euro-scepticism when it became a neo-liberal party. Remains so today.
Jack T10/01/2021 AT 5:58 PM
‘The vast majority of Labour members supported Remain.
The entire problem in a nutshell, right there. Myopic, pig-headed parochialism at its very worst.
How many times does it require explanation that the labour membership DOES NOT and IS NOT representative of the electorate as a whole?
And you STILL blame everyone but yerself…
It’s his party and he’ll cry if he wants to.
How is “the rich man’s club” of the EU any worse than the UK parliament or any other government?
Rich people tell the Tories what legislation they want.
Why would any thinking person imagine politicians elsewhere would behave any differently? Duh.
All politicians have rich people lobbying them over what legislation is “good for business.”
Different EU governments have different economic sector bias but they all have rich “donors” to keep happy.
Blaming the EU is as ridiculous as the gun nuts of fifty states blaming “the Federal Gumment” for everything.
There was immigration before the EU and there’ll be immigration again – as much as it takes to suppress wages.
Even the US has free movement to suppress wages – there they call it “Goddam Mexicans.”
Thatcher and Reagan’s deregulation of finance is to blame for the ills of neoliberalism & globalism – deregulation made fortunes and gave every government including the EU no choice but to jump on board.
Deregulation caused explosive growth and made every dumb rich fuck on Earth see “the market” as the Tree of Life.
Brexit’s just an opportunity for the richest players to asset strip the UK.
The EU was never the real enemy of the people.
“IT’S THE MARKET, STUPID”
To get away from neoliberalism you’d have to “brexit” the Earth.
Better to crowdfund a dead or
alivedead bounty on the 1%.