Labour right’s hierarchy of racism on show again as Newcastle councillor only suspended for twelve months over Islamophobic comments. Now Skwawkbox brings exclusive back-story on councillor’s racist ‘Muslim plot’ comment
This article was written by Labour insiders in the north-east on condition of anonymity.
Councillor Joyce McCarty has been found guilty of Islamophobia by the Labour Party’s internal process, but instead of being expelled, has merely been suspended for one year.
McCarty harassed a Muslim councillor, texting her and claiming “a specific Muslim plot” was the cause of right-wing council leader’s Nick Forbes’s deselection in February this year.
Forbes’s four year term as councillor was coming to an end, and members in Newcastle’s Arthurs Hill were asked to select a candidate for the upcoming May elections.
Forbes lives on the other side of the city and had rarely been seen in the local area, a fact that concerned local members. He had reportedly been hoping for elevation to the House of Lords, but when that did not materialise, appears to have panicked and realised he would need to be reselected as a councillor to keep highly paid roles as Labour Leader of the Local Government Association (LGA, £42,000), Leader of Newcastle City Council (£28,000) and vice chair of the Tyne and Wear Fire Authority (£10,000), which he enjoyed alongside directorships and expenses.
Forbes doorstepped local members in the weeks running up to the selection meeting. One local member, who fears reprisals for speaking out, says they felt intimidated by Forbes’ doorstep conversation and Forbes demanding their vote, saying that he warned them that there would be ‘significant consequences for you in the Party and if you want a future, you know what to do’.
A local member on the end of a Forbes doorstepping told him they had been hoping to run for the seat. He responded that “There may be something else available, but it depends what happens here… You know what to do.”
Longstanding Labour Councillor Lord Jeremy Beecham was stepping down, and rather than being voted on by local members, Labour’s candidate for his Benwell council seat was appointed by the party executive.
When Forbes knocked on the door, one Party member said “Who are you?” They report that Forbes was ‘visibly affronted’, “I’m the leader of Newcastle City Council and Labour Leader of the LGA,” was the reply. “Well I’ve never seen you round here,” said the local member.
When his direct approach failed, Forbes tried to send the party membership lists to a BAME councillor from another ward, asking that they drum up support amongst the Muslim members – a serious GDPR data breach. The councillor was shocked at Forbes’s actions, and would have no part in them. Forbes also persuaded Chi Onwurah, the MP for Newcastle Central, to ring around members, saying that if they didn’t vote for Forbes, it would be a national story and bad for the city.
In the end, Forbes fell flat, and only 4 local members voted for him in the selection meeting. 13 voted for local member Abdul Samad, who lives in the neighbourhood, and was not aligned to any faction in the Party. Forbes and his allies, including Joyce McCarty, went into full spin mode. Forbes claimed to have been “ambushed” – despite his doorstepping antics and enlisting the MP to campaign for him weeks in advance.
Some might say the “ambush” claim was a direct lie. Forbes persuaded the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee to write a sympathy article for him, presumably to detoxify his future career prospects. She claimed “he received total pay of £27,600 a year, with no pension, for the past 11 years for heavy responsibilities.” Poor journalism, considering his £42,000 LGA and £10,000 Fire Authority roles are declarable interests.
He put a complaint into the Labour Party, claiming the decision was homophobic. And McCarty blamed local Muslim members, claiming it was a “specific muslim plot”. The selection process was run by regional officials and a staffer from right-wing Labour MP Catherine McKinnell’s office, and no grounds to overturn the decision could be found. Labour members simply didn’t want Forbes – and many didn’t even know who he was.
McCarty knew she had been suspended pending investigation, but kept quiet and stood as a Labour councillor in May, before her suspension became public knowledge. It is not known why regional director Kate Bolger, who knew about the suspension, did not alert the Newcastle Labour Group in time. Labour’s GLU ordered local party bosses NOT to suspend the whip from McCarty, and ordered them to keep quiet. It is understood that the matter was raised directly with Keir Starmer, but the extent of his involvement in the decision not to expel McCarty is unknown.
Newcastle council is under new leadership, and in the context of McCarty’s actions, Newcastle Labour has issued a statement condemning hate crimes. Senior Labour sources in Newcastle are outraged at the Party machinery’s failure to tackle Islamophobia.
The full text of the above article was sent to Nick Forbes for comment on Monday at two separate email addresses. He had not responded by the time of publication on Friday.
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Labour becomes a exclusive minority on a daily basis.
Fascism maybe growing but not amongst the decent people of this world.Shame that theres no longer any Opposition party in England anymore..
If you are not White European, Zionist, Wealthy, anti-Socialist or are Black, Muslim, “Fringe” Jew, you are out on a cold ear!
I am sure that I meme’d that!
https://archive.org/download/neolabour-whippy/NeolabourWhippy.png
Can anyone spot why these fuckers are in the wrong party
If Red Tories went forth and multiplied then they would be welcomed with open arms by Conservative HQ
Likewise the toerags would be -and indeed ARE – welcomed in keefs ersatz toerag party.
NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER.
One wonders”” what would happen to anne marie morris if she blurted her n****r in the woodpile abomination in keefs’ party.
**Wonders for an attosecond, then comes up with the Paul Daniels answer = Not a lot
They’re not Doug, they killed the Party they are not supposed to be in.
They are the Parasite Infestation of Thatcher/Reagan’s flavour of Globalist Conservative Neoliberalism, that BLiar dragged in behind him when he gnawed his way into parliament via the sewers of Westminster!
They are the SAME Neoliberal Parasite Infestation that infested and killed The PEOPLE’S Opposition in The USA, UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia and Europe!
The ideal Neoliberal System of The ONE Party State! Total control of MSM, MSSM, MSP & MSInternet! Any attempt of a Party for The PEOPLE or Opposing Information gets immediately smeared and vilified with the most outrageously ferocious SpinPorn Campaigns and lables of Racist, Tin Hat Conspiracy Theorists, Terrorist, etc etc etc gets slapped on thick and good, but if we just storm ahead through their shitstorms, usually they prove us right, and then it is our duty to keep it alive, like BeerGate, Like Forde Report, like Julian Assange, etc, etc untill the inquiries reopen and justice gets served. Just because those people are the law, does not make them above the law.
All we can do is to awaken The PEOPLE warn them day in, day out, it will take some time we just need to be more Jack Russell and less Chihuahua. For every blog, forum, Social Media, etc there will guaranteed be a BlueSteveH working 24/7 for his paymasters.
Just Keep informing here ther and everywhere! Even if you have to say that same thing to thsame people 100 times a day keep on, that’s all we have at the moment.
It is understood that the matter was raised directly with Keir Starmer, but the extent of his involvement in the decision not to expel McCarty is unknown.
😙🎶
The briefing must be quite detailed 😙🎶
Seems there’s a Labour member like this in just about every town. Takes a fortune for being faceless.
Why would anyone vote for this?
With Sir Keir the S*n Correspondent, leadership is more about ‘signals’ than substance. Signals to sponsors, ‘superiors’ and powerful elites. Ultimately he achieves this by adopting US social, economic and geopolitical positions.
Joyce McCarty’s allowance to stand as a Labour candidate in May’s local elections despite suspension for Islamophobia and the heinous reversal of Conference’s extra-ordinary support for the people’s of Kashmir and Pakistan over the invasion and military-rule of Kashmir by India.
Thank you SW for the back story here. Keir Starmer is not only the only British-born member of the Trilateral Commission, but also, with his ‘show-me-you-papers’ authoritarianism, one of its most virulent enablers. People like him should not be in Labour, never mind its leader.
After spending a little while as a guest of the NHS, I have been trying to catch up on reports and comments on this site. Having had plenty of time to read, I have made a start on an extended study of how academics approach the study of disinformation. There are three clear finding to date (I’ve read about a quarter of it so far) and they are:
1. There is widespread agreement on how to define disinformation.
2. There is widespread agreement on characteristic strategies of those who wish to spread disinformation.
3. Trying to apply these principles to real life situations proves very challenging because people, including academics who try to maintain impartiality, generally find that information that they disagree with is “disinformation” rather than an alternative assessment.
There have been many references on this site, whilst I have been otherwise engaged, to “the facts”. The study observes that:
Disinformation can involve misleading people by selectively presenting true information.
The selection can be ‘constructive’, in positively steering attention towards a partial view of matters, while excluding mention of crucial contrary considerations.
The selection can be ‘destructive’ in that it involves the more negative strategy of disseminating irrelevant or misleading facts indiscriminately with an intent to disorientate and confuse.
(In the) very nature of organised disinformation, a predictable strategy for its dissemination is to level accusations at those who impede its progress of being themselves engaged in disinformation.
These observations reminded me of one of our contributors.
Goldbach…..Kaboom, I’m so glad you have seen it, and what he’s up to. Well done. This happens on so many other forums.
Well a little bit of information about Archie battersbee whos life support was withdrawn from him after a court battle for his life by his parents who should be proud of themselves having fought to the very end.Tragic that human rights and life mean so very little in this world
.Now if he was somone of importance like a royal or a celebrity would his parents have had to fight for their sons life?….RIP Archie you will be in my prayers.along with parants to be proud of.
And in the long term…the idea of backing off if the toerags stop the witchunt and re..instate Corbyn will do nothing as far as dealing with the crisis of the ninty percent of people who are not represented in the British parliament.The only true way must be a new party to stop the calamity and carnage facing the working class this winter.Too late for many who are being ground down and destroyed by the likes of the Bank of England who have deliberately orchestrated a meltdown for small businesses and individuals on ordinary wages or none.This crises must be faced and dealt with but theres no longer any doubt that your rulers are incapable of doing anything other than line their own pockets.and help themselves.
Where’s Sir Hiss, fawning for King Louie?
Just reading another bit of poor quality journalism in the independent who report that pensioners this winter will have to pay one pound in every five pounds from their average spend of 342£per week living costs on energy bills.I get Seven hundred and forty pounds per month in state pension which is common. .We are often astounded by the pensions European,aussies and other ex pats get here and I wonder what the hells going on in Britain when such appalling reports of pensioners money are paraded in the British press as the average.pension.ignoring fact that many of us don’t have private pensions and were brought up to believe that cradle to grave would be the norm….just look at our betters to realise what they consider a pension for themselves should be and its eye watering.
iTs about time that the true state of poverty was reported especially amongst the elderly and just how low the state pension is.in reality and the task ahead of any government especially neo liberal government that ignores daily the poverty facing the working class.They really couldn’t care less..!
The fact that comments on this are rare.is more a symptom of the way media in Britain are hand in hand with the establishment and choose to lie about the state of poverty in Britain.The time is now right for real change.
.Labour are part of the problem not the solution and the ignoring of the invisible working class is criminal.The time is right now for the people to rise against the parasites that infect all of our lives and a new working class peoples party is needed like never before.IF you doubt the serious task ahead I would direct you to the recent report on poverty in Britain and especially child poverty.The writings on the wall if you care to look outside of British propaganda.and the media.Thank God weve got Squawkbox as the few opposition parties in the media.!