Nandy-run ‘Labour Together’ sets up event lionising Johnson’s supposed ‘mission’ to ‘level up’ poor areas – and invites Tory MP to Liverpool to talk about it
A ‘Labour’ company run by front-bencher Lisa Nandy and one of Keir Starmer’s biggest donors has arranged an event at the party’s conference in Liverpool next month that validates the Tories’ fictional ‘levelling up’ ‘mission’ – and has invited a former ‘levelling up’ Conservative front-bencher to talk about it.
The truth about the so-called ‘levelling up’ agenda was always obvious, but was laid completely bare when Tory leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak boasted to fellow Tories about taking money from the ‘poorest and most deprived’ areas and diverting it to wealthy Tory shires.
But this has not deterred ‘Labour Together’, an organisation also linked to Starmer’s Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed and Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and that failed to declare 83% of almost £1 million in donations within the legally-required period – from validating Tory ‘levelling up’ promises as if they were more than a con and inviting the Johnson-supporting Tory MP Danny Kruger to talk about it:
Kruger’s voting record, since he became an MP in 2019, is dire. Among his shameful actions, he consistently voted against measures to protect the environment and to reduce tax avoidance – and against allowing unaccompanied children and vulnerable adults seeking asylum to join relatives in the UK. Yet he is considered a suitable guest at a ‘Labour’ event.
As well as MPs, ‘Labour Together’ has among its directors Trevor Chinn. Starmer was rightly criticised for hiding donations from Chinn and others until after the close of the Labour leadership election even though he had received them months earlier, presumably because Starmer was well aware that many on the left would not never vote for him if they knew he was accepting money from a well-known pro-Israel, anti-Corbyn donor.
Following suit, Starmer’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves was also recently found to have failed to declare a large Chinn donation along with three others, while the multi-millionaire has donated to both Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel, as well as on multiple occasions to figures who undermined Labour during Corbyn’s leadership such as Tom Watson and Ian Austin.
Starmer himself is expected to face a hot reception when he returns to Liverpool for the conference, where last month he was humiliatingly put on the spot by the Mersey Pensioners’ Association’s Audrey White for his numerous betrayals of ordinary people and Scousers in particular.
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