Analysis Breaking

Video: Healey disowns rail workers on behalf of Starmer

Labour spokesman tells TV viewers that rail unions and barristers are not affiliated to Labour – which is not true

Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme this morning and disowned rail unions on behalf of his boss, Keir Starmer.

Under pressure – and refusing – to say that workers striking to defend their jobs, pay and conditions and the welfare of those they serve are doing the right thing, Healey claimed that:

Let’s be clear… the rail workers do not fund the Labour party.

But Mr Healey was drastically wrong. Of the main rail unions, two out of three – TSSA and ASLEF, who along with the RMT are involved in or preparing for strikesare affiliated to the Labour party, as the party’s affiliated unions website confirms:

But one long-term trade unionist told Skwawkbox the issue of affiliation is irrelevant to the issue, adding:

Is giving money to the Labour party now required before they’ll support working people?

And Healey wasn’t done. He also:

  • dismissed the links between the party and unions as merely ‘historic’, as if they’re irrelevant now
  • claimed Labour ‘strongly back’ striking workers, against the obvious and conclusive evidence of Keir Starmer’s ban on MPs being seen supporting workers on picket lines
  • dodged the direct question whether Starmer’s ban is wrong – and the question of why the party won’t back striking workers

Labour’s betrayal of working-class people under under the Starmer regime continues.

SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – 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 doing its job.

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.

56 comments

  1. Labour gearing up to help the Tories destroy whats left of the Unions in this country, something they tried in the 80s. Do all you liberals remember!?

    1. Thing is, thatcher spunked the North Sea oil money on fighting the unions, these clowns haven’t got a pot to piss in (so they’d have us believe)

  2. and yet a number of MPs and Shadow Ministers have visited the picket lines without issue, but what they didn’t do was give a series of unauthorised interviews to the press and make up policy on the fly.

    1. Not allowed to make up policy on the fly?

      ….A bit like keef making up the second referendum policy on the fly??

      1. Toffee – Which brings us back around to the question – was Corbyn in office or in charge?
        When he’d finished prevaricating was Corbyn wrong to support the majority view of party members and voters. He has said himself that he had no choice.

      2. Corbyn was as visible as any other politician during the brexit campaign. Thisnso-called prevarication you keep harping on about is just another right-wing MSM myth.

        But apparently I’m the tory…

        Where was your vote on the 2nd ref, mister one-member-one-vote?

        And who defied the then party policy and the leadership by announcing this policy that was made up on the fly

        …And alienating several hundreds of thousands of labour voters (and potential labour voters) in the process?

        CLUE: It’s the same clueless dullard that has overseen hundreds of thousands of labour members leave the party in disgust at his abject shithousery since he slimed his way to the leadership.

      3. Toffee – I don’t dispute that Corbyn was out on the campaign trail prior to the Brexit vote I recall saying so at the time but Jeremy and his team went into hiding after the 17GE.
        ▪ You’re the one who has clearly stated that you would prefer another ‘toerag’ government to a Labour government led by Keir Starmer.
        ▪ Are you saying that Corbyn was lying when he said he didn’t have a choice because the vast majority of Labour’s members and voters supported a CV and stopping in the EU.
        ▪ Did Jeremy disavow Keir’s speech and sack Keir?
        ▪ As I remember it there was overwhelming support in the conference hall for Keir’s speech
        ▪ In 2018/19 20% of the membership deserted Corbyn.

      4. You’re the one who has clearly stated that you would prefer another ‘toerag’ government to a Labour government led by Keir Starmer.

        Go on then….I’ll play.

        What’s the difference? You can’t tell us because we know you know there isn’t any.

        Are you saying that Corbyn was lying when he said he didn’t have a choice because the vast majority of Labour’s members and voters supported a CV and stopping in the EU

        No. For clarity I’m saying there was never a vote on it. Plenty of former labour voters voted toerag to get brexit done. Had keef NOT made policy on the fly they most likely wouldn’t have done so.

        Did Jeremy disavow Keir’s speech and sack Keir?

        No. More fool him for it. Did Corbyn proscribe any right wing organisations and retrospectively expel members for the merest of connections to them?

        Did he sack any MPs for going against a single-line whip to ABSTAIN?

        ▪ As I remember it there was overwhelming support in the conference hall for Keir’s speech

        And as most remember it – reported on several left wing websites, including here – there were masses of complaints of stitch ups regarding anti- Corbyn delegates.

        In 2018/19 20% of the membership deserted Corbyn.

        And from 2015 to 2020 Corbyn INCREASED the membership to almost FOUR TIMES the size when he took over. How’s keef doing? Gained ANY members recently?

        Took any toerag seats recently?

        Successfully opposed the toerags recently?

        No, no….and NO
        .
        Nonce apologist gobshite.

      5. Toffee – You’ll have to play with yourself for a while, I’ve got other stuff to do.

      6. Oh PLEASE don’t choke on the splinters…That’d break my heart.

      7. Toffee, did you know that he is already a trot or Stalinist. That would make his opponents, err..

      8. ” Which brings us back around to the question – was Corbyn in office or in charge?

        When 65% of the PLP were in resistance to him and 25% were spineless useless eaters (as MPs), the question is academic.

        It won’t be answered before the synchronised MSM, before a Hope-less electorate and a vote-neutering (fptp) electoral system delivers a Starmer to amplify Our Masters’ Voice, so what do you care?

        Starmer will deliver as many false wars, false pandemics and as much unnecessary death as the Establishment requests.

    2. Unauthorized interveiws mps….they are not supposed to be children but were elected to represent the people…..Steve H the dummy that enjoys being “worked” ……and I am suprised that youve got the neck to talk about making up policy “on the fly” after this last years shambolic conference were fatty Evans and greasy lawyer of the realm ignored decissions….and made unauthorised policies and rules…..ON THE FLY “…in fact one commentator on here left the labour party in disgust after the fascist labour party jostled and roughed up delegates……

      1. Joseph – Tarry was a Shadow Minister and was bound by collective responsibility, I’m guessing that he did this in the belief that it would help him out with the difficulties he is experiencing with his CLP.

      2. Yes mr steve h …collective responsibility “was used many times when I was a councillor in the Blair years.I demanded collective decission making over council house givaways,money to the elderly and standing on picket lines with unison and briefing the media…I also had a slot on local radio to spread the message of “collective working together for the common good” .Never went down well with the labour blairghts.Nobling and cobling representitives of the people didnt work with me or anyone who believes in democracy you damned hypocrite

    3. SteveH 23/08/2022 at 4:49 pm :

      JC followed democracy, whether he believed in Brexit, or not(he didn’t). It was the mark of the man.

      Starmer, on the other hand, showed himself – not for the first time- to be anti-democratic, concocting the PV which, as we all know to our cost, had nothing to do with Brexit. Simply an opportunity to stab JC in the back, one more time.

      Hard to be in office when you have so many knives sticking in your back.

      This was a good read, this morning :

      https://skwawkbox.org/2022/08/22/labour-party-bankrupt-within-2-years-on-current-financial-course/

      1. wobbly – What a ridiculous thing to say, are you having a wobbly?

  3. Well, if John Healey wasn’t immediately sacked from a distance by Starmer for making up policy on the hop (as per Sam Tarry) – or for being as wrong as wrong could be about which unions are affiliated to Labour – then Sir Keir has as good as shat on his party’s relationship with the Labour Movement.

    1. Good! Good! FANTASTIC!
      The Neo-Labour Party TORIES are self-destucting before we even get to a GE!
      Then Again, with friends like the Trilateral Commission, the GE may have been completed already. ‘Polls are open, voting is optional, but completely unecesary. Picking the two worst candidates on the list of Con TORIES, may also play into that same hand handsomely!
      It would be interesting to see the absolute state of the Neo-Labour Party TORIES, by the time of a GE, and if they win people should be asking some serious questions!
      What an absolute shitshow though, Sunak/Truss are without a doubt a free gift from The Con TORIES to their Colleagues The Neo-Lab TORIES, no bloody doubt!
      I said from the day the Master Conniver BlueKeef won the Vote, ‘there is your next PM, regardless of your vote.’ I could be Right, but I could be Wrong!
      https://youtu.be/Nv0efmUKP9s
      The PEOPLE have some mighty big spanners for them works!

      1. A child person with time and thumbs to twiddle, NOT Interesting, NOT controversial.
        Just Idiotic Court Jestering!

      2. Could we be talking about a national government, con/lib/lab and green coalition? One party state. Just like our Yank masters. Latest news,Ford cut 5,000 jobs. That’s the greens. I reckon that they would settle with that. Then carry on as usual. So would our lot.

      3. I think we already are, in a sense, if we look at all of “the west”, the Oppositions are as much Thatcher/Reagan’s flavour of Globalist Neoliberal OnePartyState. No matter who you Vote for they are working on an Agenda that is set out by the Old World Order, the WHO, WEF, behind the scenes UN/ICC, from the USA to CA, UK, EU, IL, AU, NZ. Even if we look at the more “Socialist” Portugal, Spain, the Nordics, they’ve all moved closer to Police State and Globalist NATO Warmongering, banning protest, freedoms and fascist undertones. All thanks to the constant infiltration of Globalist Neoliberal OnePartyState!
        I reckon this is the ugly death spasms of “western” anti-Democracy/Capitalism. And I pray to the gods and fairies that we will paint it red like the South Americas. Who knows, if we’re lucky Bezos, Branson & Musk are preparing intergalactic fleets for The Old World Order’s Great Escape, BLISS!

  4. John Healey use to work for the TUC, did you know that? He was head of the press office in the 1990s. Wonder what they think of him now.

  5. Healy – another self-professed proud trades unionist

    They’re laughing at you. Laughing at you and your plight. And now they think they’re running some sort of protection racket. 😒

  6. The Neo-Labour Party TORIES all Fluff and FartBubbles! Waffle, Waffle, Waffle and ABSOLUTELY NO ACTION!
    It is crystal clear that they are no longer the Party who Represents The PEOPLE, The Socialists, The “UNDESERVING POOR”, their illuminating this at every opportunity is a tonic for The Resistance!
    Their New Entry Requirement of Middle-Class preferably White European, Zionist, anti-Socialist, anti-UK Labour Party, anti-Corbyn, anti- UNDESERVING POOR, is made perfectly clear by the Self Proclaimed guardians of the Neo-Labour TORIES. Their Condescending, Self-Obsessed, Ignorant, Precious attitudes towards anyone “bellow” them, is doing a fine job of building their BLUE WSLL.!
    All I will say is good luck at the GE!

  7. This, for me, is the problem with block funding of parties by organisations, be they unions or companies (or even rich donors): does this buy support for one side or another of an industrial dispute? Does it buy policy? Does it buy contracts? We need to end all non-membership funding of political parties. Unions, as with business, have a credible voice in determining the direction of their industries and the much-vaunted ‘bringing parties together around the table’ line would have greater credibility if the political party doing so was not in hock to one or other of the parties in dispute.

  8. What an absolute joy it is watching the same people who had absolutely no idea about Unionism, Socialism (faux as it may be), The UK Labour Movement & Party and literally shredded anyone who had the slightest thing to do with it as Maoists and Stalinists.
    Now literally fluently speanking, without autoqueue, and defending what Labour Should be the UK Labour Party of Corbyn, completely off the mark Nuts!
    It is insane, I REALLY do not understand how people can watch MSM and stay sane!
    It’s like your mind Gobbled up by 1984, spat out by Brave New World in a phlegm globule puddle of Metamorphosis, EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! DON’T DO IT!

  9. steve h apologises and makes excuses for nonce non-prosecutors who ORDER party members to ABSTAIN on a vote that would’ve given hungry schoolchildren a meal.

    steve h remains nonchalant about seeing your children/grandchildren go hungry…One has to wonder what other suffering he would permit/enable children to be subject to. 😒

    1. Toffee – Don’t be silly, the amendment would have been easily overturned by the massive majority that Corbyn gifted to Boris.

      1. Oh, well that’s alright then.

        You’ll allow kids to go hungry because there’s too many tories it’ll upset if you dissent.

        And keef gave the rags their majority. Not Corbyn. Keef.

        Despicable nonce apologist shithouse.

      2. And being angry at allowing kids to go hungry is silly

        Just contract something fatal you horrible HORRIBLE CUNT. 💥🤛😠

      3. Toffee – No, but what you are saying about this is silly, childish and naive.

      4. No it isn’t

        You’ve excused keef allowing kids to go hungry without so much as a peep because it’ll upset all those tories.

        Disgusting nonce apologist – which you’re still to deny.

        But you can’t deny it. You’re on record as excusing keef.

        Thatcher just took the kids free milk. Keef doesn’t want kids fed. (Happy enough to see them sexually abused without retribution, though – only making recommendations after leaving the job where he was in the position to have implemented them, and only because the correct suspicion of his indifference towards victims rested upon his shoulders.

        And you’re only too willing to defend him

        Which makes you every bit as despicable as him.

  10. I joined a Trade Union when I got my first job after leaving school and remained an lay TU activist until I retired. Healey comments sicken me – however what do you expect from a pig but a grunt -but the answer lies with the Unions.
    Unions have a “political fund” made up of members subs and they are supposed to use these fund for the benefit of the members. All affiliated Unions use them to make massive donations to the Labour party. They need to stop this NOW and if the General Secs and Executives don’t cease to use the members money in this way the members should stop subscribing to the political funds because they are clearly being made fools of.

    1. Smartboy – You may have had a point if you were offering a credible alternative, but you’re not.. Cutting off your nose to spite your face isn’t going to help anyone, least of all the vulnerable.

      1. Reply to Steve H
        I fail to see how ceasing to fund an organisation which is not benefitting the members is “cutting of your nose to spite your face” Starmer needs to learn that” you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you”

    2. Smartboy
      At very least General Secretary of each Union should be asking questions on the accounts
      Fiduciary Duty

      1. Reply to Doug
        I think the Unions should just stop subsidising Starmers Labour. They are not getting anything, not even the smallest amount of respect , in return for the millions they are handing over. Its pure madness.

      2. Smartboy
        If they did that then Red Tories would be finished
        Huzzah

      3. Reply to Doug
        Yes Doug I agree that this would finish the Red Tories. Couldn’t happen quick enough as far as I am concerned

  11. According to Wikipedia …
    “Healey joined Issues Communications in 1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of communications at the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union in 1992. He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994 in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons”

    How soon these turn-coats forget where their bread was buttered.

    If I can find it, there’s also another well-buried secret about Healey – I am pretty sure that he was one of the BAPPERS …… “The British-America Project for the Successor Generation”.
    In common with other well-known figures like Jeremy Paxman.

  12. Off message but more important than the looser who will never serve in government strummer and Healey.
    Liz Truss confirms shes “ready to use Nucluer weapons if she becomes the unelected PM of Britain .How can anyone trust her a person whos own husband couldn’t trust her acting like a female vesion of a” tom cat “when playing around with a fellow tory married mp.Meanwhile Pelosi family mired in another scandel were hubby drives the Porsche into a car and badly injured the driver and attempted to bribe highway patrol whilst staggering around drunk.and stinking of drink….five days in custody and a slap on the wrist for the multi millionaire and his appalling warmonger wife Nancy Pelosi. No comment”
    Partying is obviously not limited to just the Knight of the realm and Johnson it seems. ?

    1. Joseph – The inane Truss is an irrelevance in this matter. The UK’s “independent” nuclear weapons are managed such that the US controls them. They can only be used if the man from Mar De Lago says yes. Fortunately, the future of humanity is not in Truss’ hands. Unfortunately it is in the hands (currently) of whoever has power of attorney for Biden.

      1. Well golbach…bidens senile and Pelosi not far behind so I guess the lawyers have it once again…unless bio labsbiden jnr wades into the political arena whilst popping pills and sniffing around.
        I don’t actually remember a time of such little choice of real power and influence in politics…maybe thats the end result of buying a party.and corruption….

  13. May I try to correct SteveH on his statement about Jeremy prevaricating over the Labour Party membership’s stance on Brexit; here is an accusation that Jeremy intended to deceive & mislead the Labour Party but nothing could be further from the truth. Like Tony Benn, historically Jeremy had never voted in support of the ‘Rich Man’s Club’ & accepted the referendum result but not the ‘Hard Brexit’ terms favoured by Johnson & Farage (Research Group et al). Close economic co-operation with Europe as our major trading partner he saw as essential & a form of Customs Union & a Single Market would enable the EEC to continue as a trade association. All ‘deals’ are a form of compromise but it seems that SteveH is confusing the motives of Jeremy with his dark lord & master.

  14. Steve101* ..

    You are quite right about Corbyn – he and most
    or all of the Labour Party favoured the solution you
    suggest. This was nicknamed BRINO by the
    arrogant ERG who spent all their time wrecking ANY
    sensible Brexit in the HoC. However you are wrong
    in stating that he remained a “Leave ” supporter for
    he had long discussions with (I think?) the Greek ex-finance Minister who convinced him otherwise.
    Hence his “7 out of 10” for Remain – the opinion of
    many European Socialists who were in favour of
    the EU but wanted some changes.

    The 2017 Manifesto was clearly for the solution
    which left us close to the EU and the public were
    evidently happy about this. Between December
    2018 and November 2019 the ERG mainly
    Tories plus a couple of Labour MPs spent
    their time in the HOC trying to wreck it –
    aided and abetted by liar and stoat
    dancer***Johnson and anarchist and liar
    Cummings.

    Unfortunately the Labour Party had wreckers
    from within the party too – because of extreme incompetence they decided to copy the
    Lib Dems and advocate for a second referendum.
    This policy was also presented badly – as a
    complicated plan or algorithm when it was
    in effect an add-on at the end of a speech by
    Starmer. It started as a policy which should
    be adopted when all others have been
    exhausted and with an apology to the
    Electorate but ended in a complicated mess ..
    as something like the preferred option..

    Unfortunately Corbyn was blamed for all
    this mess and we ended with a huge
    Tory majority plus blame on Corbyn when
    it should have been on the second Refs.

    *** Stoats dance to hypnotise their prey
    See
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=265259604661832

    The public were “stoat danced” into believing
    that Johnson had an “Oven Ready Solution”
    to the Brexit/NI border problem whereas
    in reality we got a “Dogs Dinner” which even
    his Cabinet did not comprehend after he
    produced it.

    1. “he had long discussions with (I think?) the Greek ex-finance Minister who convinced him otherwise.”
      That’s right. Yanis Varoufakis was the man in question. His position was that we were in for a protracted campaign by the very rich to weaken the working class, reduce real wages and further strip away workers rights, and that this would occur regardless of whether the UK was in the EU or not. He argued that the working class would need to coordinate its resistance and that this would be easier for the UK working class to do if we were to remain in the EU. The prediction is borne out by subsequent events.
      Incidentally, it was when I listened to his presentation of this analysis that I decided to vote to remain having previously thought that both options were equally bad.

  15. Great picture choice for this piece : Hello darkness, my old friend.

    Or is it Pinhead(Doug Bradley) from the Hellraiser : The New Labour box, by voting for Starmer, you opened it, and we murderous C̶e̶n̶o̶b̶i̶t̶e̶s̶ Blairites came!

  16. You couldn’t make it up

    The Tory Government are providing the finance for the Isle of Man government to implement Keir Starmer’s Energy Price Cap policy in a tax haven.

    Electricity bills will be FROZEN all winter – but only in one small part of the British Isles.

    The Isle of Man, the self-governing Crown Dependency of 84,000 people in the Irish Sea, will fund the landmark move with a scheme like one being proposed for the UK.
    Electricity bills will be capped at the current 22p per unit until 31 March 2023, avoiding a predicted rise to 37.4p from October 1.
    Funded by a government loan to be repaid over 20 years, it will cost £16-26million.
    The island will also trial a £2 cap on all bus fares for three months, and cost-of-living payments for 6,000 families in October and December.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/electricity-bills-frozen-winter-only-27825359

    1. Correction
      Having looked into this further it looks like I have misread the Mirror article and it is in fact the Isle of Man government that is funding this through a loan to its utility company. In my defence I would say that the Mirror article wasn’t particularly clear.

      Isle of Man to freeze electricity prices until 2023
      The Isle of Man government is to freeze electricity prices until March 2023 through a £26m loan to the island’s supplier,

      http://www.theguardian.com

Leave a Reply to steve101704Cancel reply

Discover more from SKWAWKBOX

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading