Jess Phillips, the right-wing Labour MP who laughed on general election night 2019 when asked about Labour’s loss, is being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards (PCS) for failing to declare outside earnings within the required twenty-eight days. The PCS does not disclose details of ongoing investigations.
Phillips was similarly investigated last year and found to have failed to declare tens of thousands of pounds within the mandated period.
Phillips, who made a disastrous bid to become Labour leader in 2020, has also been criticised in the past for her enthusiasm for Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, for laughing at a ‘racist’ mockery of Black MP Diane Abbott and for cosying up to S*n owner Rupert Murdoch.
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Sir Keir should suspend the whip from her. Declaring outside interests and earnings outside the 28 day limit is truly deplorable.
Sir Keir ‘mr rules’ knows this, and was clever enough to announce his candidacy for party leadership, obtain £455,000 worth of donations to said leadership campaign, publish hundreds of thousands of leaflets with his ‘continuity-corbyn 10 Pledges all over them, obtain a landslide victory in the first round of members’ votes, then 28 days later (from formally ‘accepting them) disclose the £455k, admit that they came from largely right-leaning ‘free-market’ neoliberal multi-millionaires who despised, feared and would not allow the progressive Corbyn policies pledged-to on Sir Keir’s election leaflets, so he immediately ditched them.
It wouldn’t be appropriate to describe the sackings of Rebecca Long-Bailey, Sam Tarry, Richard Budgen etc., or the suspensions of the Labour whip from Corbyn and Abbott as ‘knifing (the left) in the front’. It’s something altogether worse, nastier and more ruthless.
At least Jess Phillips was on of over 30 current and former Labour MPs to have publicly supported Apsana Begum, unlike Starmer and Evans who ensured the Labour party was complicit in her ‘Abuse’.
Reply to Qwertboi
Pity Jess Phillips didn’t support Diane Abbott when Diane was receiving more abuse than any other MP. As mentioned in the article she mocked Diane and joined in the laughter about her on TV. Her support for white women such as Laura Kuenssberg and her destain for Diane led her to being called a “white feminist” by the Womens PLP. Thats probably why she supported Apsana – she needed to dispel the notion that her feminism did not extend to BAME women – Phillips looking after her own interests as usual
Yes, why no suspension here?
With regard to Diane Abbott, it is worth pointing out that even John McTernan has said no action should be taken.
Reply to Tony
It has got to the stage now that people can’t have any opinion which does not fit in with the hard right Zionist narrative. Whether Diane Abbott is right or wrong is immaterial- if she has a view and if we believe in free speech she should be able to express it. She did not make an antisematic comment, use an antisemetic trope, deny the Holocaust, deny Irsraels right to exist,etc etc She just expressed an opinion about BAME racism and other forms of discrimination
As soon as the Guardian published her comments (which she said were in draft form and had been sent to the paper in error) she was condemned as Jew hating antisemite by the usual suspects and of course Starmer, the Zionist in chief, suspended her.
He is so predictable that his vindictive purges would be laughable if they didn’t cause so much hurt to his victims.
and – believe me – his victims include *all Jews, whether Zionists or not.
_________________
(Jews (like Christians and Moslems) are supposed to believe in a fundamental obligation expressed at Leviticus 19:16: “Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life.” Humans, a Jew believes (Pikuach Nefesh), have a duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of fellow human beings. A Duty of Care, not a Right of Occupation or subjugation.)
This is why many good Jews believe in a two state solution.
Keir’s GMB interview.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1651538537395765248
Thanks for the link SteveH. Is it being commented on much? The JVL- perspective on this is quite widely held amongst general Jews (well, the ones I know anyway), and by that view, it is Keir and Benjamin Netanyahu that conflate ant-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Regular people who are not ieological zionists can and do differentiate between them.
qwertboi – Diane appears to have an unlikely ‘ally’?
“The vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement [aka Smeeth] has said Diane Abbott’s political career shouldn’t “end like this”, after the Labour MP was suspended over comments dubbed “antisemitic” by the party’s leadership.
Labour peer Baroness Ruth Anderson [Smeeth] said the affair was “so sad” and “thoroughly depressing on every level”, in an interview with another former Labour MP, Gloria De Piero, due for broadcast on GB News on Sunday at 6pm.”
https://labourlist.org/2023/04/jewish-labour-vice-chair-says-abbotts-career-shouldnt-end-like-this/
We’ll have to wait and see what conclusion Labour’s independent disciplinary process reaches.
Reply to Steve H at 4.58
I have no doubt whatsoever Diane’s suspension will be lifted. Starmer doesn’t care about winning the next election – his seat in the House of Lords is waiting for him- but people like Phillips, Reeves etc need the BAME vote and they will be exerting pressure on Starmer for her reinstatement
SteveH – wow! If John McTernan and JLM’s Ruth Smeeth are advising caution on Starmer then maybe he should see that his usual MO is not appropriate all the time. Says something when people like McTernan and Smeethhave to warn a leader of Labour not to damage the party more.
Keir must be hoping that Diane would return to the fold when/if he restores the Whip, but I suspect she’s talking to her constituency party and others about the feasibility of not.
Only thing is, I suspect other SCG MPs want her to remain. Me, I hope she’s able not to, but I’d expect her clp exec and BLM to have a big part of the decision, Interesting times… 🙂
qwertboi – My guess is that Diane will get the whip restored but will stand down at the next GE (probably citing ‘health reasons’).
In support of Abbott it should be noted you can actually name BLM victims of police killings – such as Marc Duggan, Jermaine Baker, Rashan Charles et al – there are no Jewish equivalents. And this hyped furore started within a month of Chris Kaba’s shooting. After New Labour started its Muslim collective guilt narrative, Muslim mosques such as Bishop Briggs and Finsubury Park were firebombed.
There is no Jewish equivalent to 82yr old Muslim Grandad Muhammad Saleem being murdered with his killer planting bombs at three further mosques.
You can die from racism in this country and it’s treated as normal but simply disagree with those supporting white colonial conquest and apartheid domination in Palestine and it is deemed anti-Semitism.
A debate over whether a character on a mural may or may not be Jewish gets more press than the torture regime for Muslim people of colour that started under Blair.
And minor incident such as Abbott’s wording gets more critical coverage than Muslim mum Fatima Boudchar being stripped and tortured while 5 months pregnant via Britain’s torture/rendition policy.
Diane Abbott was working off an accepted defintion of structural racism that is at least 60yrs old and is similar to the one Benjamin Zephanihah uses. Here is the Aspen Institutes version of it…
“Structural Racism: A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural
representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate
racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed
privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and
adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to
practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all
exist.”
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/files/content/docs/rcc/RCC-Structural-Racism-Glossary.pdf
As I said above ” My guess is that Diane will get the whip restored but will [if she has any sense] stand down at the next GE (probably citing ‘health reasons’).”
Btw Anyone wondering why John McTernan, this sites resident neoliberal troll and the Labour low-command are suddenly trying to sound reasonable and conciliatory, including here with regard to Abbott, bear in mind there are local elections in a few days and the Party’s machine is anticipating electoral meltdown.
Labour’s former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad has resigned her party membership.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1651467030728507392