Guest article: Just a little spat (Labour is run on fear)

Veteran activist Anne Belworthy on the most dictatorial leader in the history of the Labour party and his yes-men and women

Originally published on Whitstable Views.

I have just had a little spat with Neil Fisher, who is an administrator for the Canterbury Residents Facebook group that allows political comments. I had posted a statement from Ben Sellers and added a comment saying that Keir Starmer is the most dictatorial leader in the history of the Labour Party. I said that before him, you were allowed to express an opinion without being thrown out of the party on false accusations or, in the case of Labour MPs, expressing a view.

Members are now afraid to express any support for Gaza or make criticism of the Israeli government’s cruelty and oppression for fear of being accused of anti-semitism and being thrown out of the party — as I was.

The party at all levels is run by yes-men and -women afraid to express views that aren’t those of the leader. Labour MPs toe the Starmer line rigidly, afraid of losing the Labour whip and then being unable to stand at the next election as a Labour MP. Local parties have been denied the democratic right, in many cases, to select the MP of their choice and have instead seen a candidate foisted on them that is acceptable to the leadership. Hence the Labour benches now are full of Starmer think-alikes or MPs holding their tongue. Free speech is reduced dramatically.

Neil Fisher replied: That’s not different, that’s how it’s always been done. For example, Corbyn removed the whip from 21 MPs, and over 100 candidates were centrally imposed during his tenure.

This is not true. Candidates were replaced in a few cases during Corbyn’s time — not because of which type of politics they flew under but for various other reasons. I certainly know that Hilary Benn had the whip removed for a time as leader of the revolt in the Parliamentary party against Corbyn that came to be known as the Chicken Coup. But anyway, like all good Centrists, Neil straight away has to focus on any Corbyn misdemeanors, true or not. Certainly the whip has been removed by previous leaders but restored before the election.

A good example of how Starmer has chosen to rid himself of left-wing members of the party was the case of Sam Tarry, MP for Ilford South and shadow transport minister. He lost the whip for daring to stand on an RMT picket line. He had been part of Corbyn’s campaign team when Corbyn was selected as Labour leader in September 2015. Having got rid of the only other left-wing shadow cabinet member, Rebecca Long Bailey, clearly Sam had to go.

At the general election in 2024, Sam was replaced by the leader of Redbridge Council, Jas Athwal — a leadership chosen candidate, since exposed as something of a slum landlord, whose 15 rented flats are in a disgusting condition. BUT his politics are right: never mind that his candidature was never questioned.

The Chicken Coup

Among those who resigned were Ian Murray, Diana Johnson, Toby Perkins, Anna Turley, Stephen Kinnock and Chris Bryant.

The Chicken Coup of 2016 was one of the most disgraceful moves made by the right-wing MPs to get rid of Corbyn and replace him with someone quite different.

The weekend after Britain voted to leave the EU, the Tory government was in absolute turmoil. David Cameron resigned as prime minister and clearly positive moves were needed from Labour to begin to lead the country’s recovery from what had been a tumultuous referendum, in which bogus promises had been made by Boris Johnson if Brexit were to be achieved.

But that weekend is when the shadow cabinet decided to strike, with its rightwingers making a coordinated show of their resignations from it on TV. They completely disregarded the wishes of the membership, which had swelled with Corbyn’s leadership, and tried from then on to inflict as much damage as they could on the members’ democratically elected leader.

However, Corbyn refilled his cabinet with MPs who were anti-austerity, anti-corporate power, supported a public health service and recognised the climate emergency.

The 2017 general election was amazing for Labour. It was in April that the election was called. Tory prime minister Theresa May had a large majority while Labour, in Parliament and outside, was trying to recover from the damage done by the Chicken Coup and was low in the opinion polls.

At grass-roots level we learnt much later that the Labour Party establishment — with guidance from general secretary Iain McNichol, now a lord thanks to Keir Starmer — was running a subversive sabotage campaign to thwart Corbyn by starving marginal seats of cash, instead diverting resources to rightwingers such as Yvette Cooper, Rachel Reeves and many others, and deliberately failing to carry out campaign planning orders. Nevertheless, Corbyn’s campaign went well and the public meetings that he held overflowed onto the streets — in many cases, loudspeakers had to relay his words to enthusiastic listeners outside.

When I pointed out in Corbyn’s defence that the 2017 election was almost won — Labour got 41 per cent of the vote, the highest share of the vote since Clement Attlee in 1945 — to Neil on the Facebook page, he made the point, quite rightly, that it was irrelevant because we didn’t win.

But if Corbyn’s Labour had been allowed to continue without the huge distraction of leading MPs and the party back room running a subversive campaign, it could have been successful. Theresa May’s huge majority was lost and she had to go begging to the right-wing Unionist party for their votes in order to stay in power. But her leadership was doomed anyway because in no way could she manage to overcome the huge divisions that arose in negotiating a deal with the EU.

The long haul

Keir Starmer goes rogue at the Labour Party conference in 2018, refusing to rule out a new Remain vote: a pledge he has since gone back on
And so the long haul began toward the 2019 election, and that is the period when Starmer began to really pave his way toward his Labour leadership.

The slow inevitability of the 2019 election loss began in Liverpool when Sir Keir, as shadow Brexit secretary, took to the rostrum at the Labour conference 2018 and raised the possibility of a second referendum. And although the very naive conference delegates supported it, I was there, and my heart sank.

This clearly went against agreed shadow cabinet policy. At the 2017 election all Labour MPs had been elected under the manifesto that Labour would negotiate to keep us as close as possible to our EU neighbours and to protect jobs and the rights previously granted by the EU — but to recognise the referendum result.

This was still cabinet policy when Sir Keir took the decision to raise the possibility of a second referendum without telling a soul he was going to do it and not even putting the line on the autocue.

He broke from collective responsibility. Perhaps it was an indicator of how, as leader, without a blink he would throw out the promises that he made to the membership to secure their vote and thereafter to ruthlessly pursue right-wing austerity policies without agreement except from Rachel Reeves.

From then on in 2019, Labour lost its way with the muddled and ill-thought-out procedure that would be implemented in order to facilitate a second referendum. It resulted in a complete collapse of the Labour Red Wall, where voters had overwhelmingly supported Brexit; and Boris Johnson became prime minister: something else for me to thank the dear knight of the realm for.

Neil Fisher quite likes Keir Starmer, but he recognises that I don’t. I don’t trust Starmer. In my view he has destroyed the Labour Party I loved and worked for for so many years.

I do believe the present party is run on fear. I have noticed that long-term friends still in the party are afraid to give a tick of support for political stuff I may put on FB. It’s in fear that, in supporting an expelled member, they too will have the heavy hand of injustice placed on their shoulder and out they will go.

No way are you allowed to agree with a member that is expelled or disagrees with the beloved leader. Pretty awful, I think.

About Anne Belworthy:

Anne Belworthy was clerical union branch secretary in BT for twenty-one years and secretary to the joint negotiating committee for eight trade unions in the Canterbury, Dover and Medway areas. On retirement she was chair of Canterbury & District Pensioners Forum. Born and lived in Canterbury until retirement and now lives in Herne Bay.

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