Why did Starmer settle out of court Give a grovelling apology and pay out six figure sum?

I am sorry to see this forum being used for partisan and ill informed political opinions and fundraising attempts, there are many other more appropriate outlets for your vitriol and your money. The world is facing one of the worst crisis ever, lets get our priorities right here at least.

Whitewavemark2

McCluskey clearly trying to destroy a Democratic Party.

“Do as I want or else”

Corbyn lost, then resigned.

Starmer was elected by a huge majority.

Get over it or leave.

Whitewavemark2 I am not a direct member of the Labour party but an affiliate member by way of my subscription to the Unite Union which I have paid continuously since 1965. Therefore I will not be leaving anything.

Why anyone should become upset in regard to the McCluskey interview is beyond me. After all, McCluskey stated that he wished Starmer to remain with the policies he laid out in his leadership election campaign, and should that happen there will not any problem within the affiliate organisations continued support.

I cannot perceive any problem with the above stance.

Seems pointless a party member bothering to vote for a leader , where is the democracy, money wins, no different to the tory
party.

Whitewavemark2

Lots of these responses on social media.

As a Unite member, I am putting you on notice, stop supporting Labour and I will leave the union and donate my monthly dues to the Labour party.
Don’t take my support of Unite for granted.

Whitewavemark2, should it be that the Unite Union should seriously considers ending the membership political levy that is in entirety given to the Labour Party then that decision would have to be made by resolution or motions placed before the Unite Union Annual Delegate conference for ballot.

That conference could decide to end the levy, go to a full ballot of all members who pay the levy, or continue as of present. That would be democracy in action as being decided by the membership. Those who may or may not be members of the union posting on Twitter or Facebook will then have an opportunity to cast their opinion where it really matters and not on a social media page where it matters not at all.

McCluskey clearly trying to destroy a Democratic Party.

“Do as I want or else”

Corbyn lost, then resigned.

Starmer was elected by a huge majority.

Get over it or leave.

More thoughts on McCluskey

Labour's campaign to save jobs, or warning and organising against a devastating Hard Brexit; but no, he chooses to threaten the Labour Party and put its leader on notice.

A disgrace.

Lots of these responses on social media.

As a Unite member, I am putting you on notice, stop supporting Labour and I will leave the union and donate my monthly dues to the Labour party.
Don’t take my support of Unite for granted.

Len McCluskey the general secretary of the Unite union, Labour’s most generous financial backer has stated that his tenure of that office will not come to a premature end. In an extensive interview, he said “There’s lots of people who would be delighted to see the back of me, but they’re gonna have to put up with me a little longer,” he says. “I’m going nowhere.”

McCluskey not only insists he will be in charge until his mandate expires, but he also says the left is regrouping and that it will continue to demand a major say over Labour’s direction – and puts Keir Starmer on notice against any shift to the right.

McCluskey brought out a leaflet at the interview which had been published during Starmer's leadership campaign in which the pledges included higher tax on the wealthy, the abolition of tuition fees, the “common ownership” of rail, mail, energy and water, and ending NHS outsourcing. McCluskey stated “The fact is that Keir Starmer ran on a radical programme, some might say a Corbyn programme, and of course I keep this to hand,” he says. “I intend to keep that front and centre within the Unite Union for the coming months and years.

Unite and other unions are watching Starmer carefully, he stated. “There will be some interesting debates and discussions in the coming months with Keir, not only for myself but all the unions on the left who are equally in a situation at the moment where they are wondering where we are, what direction are we going in. Are we going 10 pledge direction? If so, then good.”

McCluskey stated further that the Labour Party should not take the Unite Unions affiliation money for granted as if it will always be there under all conditions, for that is not the case.

So, it would seem that there may be a large decision to be made by non-affiliated labour party members in the coming months as to whether the party should remain within the wider labour movement in Britain or an attempt made to fund the Parliamentary Party from commercial and private donations which would allow it to move to the right in it's policy choices.

Link to the full interview with Len McCluskey can be found here:-
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/01/len-mccluskey-labour-should-not-be-taking-unites-money-for-granted

Thank you to Jeremy Corbyn solidarity

People are talking about a new left wing party.

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I very much agree with the three above posts contributed by trisher and nightowl. People choose to forget how well the Labour Party did in the 2017 general election under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

Had there not been, as alleged, senior party members and Labour Party employees working directly against Corbyn and in that contributing to preventing an overall maximisation of support, then Labour could well have become the largest party in the House of Commons.

Those working against that election win gave untrue stories to Britain's right-wing press and harassed colleagues who did not share in their personal unelected views. Sadly, now those same persons may well walk away with large compensation awards due to the failure in duty of care by the Parliamentary Labour Party. Those payments and other prosecutions will without a doubt bring the party into a possibly unsolvable financial crisis.

I think the report speaks for itself. It makes it very clear that some individuals actively worked against a Labour victory and delighted in doing so. Some also made vile, racist, misogynistic comments and wished harm to others in the party. How ironic, considering their expressed concern about antisemitism in the party. How disgusting that there appears to have been a subculture where they felt this was acceptable.

Ramblingrose22 I have addressed the Data Protection act- in the public interest.
The accusations are widely supported by the tweets etc. The LP could have forestalled the leaking by presenting the report as was intended. They didn't.
I don't see any point in having a LP which is substantially Toryism under another title. Nor I think do the British electorate. The numbers of people voting fell substantially after Tony Blair changed the party and only rose again when Corbyn became leader.

Devorgrilla well one of the things you do is make sure there is no extra funding given to marginal seats where with just a little more support the Labour candidate might win. You also fail to combat or oppose any negative press the party leader is subjected to.
It should be remembered that in 2017 the Tories needed the DUP to form a government and Labour did so much better than predicted.

Devorgilla

I cannot understand how people sitting in an office 'threw' the 2017 election. I certainly wasn't contacted by anyone in the Labour Office telling me not to vote Labour because of JC. In my experience it is people on the ground, knocking on doors that make the biggest difference. I campaigned in that election door to door for a Labour government but, at the end of the day, it is where people decide to put their X that determines the result.
JC was elected as the previous leader and given time to establish himself even by those who preferred someone else. KS, unlike JC , has had his leadership start in difficult times with the coronavirus, shadow of Brexit 'no deal', a massive majority for the Tories and a Parliament that is somewhat curtailed in its normal functioning. People should afford KS the same courtesy that many of us afforded JC.

Absolutely. I supported JC throughout his tenure in office, despite my misgivings that grew with each month.

I was unable to campaign in 2019, but did so in 2017, and like you people without fail cited JC as the reason that they could not vote Labour.

I thought it was the Russians!?

I cannot understand how people sitting in an office 'threw' the 2017 election. I certainly wasn't contacted by anyone in the Labour Office telling me not to vote Labour because of JC. In my experience it is people on the ground, knocking on doors that make the biggest difference. I campaigned in that election door to door for a Labour government but, at the end of the day, it is where people decide to put their X that determines the result.
JC was elected as the previous leader and given time to establish himself even by those who preferred someone else. KS, unlike JC , has had his leadership start in difficult times with the coronavirus, shadow of Brexit 'no deal', a massive majority for the Tories and a Parliament that is somewhat curtailed in its normal functioning. People should afford KS the same courtesy that many of us afforded JC.

Trisher - so you are suggesting that it is OK for the report to have been leaked because -

1. you know for sure that the people named are "guilty" as charged of the allegations within it. How? Do you have access to all the emails, Whatsapp messages and all the internal communications within Labour Party HQ relating to this? I doubt it!

2. it was "OK" for those who leaked the report to break the law (eg data protection law) in order to "prove" that Jeremy Corbyn was undermined from within, and

3. it doesn't matter if the Labour Party bankrupts itself paying out legal costs and ceases to exist. Do you seriously imagine that that would be a great advance for democracy - no Labour Party able to campaign in future elections bringing about a one-party state in the UK for the foreseeable future, with that party being the Tories?

Incredible!

I am very busy today so may be unable to place any further posts on this thread.

Thanks for that video Grany.
I do agree that one of the most shocking things about this is that thousands of people worked as volunteers for the party all over the country, whilst these people sat in their offices, on high salaries and undermined all their work.
Ramblingrose22
I might perhaps agree that the leaking was unnecessary had I any belief that Starmer intended to deal with those accused and the culture which produced them. Unfortunately he has proved unable to tackle the matter, preferring instead to pretend he is being fair and unbiased, whilst steadily and unwaveringly always choosing to make judgements in favour of the right wing elements of the PLP who are the real concealed culprits. The people named in this report were responsible for the actions, the opinions they expressed and the culture they felt able to act under came from others.

Anniebach

twitter !

Do you have a problem with twitter, Ab.

It's no different from other forums...

Can find all sorts of interesting things on it, not just rubbish...

twitter !

Video discussing some of the WA messages
Top people in Labour not wanting Labour to win. One said the result 2017 is the exact opposite of what I have been working two years to achieve.

twitter.com/Williamscott747/status/1287680690063015936?s=20

Mr Corbyn spent his life fighting all forms of racism including anti semitism Jenny Formby took over from Ian MC nicol for left a back log and she dealt with that.

There are rumours that those wanting to claim millions altogether in compensation have said that if Jeremy Corbyn goes they won't claim. That is blackmail and they think they can get away with that too.

The issue of whether the three candidates for leadership had raised concerns about anti semitism with Corbyn prior to the last election was raised at the Hustings I attended. Keir Starmer stated that he had raised concerns with Mr Corbyn. He also made clear he remained concerns about the growth of anti semitism within the LP during Mr C's leadership.

I am genuinely interested in knowing how the Equality Act is involved.

Ramblingrose22, in regard to your post @23:21 yesterday, Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) met for an online meeting on the 23rd of April and appointed a four-person panel to investigate the leaked internal report which described a “hyper-factional” environment among party employees hostile to Jeremy Corbyn.

The unredacted report, which was leaked a month earlier reignited the row in the party over Labour’s handling of antisemitism cases and led to calls for party members and employees named in that report to be suspended.

It was decided that Martin Forde QC would chair the investigation, which will cover both the contents of the report, and the circumstances of its release.

A spokesperson stated that Forde would be supported by three experts in “the law and the Labour party structures”, and would examine “the circumstances, contents and release of an internal report”.

“The NEC has agreed that the investigation should endeavour to deliver its report by the middle of July,” the spokesperson said.

The report included hundreds of private WhatsApp messages from named staff members, many of them expressing hostility towards Corbyn and his close allies and bemoaning Labour’s better-than-expected performance at the 2017 general election.

Link to full Guardian report can be found here:-
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/01/labour-appoints-panel-to-investigate-leaked-report-on-staff

I am not aware if the full minutes of National Executive Committee Meetings are made available to the public, but a statement of all matters discussed at any meeting is made available by way of the General Secretaries office I believe.

In regard to me giving you further information on statutory instruments surrounding employment disciplinary and grievence issues, I have already in this thread given you that information.

However, once again, the two main parliamentary acts in regard to the above are:-
The Employment Rights Act 1996.
The Equality Act 2010.

I am working in the office today, so will join the debate again later if it is still live.