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

Well, the left v right row within the Labour movement seems to be rapidly moving to a head now.

Below is a report from the guardian today which very much demonstrates how the row is rapidly growing:-

The leader of Unite, Len McCluskey, has been praised by left-leaning Labour MPs for ordering a review of the union’s political donations after Keir Starmer’s decision to pay damages to former staff turned antisemitism whistleblowers.

Ian Lavery, the party chair under Jeremy Corbyn, is one of three former shadow ministers who have told the Guardian they support the union’s general secretary for re-examining whether to donate to Labour in the wake of the six-figure settlements.

Their interventions will increase tensions between the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and Labour’s leader following the latter’s decision to apologise and pay damages to seven staff who claimed they had been defamed by senior party figures after taking part in a BBC Panorama documentary on antisemitism.

It comes amid growing speculation about the future leadership of the UK’s three biggest unions – Unite, Unison and the GMB – which are responsible for a majority of Labour’s funds.

McCluskey, whose union has given Labour around £7m since January 2019, said on Saturday that paying the damages was an “abuse of members’ money”. He told the Observer: “A lot of it is Unite’s money and I’m already being asked all kinds of questions by my executive. It’s as though a huge sign has been put up outside the Labour party with ‘queue here with your writ and get your payment over there’.”

Lavery, who was also shadow minister for trade unions under Corbyn, said: “What Len says is extremely important. I have had people asking me from Unite if it is right that members’ money is used to finance Keir’s legal challenges and pay compensation when the advice that the party allegedly had was that the party was in a very strong position to defend the claims.

“People have got to be accountable and responsible. You cannot expect unions to pump millions of pounds into the party if the party isn’t accountable.”

Another former shadow cabinet minister agreed: “Starmer is on warning that he must work with everyone across the movement and cash has to be accounted for. The lurch to the right will not be paid for with union subs.” Another said: “Len said what a lot of us have been thinking.”

Lavery, who was also shadow minister for trade unions under Corbyn, said: “What Len says is extremely important. I have had people asking me from Unite if it is right that members’ money is used to finance Keir’s legal challenges and pay compensation when the advice that the party allegedly had was that the party was in a very strong position to defend the claims.

“People have got to be accountable and responsible. You cannot expect unions to pump millions of pounds into the party if the party isn’t accountable.”

Another former shadow cabinet minister agreed: “Starmer is on warning that he must work with everyone across the movement and cash has to be accounted for. The lurch to the right will not be paid for with union subs.” Another said: “Len said what a lot of us have been thinking.”

Link to full Guardian article can be found here:-
www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/02/len-mccluskey-praised-by-labour-mps-for-ordering-unite-funding-review

Galaxy

Never any responsibility, it must be lovely, the fault of the right of the labour party, the fault of the press, the fault of anyone but the leadership of the worst labour defeat I have ever seen.

Just what I was thinking too.
The deliberate blindness shown by some on this thread is mind boggling.It doesn’t matter that for a while Corbyn became the pet of young people, fads never last long anyway.
Elected him to become leader was a huge ( and acknowledged by most) mistake.
He and McDonnell were roundly trounced at the ballot box,
By Labour voters!
The LP now has a chance to become electable under somebody sensible enough to know the way the wind blows when it comes to winning an election.
A do-able manifesto and no Marxist ideas is a good start, added to which not bowing down to the likes of McCluskey.

So the big unions are now the deciders of how LP monies should be spent are they? Blackmail by the sounds of it.
There is no ‘lurch to the right’ within the PLP .....more a pulling back from the extreme left beloved by Corbyn and McDonnell.Only extremists could call it a ‘lurch to the right’.
I think some LP members live in a parallel universe.

The elected leader of the Labour Party is on a warning ?!!!!! Who actually runs the party? The elected leader or Len Mcluskey? What a way to carry on, do as we tell you or we'll make sure your life is at best a misery, at worst impossible! I can't see K.S ever winning an election with these dinosaurs lurking in the background waiting to pounce! Poor K.S talk about a thankless task! If the far left imagine that they're going to win over middle England with their Marxist policies then they are truly deluded! Surely they can see this?!!

It was Len McCluskey who supported Ed over his brother David. It’s about time his role in controlling the LP was recognised.

Unite supported RLB for leadership.

Starmer had support from USDAW,Community, Musicians, TSSA, UNISON, amongst others.

Starmer had support from the majority of the affiliated groups.

Thank you WW. Good to know that.

It's a good stance by McCluskey to say that membership fees and union fundings should not to be used in payouts. And will back Labour which he rightly says as long as they don't lurch to the right Starmer agreed to the polices of Corbyn and Labour they are extremely good polices nothing Marxist about them whatever that's meant to demean.

Lemon 'deliberate blindness' That's the Tories on GN supporting and clown Johnson.

I don't think much more can be said about this. But still waiting to see what conclusions and decisions are come to about leaked report.

I'm loving all these tory voters coming onto this thread to tell us how the Labour Party should be run...

Do you think they intend to vote Labour at the next election if Starmer does as they tell him?

Grany, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Unite pay out for a Squawkbox legal matter which, I believe, was lost. £2 million approximately I believe. Were the members consulted about that?

Apologies, misspelt Skwawkbox.

No one is telling anyone how the Labour party should be run, just expressing surprise that the leader is clearly not allowed to lead as he sees fit, and is threatened if does attempt to do so!

MaizieD

I'm loving all these tory voters coming onto this thread to tell us how the Labour Party should be run...

Do you think they intend to vote Labour at the next election if Starmer does as they tell him?

No, I really don’t believe you are ‘loving it’ at all.....probably
Put out that anyone who voted Conservative is daring to comment about the LP is more the mark.
However, voters of any political party ( or no party) are free to comment on these pages.
Until you and others who think like you accept that Starmer
Is the acceptable face of Labour for many people, including some who have voted for other parties in the past ...and that
Corbyn and the far left are very much over, then you will go on pining for something you will never now have, and in truth were never likely to have.

Grany...saying ‘the Tories on GN’ is just as silly as saying
‘The Labour voters on GN’......they are on a wide spectrum.
I ( and possibly lots of others on GN) said from the outset that Johnson wasn’t the right choice for Leader, but since I’m not a member of any political party, I didn’t get a vote.
Since then his decisions have been patchy, but on the whole, especially since he spent time in an ICU, he has done better than I thought he would do.
Time will tell ( probably another two years) as to how well he does as PM.

Starmer is proving to be nothing short of a disaster in regard to his promise of bringing unity to the Parliamentary Labour Party(PLP). His sacking of Rebeca Long-Bailey could have taken place with no great ramifications in the light of what RLB had carried out. However, his failure to replace her with someone of her same political image entirely excluded the left of the PLP from the shadow cabinet.

Starmer has now compounded the above by apologising and paying compensation to a group of Labour party employees that lawyers had advised that the PLP had a good case to resist and fight in the courts

The matter of that apology and payment was not even placed on any agenda of the National Executive Committee where those who represented the trade unions and other affiliate organisations could have had an input into the issue.

Starmer has seemed to have forgotten that the Labour Party is an integral sector of the whole Labour movement of Great Britain. In that, the PLP are bound under its constitution to discuss all significant matters with that wider body and be inclusive of all sectors of the movement.

All the above combined with Starmer's "no show, no action" throughout the Cummings crisis has now brought about a large question mark over his leadership, and that Len McCluskey has been articulating in his interviews over the last few days.

Crikey the day I take moral guidance from Ian Lavery would be the day I might want to examine my moral compass.

Lavery, who was also shadow minister for trade unions under Corbyn, said: “What Len says is extremely important. I have had people asking me from Unite if it is right that members’ money is used to finance Keir’s legal challenges and pay compensation when the advice that the party allegedly had was that the party was in a very strong position to defend the claims.“People have got to be accountable and responsible. You cannot expect unions to pump millions of pounds into the party if the party isn’t accountable.”

Ian Lavery - that upstanding exemplar of financial and personal integrity.
The one who, allegedly, helped himself to miners' compensation to pay off his mortgage.

janeainsworth Quote [The one who, allegedly, helped himself to miners' compensation to pay off his mortgage.] End Quote

Yes allegedly janeianworth. However, nothing has been brought to court in regard to the issue, and the last I read on those allegations, those who made them are now themselves under investigation.

Some Tory supporters know no limits in their attempts to discredit persons on the left. We seem in Britain with the right in our politics to becoming near to the Trump-style antics of the United states.

That being "slag em off" rather than join any realistic debate.

No his conviction for football hooliganism was though wasnt it.
Its not slagging off to raise concerns about the man who is complaining where labour party funds go. I believe the same funds paid his fine.

The Cummings crisis (?!!), again! Grandad, with great respect, a great many prominent people broke lockdown including Stephen Kinnock MP. Ian Blackford SMP, even dear old Jeremy! as well as others! Why is Cummings a 'crisis' yet these and others are justified or just frowned upon, but not pursued as a crisis!

Sorry I got confused the NUM paid that one. So much murkiness it's hard to keep up.

Well, this getting rediculous now with these Tory supporters and there "attempted" muckraking.

Ian Lavery was convicted in 1985 for a "punch up" at a football match, and the Tories on the forum raise that now in this thread.

What a joke. ???

I joined the Labour Party purely because of JC. He sold me a vision of equality and a fair society.
Now we have Starmer.

No matter what my opinion of Corbyn he was ( and proved twice) unelectable . Whether this was due to media vitriol or not he did not get elected and we have probably the worst government in history running the UK.

If we really want change and all the things Corbyn sold us then we must support Starmer. Nobody but nobody will vote for a fractured party.

Sorry if its inconvenient for you grandad. I am from lavery's neck of the woods so am fairly familiar with it all. And there was Ashington football club saga as well wasnt there, the list is endless. Never voted tory in my life. But also posess the understanding that in order for labour to be in power they have to persuade tory voters to vote for them .

Galaxy the actions of the police when Ian Lavery was arrested were questionable to say the least. You may not remember it but the way the miners were treated was appalling and I find it absolutely credible that as a politically active miner Ian Lavery would have been subjected to police harassment and arrested with little grounds. If there was murkiness it was certainly not on the miners' side.