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Leftwinger threatened with disciplinary action immediately on joining Labour NEC

Darren WilliamsToday’s Morning Star splashes on a disturbing story. It concerns Darren Williams, who was elected to Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) last week upon Ken Livingstone’s resignation from the committee as the next runner up from the last elections (Livingstone is unable to attend meetings due to his suspension, and is no longer a candidate for the current round of elections).

In recent months, we have catalogued on these pages the Labour right’s increasing concern with controlling the executive – by any means necessary. This has been most notable in Jim Murphy’s attempt – in vain – to keep leftwinger Rhea Wolfson off the upcoming ballot. Now Williams, within 48 hours of succeeding Livingstone, has been summoned to a meeting to answer potential disciplinary charges.

In an email from Labour discipline supremo Kat Buckingham seen by the Star, Cardiff city councillor and PCS union officer Williams is accused of having “taken a photo of Welsh Labour print material and sent this to the press”. Buckingham says that should this be true, it would likely be deemed “prejudicial to the Party’s interests“. A bizarre enough statement at the utmost peak of leaking from far higher echelons of the party. But on top of that, Williams reportedly has no idea to what event this allegation refers.

CmdpxyAXEAAY_nLBuckingham continues:

I should stress that the evidence I have received is strong. I will be reporting this matter to the NEC Disputes Panel on Tuesday and I am asking to meet with you on Monday to gather your views in advance of that meeting.

Is it a coincidence that a left-wing member of the executive is being targeted at a time when the body may have to adjudicate on whether Jeremy Corbyn is allowed on the ballot paper automatically in the event of a leadership challenge? As John Junor was fond of saying, I don’t know, but I think we should be told.

53 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies says:

    blairs backers once again

  2. Craig Stephen says:

    This allegation is considered “prejudicial to the Party’s interests“, but undermining the party leader, squaking to the right-wing press and launching leadership coups are prefectly fine.

  3. John Penney says:

    Open warfare from the Labour Right now. They will stop at nothing – abusing party rules, as in this ludicrous attempt to keep Darren off the NEC at this crucial time , spare no slander , avoid no misinformation to their press allies , use every threat to individuals , offer whatever inducements are required to try and subvert those in the NEC seen as “wobbly” on support for Jeremy.

    Anyone who still thinks a “comradely compromise” is now possible with these unprincipled enemies of the working class need to think again.

  4. Mervyn Hyde (@mjh0421) says:

    They have gone far beyond the pale and into outright warfare, the revelations relating to Angela Eagle show their contempt for party members, deselection is the only answer. the sooner we start the sooner we can rebuild our movement.

  5. John P Reid says:

    Come on get our act together the party needs left wing and a right wing, the CLPd, rightly got rid of Ken, Christine shaw rift ought to watch hereself, apart from the Fab Anne Black, I can’t guess who’s gonna be on the NEc
    Does this mean the Akehurst is the next one to go on it b4 Augusts

    1. Bazza says:

      So why exactly do we need Neo-Liberals who pat the working class/ working people on the head Mr Neo-Liberal?

      1. John P Reid says:

        Ask Emily thornberry

        1. Bazza says:

          Yes Emily from a council estate background!

          1. John P Reid says:

            Lots of middle class council houses, in rich areas,her parents were loaded,she went to Oxford uni,pretends to be working class, really sneers at them

  6. This action against Darren Williams is disgraceful and unwarranted.

  7. Bazza says:

    Hmm and I read in the Sunday Observer (3/7/16) that a Shadow Labour Minister deleted information on Labour’s position on the Finance Bill after they resigned.
    These people have been carrying out a campaign that it could be argued is tantamount to domestic violence: verbal and mental abuse and perhaps they need to hang their heads in shame!
    But just think to quote the Beatles (with John Lennon on lead vocals) If we “Come together, come together, right now, over me” we have 60,000 new members and that is £2.7m EXTRA for Labour – I told you “I had a cunning plan!”

    1. John P Reid says:

      Labour wastes about 3 million a year anyway

  8. Richard Price says:

    I have known Darren for 20 years and in all that time, throughout the rough and tumble of both politics and trade unionism, I have never heard anyone say a bad word against him. Thoroughly decent and principled. As Gaye says, this is absolutely disgraceful.

  9. Peter Rowlands says:

    This couldn’t possibly have anything to do with reports that the NEC, finely didided between left and right, would be the ultimate arbiter of whether Jeremy Corbyn would require 50 nominations to appear on the ballot in the event of a leadership challenge?

    1. James Martin says:

      I don’t think so Peter, the legal advice on that seems clear – http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/29/legal-advice-suggests-coup-corbyn-dead-water/ – and is the reason why the coup plotters have not dared risk a leadership election but instead more and more laughably desperate attempts to get Jeremy to resign instead. This latest attack is more a combination of that desperation with the ongoing bureaucratic witch-hunt by elements of the Party apparatus against the left.

      1. Richard Tiffin says:

        From what I understand there is contradictory legal advice. This was why Kinnock was waving the rule book on Marr yesterday, stating that Corbyn must have the requisite (unachievable) number of nominations.

        Uncertainty being the case then the NEC will adjudicate on the matter. They will decide if Corbyns name is on the ballot paper.

        Fact is the PLP and the wider Labour Party bureaucracy have shown over the past ten days how much they are prepared to damage the party to get their way, to overflow Corbyn. They will stop at nothing. I’d be shocked if what has happened to Williams is not related to an attempt to weaken the lefts position on the NEC in a hope to keep Corbyn off of the ballot.

        How to combat this if they succeed in is manoeuvre? I like the idea that CLP meetings are held and mandate MP’s to nominate Corbyn should the need arise. I am not sure that if this is permissible in the rules, but CLP’s clearly carry authority and woebetide an MP who ignores a strongly worded and carried resolution.

        Assuming we have the 40 who never voted for the no confidence motion then we only need 11 more to buckle.

        1. Tim Wilkinson says:

          I think that’s very much an ‘opinions on shape of earth differ’ kind of thing. The rules are pretty clear – they say challengers may be nominated, and nominations must meet the threshhold. They do not say anything that suggests the possibility of nominating the incumbent leader for the position of leader.

          Though not an issue in relation to nominations (unless some stunning trick is pulled), the 40 are only those who voted against the the no-confidence motion. There were 13 abstentions and 4 spoilt ballots, which one assumes were deliberate and not in favour of the motion.

          1. Richard Tiffin says:

            I honestly believe that the plotters are so desperate to wrestle control of the party that they are prepared to try anything.

            The vagueness of the rule book is why opposing legal opinions are possible and why Corbyn is planning to clarify matters at conference.

            I would not be at all surprised if they held an election without his name on the paper.

        2. James Martin says:

          Well yes, there is always room for contrary legal advice. If the law was clear we wouldn’t need lawyers. In addition, if the Labour Party rule book was clear we wouldn’t need this discussion, and given the very large number of ex-lawyer MP’s in New Labour it is an interesting question to ask why it is we have ended up with something that is potentially so open to legal interpretation. However, last year a barrister who opposes Corbyn nailed the issues in the New Statesman and it is quite clear (to me at least!) that whatever the PLP do and whatever the NEC do, if Jeremy does not resign he will be on a ballot paper automatically following any challenge: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2015/11/could-labours-rule-book-be-used-keep-jeremy-corbyn-leadership-ballot

          1. Tim Wilkinson says:

            Yes the way it’s laid out may not be clear but its meaning is. There is no way to read it that entails – or is even consistent with – an incumbent’s needing to be nominated before defending against challengers.

        3. Peter Rowlands says:

          Yes, this is why I raised the point in relation to the charges against Darren Williams.

          1. Peter Rowlands says:

            I was replying to Richard Tiffin.

    2. John P Reid says:

      It’s also 4 far left, to two centre (Ellie Reeves Jo Baxter)

      1. Bazza says:

        You mean 2 centre non-left wing democratic socialist Neo-Liberals. Keep these 2 out 2!

        1. John P Reid says:

          No isn’t men thT kits ridiculous you want to repeat th e 81 deputy leadership election, you realize how many votes you drive away calling Baxter a neo liberal

          1. Bazza says:

            You have to take sides now Left Wing democratic socialists and real change or social democrats and crumbs for working people/the working class plus the occasional top down pat on the head for working people by Labour’s Neo-Liberals!
            I am proud to be standing with my brother and sister left wing democratic socialists.
            Just posting from a packed Momentum in Leeds.
            “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone, you’ll never walk alone!” Solidarity!

          2. John P Reid says:

            It was like labour thinking it could get revolutionary communist votes in the 80’s would counter balance losing the SDP votes

    3. Tim Wilkinson says:

      “reports that the NEC..would be the ultimate arbiter of whether Jeremy Corbyn would require 50 nominations”

      I’m not sure it would be would it? As an unincorporated association, the party has recognised legal status and actions of its officers that do not conform to the properly agreed rules can presumably be challenged in the courts.

      1. Richard Tiffin says:

        My fear is that the plotters, the Blairites, the right of the party, the enterists, the traitors (whatever you want to call them) have already shown what they are prepared to do to retain what power they have and regain that they have lost. They are prepared to destroy the party, simple as.

        Actual destruction may not be so simple because 172 votes of no confidence is big, but they don’t all have the same agenda as the leaders of this coup, so I am not about to panic.

        However, Kinnock (on Marr) shows they are trying hard to keep Corbyn from the ballot paper in what looks increasingly likely to be a leadership election. By arguing this on national television Kinnock declared it at least a possible option and a note of their desperation, for Corbyn must be in with a great chance of winning, a fact that even the political editor on radio 4 was prepared to acknowledge today.

        The NEC will be the arbiter in this matter and this is quite possibly, perhaps even likely, the reason Williams is under investigation. The balance of power is close on the NEC and every vote will count, so one less for the left will be great from the perspective of the right.

        If Corbyn is kept from the ballot paper then we face the vagaries of court, and lets be frank, they are not the the blind scales of justice the statue on top of the Old Bailey suggest are they!

        I am of the suck and see variety, we cannot act until they do in this case. However, I would like to see a debate on the potential of CLP’s mandating MP’s to nominate Corbyn or run the risk of deselection. I think it is viable for many CLP’s have already declared their support for Corbyn, but I have no idea if it is constitutional or what the potential pitfalls are. All I do know is this appears to be a fight the left must win or the left in the party will lose this historic opportunity to define the narrative and perhaps even face destruction as the party hollows out.

  10. Bazza says:

    Bullies are essentially cowards and iafter what the perpetrators have done to him in an act of leadership JC has offered an olive branch.
    So what is wrong with the cowards and bullies haven’t they got the guts to fight a democratic election?
    And if its a war they want believe me I have been holding back!
    Oh and the creep Chris Byrant was reported as saying if Jeremy Corbyn wins again even with a bigger majority they will do it again so perhaps its time to clear out the Augean Stables!
    And how does the song go: “Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer we’ll keep the Red Flag flying here!”

    1. John Penney says:

      Very important meeting between Tom Watson , Party Chair, and key TU leaders tomorrow apparently according to Sky News . This , hopefully will be the point at which Len McCluskey and co tell the plotters to “give it up” – or future TU funding won’t be available for a PLP that has betrayed our opportunity to get rid of a Tory government, and rejected Party democracy..

      However, as anyone familiar with the role of the UK trades union bureaucracy, knows, from the betrayal of the 1926 General Strike (called off as it was still getting massively STRONGER) onwards, the Trades Union leaders have pretty consistent “form” for “bottling it” in the face of dramatic end of status quo, decisions. The current lot, even the “Left” leaders have blatantly demobilised every rising tide of mass resistance to the Tory , and Coalition Cuts so far – calling national demos which have then led to nothing – and done nothing else effective at all.

      So let us fervently hope that the current trades union leaders , occupying what are historically speaking, now very personally comfortable, highly remunerated and pensioned, Higher management, social positions , (often with no job experience outside the bureaucracy at all, eg, Francis O’Grady) , expecting honours and lucrative consultative positions after retiring, are actually up for support for a socialist Leader of a now Left dominated Labour Party.

      We will see what transpires, but constant TU member pressure will be needed to avoid a sell-out.

      1. Bazza says:

        Good points JP & JC promised to repeal t u acts!

      2. Verity says:

        Surely the historical role of the trade Unions shows that they will do anything that keeps a Labour Party intake, whatever that Party stands for, as long as they see they have an influence on a possible future government.

  11. Bazza says:

    Right wing moron Chuka who? I can’t remember (the political imbecile is so irrelevant) now says we should get rid of momentum to help with Labours anti-Semitism problem!
    These Right Wing leeches who make a fat living out of the sweat of the working class/working people continue to pour their bile.
    The last throes of the ‘great men and women of history’ (without an original idea in their heads) as history passes them by.
    Labour members are their public and perhaps as Bertold Brecht suggested they need to find a new public!

    1. John P Reid says:

      If true the alternative would be, that momentum, find out non labour members who say anti semeticism, quotes are told to leave momentum

      1. Mervyn Hyde (@mjh0421) says:

        If you could string all that into language we could understand, perhaps we could make sense of what you are trying to say?

        1. John P Reid says:

          Momentum people not in the Labour Party,who say anti Semitic stuff ahould be kicked out of momentum

          1. Robert Green says:

            Instead of suspending anti-racist activists on bogus anti-Semitism charges why is the so-called Compliance Unit of the Labour Party not suspending the 172 coup plotting MPs from the party for bringing it into disrepute and hampering the party’s ability to fight back against the Tories?

          2. John P Reid says:

            By you dismissing the allegations of anti semeticism, as bogus, you re justifying the claims found to be true,
            As for a vote of no confidence,are you saying these things are against the rules, how many unions have vote of no confidence in their management

  12. Giles Wynne says:

    “Come Together – Right Now”
    “If you want to be free”

    Of Disciplinary Letters ?

    Without the membership, including the 60,000 new or rejoined you are toast, Jeremy
    The people want a change
    They want a change in the Labour Party
    Yet you want them to vote for you to bring the PLP together ?
    So the status quo can c ontinue ?
    No No NO
    It was you who said “Labour is getting along just fine”
    Which Labour did you mean, Jeremy ?
    Its a load of cobblers, Jeremy
    The Party is dark dismal and divided
    The Bliarite officials insult the membership
    Yet you offer no more than yourself.
    And expect the disciples to follow
    You got it wrong Dad !
    Give the membership the authority over the PLP and the Party officials
    “My whole election programme was based on the need for ordinary people to be able to participate much more in politics,” Jeremy Corbyn.
    Implement that, Jeremy
    That is the price for my vote
    Should it come to that
    If it is going to be more of the same Jeremy count me OUT

    1. John Penney says:

      Definitely channelling the late, great, Rick Mayall’s “Young Ones” angry student poet “Rick” there, Giles. And not in a good way.

      1. Verity says:

        As frustrating as the absence of any well formed alternative Labour policy is, the options may be Corbyn or Owen/Eagle/secret unknown. Some may not want Corbyn as he has been, but surely there is no attractive alternative. Remember whilst we may have time and space to think about the policies we may wish for, Corbyn has spent all his time on organisational matters, fighting off the irreconcilables and giving Supporter – campaign speeches. If he survives then of course the next period will have to a step up in building the future direction, but he has surely done all that is humanly possible over this last year.

    2. Verity says:

      Advice from Portland Communications:

      1. Mervyn Hyde (@mjh0421) says:

        This is what happens when you try to get answers from these liars:

  13. Bazza says:

    Giles don’t be hard on JC tactics may be going on here until Wedneday and Chlicot when hopefully the Warmonger Blairites who created the worst foreign policy decision ever will be skewered and if not by the report then by us.
    Hopefully the Blairites will be truly skewered!

  14. Bazza says:

    When Parliament agreed to bomb so called IS in the foreign country of Syria (including 66 Labour MPs amongst them Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle) the first target (decision made by Micheal Fallon Tory Minister?) oil refineries and oil distribution centres.
    Were these facilities occupied by Syrian working class/working people at the time (and if so perhaps when so called IS comes to town you probably don’t have much say in the matter) and if these were populated were they likely to have been by trade unionists ie the Syrian equivalent of the GMB or Unite?
    If they were occupied and by non-combatants were these actions legal?
    Perhaps so called IS will wither like the dust when we start treating people in this region as equals and Western TNCs stop taking their resources?
    Yours as a left wing democratic socialist and in
    Love, peace & international solidarity.

  15. Mervyn Hyde (@mjh0421) says:

    John P Reid: I do not know of anyone in the Labour party that is an anti Semite, but I do know right wingers like yourself that are deliberately slandering people on the left.

    You are bringing the Labour Party into disrepute and should be suspended for it.

  16. John P Reid says:

    Name one person I slandered,by the way, you say you dint know anyone, but I don’t know who you know,and to just say that because you dint know anyone,means that I’ve some how made it up,and should be suspended,is in itself slanderous

  17. Lisa Muggeridge says:

    THis is a blog post to jon lansman which he wont read. https://idgeofreason.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/jon-lansman/ The discussion about democracy and winning. I cant do anything about the relenteless abuse I get from corbyn supporters because you are not accountable and in your world women are there to be abused. Winning and democracy are the same thing, they are people poower and thats why you are trying to take it. We remember Militant, we would never vote for that. While is why you are resorting to entryism. Dont worry I know he wont read this. The self appointed few stealing power from people never want to hear from those people.

    1. Jon Lansman says:

      Reddit. Completely disagreed with it.

      1. Karl Stewart says:

        I’ve read it too, and I disagree with it as well.

        Corbyn was democratically elected as leader of the Labour Party, according to the rules.

        He’s told everyone who disagrees with his leadership that if they think they can do any better, they should stand for election in accordance with the rules.

        If you don’t support him as leader, then you’re perfectly free to vote for an alternative candidate if you want to.

        All the whiney nonsense about ‘intimidation’ comes from MPs who were all quite happy to vote for an illegal war which took the lives of at least 150,000 people, nearly 200 of whom were UK service personnel and the vast majority of the rest were totally innocent Iraqi civilians.

        The whiney, wimpy MPs, who burst into floods of attention-seeking fake tears every time anyone disagrees with them, are all quite happy with mass killings like these.

        I can’t understand how anyone could support any of these bunch of losers – I personally would never, ever vote for any of these Red Tory traitors ever again.

        If they succeed in getting rid of Corbyn, they’re just another Tory Party as far as I’m concerned.

    2. Mervyn Hyde (@mjh0421) says:

      I fully understand Jon Lansman’s curt reply, I have added a comment to your Blog, It does seem odd to me the more people like you attack the real Labour members, the more people that join it.

      Our local party has had six active new members within the space of a week and more that are just members, the active members were all women or should I say young people and mature ladies.

      So please Lisa keep up the good work, keep attacking Labour it’s the best recruiting agent we have ever experienced.

    3. James Martin says:

      Yes, I read it too. It’s pretty rubbish if I’m being honest, although perhaps I need to preface my comments with nonsense identity politics which as ‘I’m a single dad who left school at 16 and spent years on the dole so I know what I’m talking about’ type stuff (I actually did Lisa, does that make me better qualified in your eyes?). Perhaps it would be better if you actually substantiated your wild allegations. What unions have actively ignored they jobs you do, please be specific? What ‘bullying’ of CLP’s has taken place, real examples please, not made up stuff like I can read in the Daily Mail? And what is this misogynistic abuse from Momentum, again real and actual examples please?

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