It was apparent from the start that Labour HQ knew of attempts to rig certain elections, not just Falkirk….and ignored them, even threatening disciplinary action against one person who raised the subject.
This is surely political dynamite, and yet the BBC are consistently ignoring or underplaying it.
Embarrassingly this is from a Labour man prepared to state the truth that the BBC dare not:
So now we know: Ed Miliband struck a deal that allowed Unite to rig the Falkirk selection
In Falkirk, over a hundred new applications were received in the space of a week. And as a result, those members were not, at that stage, being entered into the Labour Party central processing system.
Given the impending selection in Falkirk, it did not take a genius to work out what was going on. Nor did it take long for the Compliance Team to appreciate the political significance of what was unfolding. And that was why the issue was raised directly with Ed Miliband’s office.
A heated debate ensued amongst Miliband’s team about how to proceed. But the key voice in that debate was Tom Watson, a key Miliband confidant, and boss of Murphy. At the time I was told Watson had “spoken to people” about allowing the Unite members on to the system, and letting the selection proceed. Two days ago this intervention was confirmed. In an email dated 14 January, from Stephen Deans to an unnamed recipient, and cc’d to Karrie Murphy, Deans writes: “There have been some membership processing issues that Tom Watson has been helpful in resolving. Tom has asked that you send me an updated list for Falkirk West and the wider membership list to enable us to validate these memberships.”
Another series of leaked emails a week later show mounting concern that the members had still not been placed on the system. One, from Unite political coordinator Tom Wartnett to Karie Murphy says: “I sent them [the membership forms] up with a letter saying Tom Watson has approved them.”
Tom Watson very effectively argued it was in Ed Miliband and the Labour Party’s interests to simply process the membership applications, stand back and let the Falkirk selection run its course. No one wanted a row with Labour’s biggest funder. Miliband’s team agreed.
Ed Miliband did not tackle the machine politics of Falkirk thoroughly. Or swiftly. Instead, he connived in it. Those of us who have been perplexed at his actions over the past fortnight now have our answer.
Why did Miliband capitulate so readily…apart from possibly agreeing with Unite’s politics (McCluskey being a big fan of one Ralph Miliband’s Marxist views):