Leslie Huckfield

Academic, Researcher, Active in UCU and Unite

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@paulholden This FT McSweeney piece today must be the most shallow interview/profile which has ever been published by the FT or any newspaper. There is scarcely a mention of how McSweeney and Labour Together sought to destroy Labour.

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

This a deeply disappointing, borderline irresponsible interview of Morgan McSweeney from @bbcnickrobinson. It looks like impunity in action. Has the media not learnt any lessons from Mandelson and of the need to properly scrutinise political actors?

It is the BBC's job to hold political actors to account, to pose them real questions, and to get them to put a proper version of events on the record.

That is all the more important for a figure like McSweeney, who has wielded extraordinary power and has led or participated in attacks on legitimate, factual journalism, but who has never spoken about his role in these scandals on the record.

The interview doesn't touch, once, on the rock-solid evidence of McSweeney's serious unlawful misconduct or the Labour Together/APCO scandal. This stuff is widely available and easy to verify.

Here is a reminder of what we know about McSweeney, about which he wasn't asked a single thing:

1. McSweeney was Company Secretary of Labour Together from July 2017 to April 2020. During this period he failed to report over £700,000 in donations to the Electoral Commission. This was plainly unlawful. LT was found guilty and fined for this offence, but said in public it was an 'administrative oversight.'

2. McSweeney failed to report donations after he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince the Electoral Commission he didn't need to report them in late 2017.

3. McSweeney failed to report donations after the Electoral Commission told him, explicitly, that Labour Together had a legal duty to report donations.

4. McSweeney engaged in a two-month correspondence with the Electoral Commission in early 2018, in which it was clear he knew he had to report donations. Yet he failed to do so for over two years thereafter.

5. McSweeney failed to report donations even though he was telling MPs he was reporting donations, and even though Labour Together's website also stated that it was declaring donations to the Electoral Commission.

6. McSweeney failed to report donations even after Shabana Mahmood, on Labour Together's behalf, wrote an article for LabourList in February 2020 stating that Labour Together was reporting its donations. At the very time Mahmood wrote the donations, LT was taking in donations it was failing to declare.

7. McSweeney used this undeclared money, to fight an undeclared, covert war on the Labour Party leadership between 2017 and 2020. He also used it to pay for polling which was then fed into Starmer's leadership bid. Materials produced by McSweeney during his time at LT was fed, word-for-word, into Starmer's campaigning material. According to Rachel Wearmouth, McSweeney spent 'every spare moment' during the last six weeks of 2019 to prepare Starmer's leadership bid, during which time McSweeney was drawing a salary from LT.

8. When Labour Together was put under investigation by the Electoral Commission for McSweeney's failure to report donations, McSweeney was consulted by LT's lawyer Gerald Shamash. The email recording this consultation and its contents were published by the Tory Chairman Kevin Hollinrake and have been available in public for a year. The email raises serious questions about whether LT was candid in its responses to the Electoral Commission and, in particular, McSweeney's correspondence with the Commission in 2017/2018 that shows he was aware of the need to report donations. Early correspondence between LT and the Electoral Commission shows that, despite being asked to provide all information of relevance to the Commission's inquiries, LT failed to even mention McSweeney's name, let alone the phone call.

9. In early 2019 McSweeney launched an astroturf campaign called Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN) , with his friend and factional ally Imran Ahmed. It was supported by @SteveReedMP and operated out of the same office as Labour Together. SFFN purposefully set out to 'eviscerate' the economic viability of @TheCanaryUK and to destroy the livelihoods of its journalists, many of whom were long-time members of the National Union of Journalists.

At no stage in its first year operation did SFFN declare its controlling minds. Instead it presented itself as a 'grassroots' campaign of well-meaning activists.

McSweeney and Ahmed tried to take out proper journalism because they saw it as a threat to their political objectives. "Destroy the Canary or the Canary destroys us," is what McSweeney told Labour Together insiders according to Anushka Asthana.

SFFN made promiscuous allegations of antisemitism against The Canary - the antisemitism that McSweeney claims is what drove his factional war on the left - which were found to have no substance when reviewed by a panel of media lawyers and practitioners at media regulator Impress. SFFN repeatedly inferred that The Canary was antisemitic because it run articles quoting left-wing and anti-Zionist Jews disturbed by aspects of the "antisemitism crisis."

10. SFFN also targeted well-known US media sites, which led to McSweeney being directly called out by the US State Department. His colleague, Imran Ahmed, is now sanctioned by the US because the US accuses the company he and McSweeney set up, CCDH, of being part of a global censorship complex.

11. When I started reporting on McSweeney's undeclared money and his secret campaigns, including by taking damning primary documents to the Sunday Times, Labour Together appointed APCO Worldwide to produce a 'package' that would 'proactively undermine' my factually accurate, public interest reporting.

To be clear: APCO were hired to 'proactively undermine' my reporting on McSweeney and his role in Starmer's rise. The intention, as shown in internal docs, was to protect both Starmer and McSweeney's reputations ahead of an imminent general election, while I was trying to warn people about the true nature of this project and it's unlawful origins.

12. APCO produced an insane, ludicrous, highly defamatory report that accused me, my family and my colleagues of being part of a pro-Kremlin network of journalists and speculating that I received hacked documents from Russia. APCO also investigated @Gabriel_Pogrund, with whom I'd collaborated with on the Sunday Times story, making a series of offensive comments about him and his ethnicity. APCO identified a range of other journalists in the UK and US as "persons of interest" to be investigated.

This highly invasive, despicable investigation targeted my work colleagues and my family, including by finding my home address and mapping my personal relationships. Labour Together and its Managing Director, Josh Simons, reported me to the National Cyber Security Centre on the basis of this mad, insane report.

13. Less than a month ago, it was revealed that McSweeney and his buddy Paul Ovenden (later Chief of Strategy at Number 10, who would resign following revelations from my book) were copied into emails about the investigation. McSweeney plainly knew about APCO's investigation. Simons, in one mail, wrote to set up a meeting with McSweeney, Ovenden and APCO's Tom Harper in 'HQ' to discuss the 'Paul Holden report.'

Three days after this meeting I was reported to the NCSC, along with my colleagues and family members. Emails show Simons was coached in how to make a 'crime report' about me to the NCSC.

14. The APCO/Labour Together scandal was so ugly and so damning that Labour Together has been forced to change its name. It also led to the resignation of Josh Simons as a Junior Minister. The Speaker of the House has supported calls for a Parliamentary inquiry into Labour Together.

15. Josh Simons thereafter stepped aside as the MP for Makerfield in order to make way for Andy Burnham, the incoming PM who has displaced McSweeney's man, Starmer. There is a straight and clear line between attempts to protect McSweeney from scrutiny in 2024 and Starmer's resignation in 2026.

So, to make this clear: there was a massive scandal because plans were put in motion to stop questions being asked about McSweeney's unlawful failure to declare money... and now the public broadcaster is failing to ask McSweeney questions about the money. Has the media learnt nothing from the Mandelson scandal about what happens when you don't properly scrutinise political actors?

And here's some things McSweeney and Robinson did talk about, but which doesn't bear scrutiny:

1. Starmer didn't just take some suits and glasses as 'freebies' during the election campaign. He took over £100k in freebies between 2021 and 2024, more than every Labour leader since Tony Blair combined. In addition to free clothes, Starmer took football tickets, tickets to watch the horse racing, and free holiday accommodation for his family from a billionaire. One of his football freebies was donated by a company that had only just been forced to pay a £11m settlement because the installed faulty and potentially flammable cladding on tower blocks in Gosport. Taking these donations means that Starmer had conflicted himself on key areas of policy even before he was elected.

2. Both McSweeney and Robinson quickly collude in claiming that Sir Keir Starmer didn't say that Israel 'has that right' to shut off water, fuel, food and electricity to Gaza. But we've all seen the video, where what Starmer has said is utterly plain. Multiple Ministers went on air to defend the statement thereafter. Does the BBC really think that huge numbers of Muslim councillors immediately left the Party by mistake, because they can't understand plain English?

3. McSweeney has said that Labour Together was 'neutral' during the 2020 leadership election. But Labour Together, and its key associates, have said repeatedly since 2022/2023 that LT backed Starmer's leadership bid. You can find these comments on the Wayback Machine in about two minutes.

4. McSweeney says he never intended to rid the Party of Corbynism. There are now multiple accounts, including from the country's leading political editors and journalists, about how McSweeney crafted and distributed strategy documents, including a plan called 'Operation Red Shield' and a 2017 SWOT analysis, that set out plans to undermine Corbyn's leadership and install a new leader who would 'renew' the Party.

5. This is not the first time that McSweeney has spoken to the media. Instead, it is the first time he has let his comments be attributed to him in public. Multiple journalists have spoken about how he was the source of stories damaging to his opponents. While he was Chief of Staff at Number 10, he was meeting with the editors of the major UK newspapers more regularly than Number 10's own head of comms. We know this because transparency regulations means that these meetings are recorded and can easily found on the gov website. This man has shaped our media discourse, and our political epistemology, in profound and disturbing ways. It is utterly disingenuous to claim that this is the first time he's spoken to the media.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Burnham's proposed appointment of Purnell, who has been advising Thames Water, is the worst possible start. Purnell will follow in MacSweeney's footsteps. Burnham is not The Messiah.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@Nailsocialist Purnell was at the very heart of Blairism and close friends with Mandelson. A constant advocate of welfare reform and less benefits, Purnell is now a corporate lobbyist with undisclosed clients. Burnham is not The Messiah.

[Neil Findlay @Neilsocialist]

Spot on from @Kevin_Maguire - appointing Purnell would be crazy

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@ASLEFunion statement and response is appropriate. Train drivers are skilled and experienced so it's better to await full RAIB Report before blame gets apportioned.

[ASLEF @ASLEFunion]

ASLEF general secretary Dave Calfe has responded to the interim RAIB report on the train collision near Bedford.

🧵

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

In 2017 Corbyn 12,878,460 votes almost beat Theresa May. By 2019 Lab lost nearly 2.6mn votes. In 2024 Lab vote share lower than any paty in post–war majority govt. Yet Starmer claimed he “inherited a party politically, financially and morally bankrupt.” No media questions asked!

[Ash Sarkar @AyoCaesar]

Keir Starmer's premiership was a catastrophe engineered by the Labour right.

They got everything they wanted - a candidate without politics of his own, control of selections and internal processes, a monopoly on his advisers - and they fucked it into the sun.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@staylorish What makes them "Special" is their known ability to survive a system which enables them to become MSPs who perpetuate a system which produces even more managerial outputs. The rest of us in Scotland don't stand a chance. We can only watch and become disillusioned.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

John Swinney has appointed his new team of Special Advisers. Every single one of them was also a spad before the election. God forbid the SNP might bring in fresh ideas from people with relevant experience in the real world.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@WingsScotland Since the SNP has again failed Scotland in seeking to bury alive the 'Murrell Collection', perhaps @DavidDavisMP might be persuaded to hold another Adjournment Debate on Sturgeon Murrell concealment and obfuscation. His previous debates have proved instructive.

[Wings Over Scotland @WingsScotland]

I mean, I agree with him. We know a Holyrood inquiry would be utterly worthless given that the SNP and Greens would have a majority on it. We need an independent one.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@paulhutcheon Since the SNP have once more failed Scotland, many of us hope that @DavidDavisMP will once more institute an Adjournment Debate on Sturgeon/Murrell. His previous debates on the Holyrood Parliament have proved very instructive.

[Paul Hutcheon @paulhutcheon]

John Swinney rejects calls for a Holyrood inquiry into the Peter Murrell scandal by saying:

“What more do we need to look into?’

I can think of over 400,000 things.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Thanks. All OK here.

[Nigel. Red. 🚴. Tories/Reform = Dreck @Nigeblueboi]

@huckfield So do I. Hope you're well.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Still feel the pain 😚

[Nigel. Red. 🚴. Tories/Reform = Dreck @Nigeblueboi]

@huckfield @BBCr4today Blair v Les. Went the wrong way.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@BBCr4today Blair now is even more the corporates' mouthpiece than he dared to be in office.

[BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today]

"If we carry on like this... we're going to create a situation where economically we're not able to grow."

Sir Tony Blair says the current welfare and pension triple-lock policies are 'not affordable', and argues for change in the NHS.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@robertreid_ There will be thousands across Scotland right now who will be loudly echoing Christina.

[Rob @robertreid_]

"By her own admission, she knew nothing about what her husband and Chief Exec of her own party was doing? To me, that is just not credible"

🎯🎯🎯

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@KennyMacAskill Murrell's "Guilty" plea signals 20 years and more of concealment and obfuscation at the highest level. It won't stop the people of Scotland from demanding to know the truth.

[Kenny MacAskill @KennyMacAskill]

Murrell was central to the Alex Salmond conspiracy. He has not pled or been charged with any crime relating to that. But this affects his credibility and the others involved many of whom remain in senior positions in the SNP and SG now need held to account.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@LabourRightWtch Who will be fooled by yet another rebranding for MacSweeney/Mandelson/Simmonds/Labour Together and the rest who destroyed Labour as we knew it? Burnham is the best hope of remembering what the Labour Party used to be.

[Labour Right Watch @LabourRightWtch]

@NewStatesman https://t.co/jgmKXBQwwf

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

This surely represents an initial sign that Burnham does not understand what the Labour Party has now become - thanks to people like Simons, who was the heating heart of Labour Together.

[Kitty Donaldson @kitty_donaldson]

NEW: Andy Burnham ‘to reward’ Josh Simons with No 10 job, Labour sources claim

https://t.co/DGNzt5gE9o

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

@mcmullenshny Very much agree about @melanieward

[Shaun McMullen @mcmullenshny]

@huckfield @melanieward @SaulStaniforth @owenjonesjourno We have, I think, the worst generation of politicians, ever, in this country.
Bullshitters, shapeshifters, grifters, intellectual lightweights, morally compromised, integrity-free zones. Right across the board.
We are so poorly served by them.
Ward is symptomatic of that.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Like you @mcmullenshny I don't understand how @melanieward can one day be leading Medical Aid for Palestine and next day supporting Labour on Gaza in the Commons. She also attended the Munich Security Conference, which raises even more questions. @SaulStaniforth @owenjonesjourno

[Shaun McMullen @mcmullenshny]

@huckfield @melanieward She also makes me doubt whether my regular donations to 'Medical Aid for Palestinians' are worthwhile.
I hope that there are no others like her in the organisation, and I'm pleased she's no longer involved with them.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

But @melanieward is an essential part of Labour's big problem. She was imposed on Cowdenbeath which already had a preferred candidate, has treated her constituents as a "weekend return" and is Labour's worst proponent against Reform.

[Melanie Ward MP @melanie_ward]

Labour MPs have been motivated to act this week by the need to stop Reform destroying our country.

As @wesstreeting has said @AndyBurnhamGM must be allowed to stand in Makerfield. I’ll be campaigning for him.

I spoke to @cathynewman on @SkyNews about the way ahead for Labour

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Melanie Ward was also a Scotland Starmer imposed MP, when her Constituency already had a preferred candidate. No wonder she's a Streeting fan.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

In two years Melanie Ward has gone from protesting outside the Foreign office over the British governments ally using starvation as a weapon of war to Labour MP & Wes Streeting cheerleader.

[Leslie Huckfield @huckfield]

Proud of being Worcestershire born and bred. Even more proud that Worcs coalition has been formed to keep out Reform. We don't want Trump in Worcs.

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

The Tories just joined the Lib Dems and the Greens to form a coalition to take over Worcestershire council.

Read that again.

This is the kind of stuff that makes the British public despise the Conservative Party.

Why don’t they ever learn?!