Stargazer

justice, medicine, mental health, education 🇪🇺🇵🇸 ⚕️

[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.

[Peter Oborne @OborneTweets]

Nick Robinson needs to deal with these powerful and well made points from Paul Holden

[Mishal Husain @MishalHusain]

Book coming this September by @AkbarSAhmed - available to pre order now

[David Miller @Tracking_Power]

‘For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!’

Itamar Ben-Gvir,
Zionist National Security Minister

This is Zionism. It must be dismantled, brick by brick, charity by charity, cut out by cut out, intel connected tech firm by tech firm.

Not just in the Levant.

All over the world.

#DismantleZionism

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Whatever the result, we badly need a party that is willing to redistribute wealth and power.

A party that will nationalise our public services, tax the super rich and call a genocide exactly what it is.

And that's the Green Party.

https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Take this in. Step by step. Phrase by phrase. Word by word.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

I am horrified that a car has been deliberately set alight outside the home of the family of Salma Yaqoob, a wonderful prominent anti-racist and peace campaigner in Birmingham.

I hope the police take this shocking incident seriously. Sending my solidarity to Salma & her family.

[Martin Shaw @martinshawx]

Protest Is Not Terrorism report that, while the infamous Judge Johnson was imposing draconian sentences on the the Filton 4 after refusing to allow them or their lawyers to explain their motives to the jurors (and then adding a ‘terrorist connection’ of which the jury were also unaware when they convicted), activists in three other cases, who *were* allowed to explain, escaped conviction:

‘Direct actionists walk free from court in Aylesbury, Canterbury and Birmingham
It’s clear that the Filton 4 Palestine Actionists were convicted because Judge Johnson prevented Rajiv Menon and the rest of their defence team from making any effective defence at all, and in particular he prevented them from telling the jury about their reasons for taking direct action against Elbit Systems.
‘On 21 May, the Grid 2 (Audrey Corno and Jessica Stacey) were acquitted at Aylesbury Crown Court of criminal damage during a rooftop occupation of GriD Defence Systems premises near High Wycombe. As Audrey Corno explained on Instagram, they were acquitted because the judge “We argued that the damage was necessary in order to prevent war crimes. It's a very, very simple case, which is why the jury came back with the correct verdict after only 20 minutes of deliberation.”
‘On 11 June the Discovery 5 (who sprayed red paint over the Instro Precision site in Sandwich) were acquitted at Canterbury Crown Court. As one of the defendants (Dziej Smith) explained, “We were able to take the stand and talk without restriction about our reasons and our strongly held beliefs based on fact. We could not only say the word ‘genocide’ we could talk of the destruction and devastation manufactured on our doorstep. We could directly link Elbit systems to the IDF.” As a result, “12 members of the jury heard our evidence and unanimously delivered a ‘not guilty’ verdict
‘On 18 June, the jury in the trial of the Moog 4 refused to convict them of criminal damage after they occupied the roof of an arms factory in Wolverhampton. Again the jury’s decision followed a trial in which the defendants were allowed, by the judge, to explain their intentions. “We believed the longer we stayed up there,” said one of the defendants (Iain Evans), “the more lives we would save.”’

[Andrew Feinstein @andrewfeinstein]

This is an affront to British justice & democracy. This is what Starmer, Lammy & Cooper have created in Britain: a system that represents Netanyahu & Elbit Systems rather than the interests of the British people, the vast majority of whom want to stop arms sales to Israel. The right to protest is dead, the right to an open & honest trial is dead. The right to be on the side of peace & human decency rather than genocide, is dead

[Tayab Ali @tayab_ali_]

🚨 In more than 25 years of working on terrorism cases, I never thought I would see terrorism legislation used in a way that blurs the line between genuine national security concerns and the policing of political expression and protest.

The sentencing of the Filton 4 raises profound questions about the direction of our justice system. Counter-terrorism laws exist to protect the public from serious threats, not to chill political dissent, including direct action protest.

If we are not careful, we risk setting a dangerous precedent, one that many will view as driven not by principle, but by a desire to shield Israel from criticism.

I strongly oppose what happened in this case today.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

There's a Genocide happening in Gaza.

Our Government is arresting pensioners for holding cardboard signs that say "I support Palestine Action."

And Andy Burnham - labours apparent last hope - won't even acknowledge what's really happening.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

Today four activists face terror-related sentences for taking direct action against an Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton, Bristol - a factory that makes drones sent to the genocidal apartheid state of Israel to kill Palestinians in Gaza.

Back in April, I warned in Parliament that jurors would not be told terrorism sentences could follow a criminal damage conviction.

No terrorism charges were ever brought. The proscription against Palestine Action has since been ruled unlawful. The defendants were even prevented from telling the jury they acted to stop genocide.

This is a Labour government defending Israeli death factories and stripping away all of our fundamental rights.

Everyone who cares about our democracy should be outraged.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Sentenced and imprisoned on grounds of “terrorism” that no jury ever convicted them of.

Meanwhile, the British government continues to aid and abet the greatest crime of our time.

A historic miscarriage of justice — and a truly dark day for civil liberties in this country.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Gut wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel.

Years in prison for protesting to save lives in Gaza, with 'terrorism' used despite no jury convicting them of it.

A truly dangerous attack on the right to protest.

[Richard Sanders @PulaRJS]

Jeremy Johnson - in 50 years time this will be the only 1.39 minutes of your life you'll be remembered for. It'll be played in genocide museums to sum up the complicity and callous brutality of the British state in the face of the slaughter of the Palestinian people - and the courage of those who opposed it.

[Alex Tiffin @RespectIsVital]

You can vehemently disagree with Palestine Action activists goals, whilst simultaneously be horrified a judge can decide AFTER a conviction if it was terrorism related amd double a sentence.

Being able to class an offense as terrorism AFTER conviction without charging them with terrorism should bother everyone.

Any protest action that is now determined as trying to "change government policy" can have this applied.

So today it's Palestine Action, but next it'll be immigration protests, farmers protests, NHS, tax etc etc.

[Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon]

Palantir's co-founder claimed "the NHS makes people sick".

Yet this US tech giant now runs the NHS data platform.

There are serious concerns about its access to patient data and human rights record.

The Government should use the break clause to kick Palantir out of our NHS.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

It's pretty disgraceful that there has been absolutely no mention of this from the Prime Minister.

It's increasingly clear that some attacks, correctly, warrant disgust, emergency measures and days of media coverage.

Others seem to be met with silence.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Richard Burgon just exposed the most glaring double standard in British policy

"Imagine if this weekend in London there was a Russian real estate event selling Ukrainian land. The government would ban it immediately.

Instead, we have an Israeli real estate event openly advertising the illegal sale of land in occupied Palestinian territories. The government recognizes Palestine. Why isn't this banned?"