Nancy Graham

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

CALL FOR EVIDENCE: THE LABOUR TOGETHER PARLIAMENT

Please share widely and help us expose the hyper-factional remaking of the Parliamentary Labour Party by the Labour Together/Morgan McSweeney project.

Submissions to be made to [email protected]

Shadow World Investigations (SWI) and Paul Holden - author of The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy – are today announcing a new investigative project about the transformation of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) under the Labour Together Project.

This long-germinating project is soliciting evidence about how Labour Party processes were used (and abused) to manipulate the selection of Labour MP candidates who now make up the majority of the PLP.

Sir Keir Starmer was the frontman for a scandalous political project that spent the best part of a decade remaking the Labour Party along rigidly factional and exclusionary lines.

The most consequential transformation was of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Two thirds of the Labour MPs currently sitting in the House of Commons were selected through a process tightly controlled by Morgan McSweeney and his allies, allegedly with direct (albeit informal) input from Peter Mandelson. Labour Together, and its key donors, then spent over £2 million on getting this intake of MPs elected.

The selection process that McSweeney oversaw was beset by allegations of misconduct and irregularities so widespread that veteran journalist Michael Crick warned of potential ‘corruption’. One MP selection has resulted in criminal charges being filed against Labour officials.

These are the MPs that not just determine the future of the country but will play a key role in either making or breaking the political fortunes of whoever next succeeds Starmer.

In a follow up to The Fraud, SWI, Paul Holden and Jessica Murray will be embarking upon ‘The Labour Together Parliament’ project to examine the legitimacy of the process that resulted in the current Parliament, upon which any Labour government will rest.

What we need as a first step is information.

We would like evidence of any wrongdoing or stitch-ups during the selection process. We would like to build a collection of evidence about the ways in which bureaucrats forced through or manipulated the selection process, including in the finalisation of longlists and shortlists, and, where it happened, the decision being removed from local democratic decision making altogether.

We are particularly interested in the vote tallies from every Labour candidate selection between 2022 and 2024. These have not been routinely published.

We are particularly interested in tallies that distinguish between postal/online/and in-person votes. These different vote tallies would have been provided to losing candidates. Sometimes they were only read out in selection meetings. We are not only looking for results that seem ‘dodgy’ – but all vote tallies, including those that are not in the least suspicious. This will allow us to build a holistic database and rigorously test different hypotheses.

We would also like tallies from candidate selections in seats that weren’t Labour targets and didn’t result in any MP. Ideally, it would be great if we could be provided with contemporaneous evidence of these vote tallies – such as a screenshot of a message or email relaying the result.

We would also be interested in narrowing down which CLPs used Anonyvoter for MP selection, even if the vote tallies are not available.

Please send any information you think is relevant to the selection of the current PLP [email protected].

And please share this call for evidence widely!

[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.

[les roberts @lesroberts77]

I always forget just how much this country lost its mind.

[Rula Jebreal @rulajebreal]

La prestigiosa rivista medica *The Lancet* ha pubblicato una petizione in cui si chiede il boicottaggio dell’Associazione Medica Israeliana e la sua espulsione dall’Associazione Medica Mondiale, a causa della sua mancata condanna del genocidio perpetrato da Israele contro i palestinesi e il collasso del sistema sanitario di Gaza.
100 medici israeliani hanno pubblicato una lettera chiedendo all’esercito israeliano di bombardare e distruggere l’ospedale Shifa a Gaza.
La campagna, lanciata dal movimento Boicottaggio, Disinvestimento e Sanzioni (BDS), da Operatori sanitari per la Palestina e da Medici per Gaza, ha ricevuto finora il sostegno di oltre 1.150 professionisti sanitari e organizzazioni mediche.
I medici israeliani hanno preso parte attiva al genocidio.
I medici israeliani hanno fortemente incoraggiato i bombardamenti e la distruzione degli ospedali di Gaza, nonché l'uccisione di massa di migliaia di pazienti e medici.

I medici israeliani hanno partecipato alle torture dei ostaggi palestinesi a Sde Teiman, hanno mandato dei tirocinanti a condurre esperimenti su di loro, li hanno operati senza anestesia e hanno negato loro medicine e cure!

La richiesta di espulsione sarà sollevata durante l'assemblea generale dell'Associazione Medica Mondiale che si terrà a ottobre.

[Taj Ali @Taj_Ali1]

I don’t want to hear any bullshit about “legitimate concerns” and “working class revolt”

It’s working-class Black and brown people being pushed out of their homes. This is racist violence and intimidation. Don’t dress it up as anything else.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

These aren't protests. They're racist riots. And it's time for the government to take them seriously.

The PM should be convening COBRA and setting out a real plan to end this horrific violence and bring communities together.

Now is a time for real leadership.

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Now that Gaza lies in ruins—shattered, like a beloved face after a long brutality—Israel moves with a terrible confidence to the next act: The act of leaving every soul there not merely wounded, but permanently disabled. Injured, sick, hungry, homeless, without work, without hope. This is not war’s collateral damage. This is design.

As my friend Gideon Levy writes—and he knows, he knows—this is the prelude to expulsion. Think of it: a society without teachers, without doctors, without social workers, without engineers, without clerks. That is not a society. That is a holding pen. A slow erasure. And when nothing functions—no school, no hospital, no office, no heart—then it becomes ‘easy,’ they tell themselves, to scatter the people to the four corners of the earth. Like seeds from a broken pod, except no soil will take them.

We must name this. Not with rage alone, though rage is honest. But with the cold, clear tears of recognition: they are making life impossible so that departure becomes the only ‘choice.’ And the world watches, adjusts its spectacles, and calls for restraint. Restraint! There is no restraint in a slow drowning.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

Israel is currently destroying Tyre — a 5000 year old city, home to hundreds of thousands of people.

Zero condemnation from a single British politician.

Endless impunity; a time of barbarism and monsters.

[Greens4Palestine @Greens4P]

An Open Letter to @TheGreenParty Executive:

[Thiago Ávila @thiagoavilabr]

🚨 Warning: distressful content!

Those genocidal maniacs RAPED humanitarian activist trying to take food and medicine to children in Gaza! And the worst is that even this they escalate to much worse forms with the 9000 Palestinians in israeli dungeons (almost 400 children)!

[Flying_Rodent @flying_rodent]

A non-problem intentionally turned into a national travesty by the world’s most malignant media outlets, who recognised the radicalisation of their nastiest colleagues as an opportunity to push back hard against ideas like equality and inclusion, and beat down people they despise

[@Searchlightmagazine @Searchlight_mag]

Hey, @Nigel_Farage and @TiceRichard, you might want to ask your Makerfield Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon, why he includes Gary Raikes amongst his Facebook friends. We only ask because Raikes (pictured, in cap) an ex-member of both BNP and Britain First, is now leader of the New British Union, the latter day incarnation of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.

Just asking...

@uaf @AntiRacismDay

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Keir Starmer is correct about the need to heal divisions.

But to equate protest of the genocide in Gaza with the hate march led by Tommy Robinson is a disgrace.

If Starmer thinks this is how we heal divisions it shows he hasn't begun to understand the problem.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Kathy Davidson: "Its important for the flotilla to continue because it holds hope.. and it gives visibility"

The global sumud flotilla has left Turkey on its way to Gaza.

[Joe Guinan @joecguinan]

Where is the quote from investigative journalist Paul Holden, whom Simons smeared, and whose work has been utterly vindicated? Another Guardian piece that meticulously avoids all mention of Holden or his @StarmertheFraud book. https://t.co/rTByCeuIl7

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

There are actual far right fascists marching through London today and some UK liberal media types’ response is to equate them to people - including Jews - marching to oppose the killing of innocents abroad.

Shameful stuff.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

Please retweet.

[Rachel Millward @rachelmillward]

Not acceptable @BBCr4today, @margarethodge declared @TheGreenParty "antisemitic". The only rebuttal was that Zack "wouldnt agree".

We take strong action against antisemitism. @ZackPolanski is hounded by vile cartoons and Nazi salutes. Antiracism is baked into our principles.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

Zack lives in a HMO and rents a room.

Don’t you understand this is normal in London? This is the the result of the entire distorted property market.

I swear to god @piersmorgan is so stupid he doesn’t even see how this discredits their entire smear campaign.

Totally idiotic

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Katie Hopkins being forced to apologise to Zarah Sultana.

Lets save it to laugh at it repeatedly in the future.

🤣