Lord Bassam Steals £260,000 for a Second Home he doesn’t own and then graciously ‘offers’ to pay back a fraction!

If it had been a Single Parent claiming Benefits then they would have been Prosecuted

I have to make a confession.  When I first came to Brighton over 40 years ago and started squatting I ended up alongside the then plain Steve Bassam.  He then called himself an anarchist.  Soon however he joined the Labour Party.  Even when he was nominally on the left I never trusted him and sure enough, when he became leader of the Brighton’s Labour Council  he quickly moved to the Right.

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It wasn’t longed before Tony Blair ennobled Bassam.  This was a reward for having ensured, in 1992 that the whole of Brighton and Hove Labour Party were suspended because we insisted on telling the Council not to make cuts, prosecute Poll Tax defaulters etc.  Many members were expelled and I was  suspended.

One thing and one thing only has characterised Bassam’s career – how best to advance himself. As the title of the satirical pamphlet I wrote put it, it was a ‘career without principle.’  Even when he was on the Left his only concern was seeking peoples’ support to advance his career.

It is no surprise that in the story broken by the Mail on Sunday Bassam stands accused of having claimed for a second home he doesn’t own for the past 7 years in addition to some £41,000 travel expenses in the same period.   Bassam previously was a ‘consultant’ for Capita and KPMG, whilst being the Leader of a Council.  Some might have said that there was a conflict of interest there, especially as Labour under Bassam’s stewardship tried to privatise the Housing Benefit department by getting Capita to run it, in the same way as they mismanaged Lambeth and other borough’s housing benefit operations.

Why hasn't Bassam been suspended by Crooked McNicol? The Mail's suggestion that Bassam is an 'aide' of Corbyn is fanciful - he did his best to overthrow him

What galls me though is that Bassam was a member of Labour governments that called single parents who did a part time job to feed their kids ‘benefit thieves’.  Blair’s government with Bassam’s connivance hounded and pilloried people on benefit who supplemented their income, even though it is impossible to live on benefits and not live in poverty.  Claimants were prosecuted for claiming less than 1% of the amount that Bassam has got away with. 

A letter I wrote to the Argus over 20 years 

It is a sign of the utter hypocrisy of public life in this country that no one has seen fit to call for Bassam’s prosecution.  For 7 years he claimed for a home he didn’t have, in addition to claiming travel expenses.  This is persistent and deliberate fraud.  I have therefore made a complaint to Sussex Police for fraud and my incident number is 1488/7.12.17.  We shall see the mettle of Sussex Police. The offer by Bassam to repay the £41,000 travel expenses whilst keeping £260,000 for a non-existent second home is unacceptable.

Tony Greenstein 

The Noble Sayings of Lord Bassam & The Mask of Castleraigh

From Squatter to Hired Lackey 

Career Without Principle

A Political Sketch by Tony Greenstein

£300 a day attendance allowance proved too attractive as the fiercely hostile Republican took his seat in the Lords

Nearly 20 years ago I penned a satirical pamphlet on someone who, at that time, personified the Labour Right in Brighton.  Today he has handed on the Right's crooked baton to people like the Leader of the Progress Party on the Council, Warren Morgan, a man who, if he had a personality could be dangerous.  Other luminaries include Peter Kyle MP for Hove about whom I remarked, when he won Hove from the Tories, that the most right-wing candidate had won!

I mention all this because when the Left won the elections at Brighton and Hove Labour Party AGM on July 2nd, they were promptly annulled and the party itself suspended.  It was a rerun of what happened in 1992 except that then the Party was suspended first and I and 30 others were suspended or expelled afterwards.

Bassam's cynical strategy  memo for the directly elected mayor campaign - spin fell flat in the face of a widespread community campaign despite the support of the local Argus and Tory businessmen

I was suspended in March and the Party was suspended nearly 4 months later.  The reasons for the suspension were that the Left had won out over the Right.  The pretexts for the suspension were allegations of intimidation etc.  The usual lies and deceptions from the Right.  One particular incident came to symbolise the lies of the Right - that a member of staff at City College, where the AGM was held, was spat and sworn at by the left-wing thugs who had attended the meeting.  Our brilliant elected Secretary, Greg Hadfield did an amazing job in taking witness statements from people directly countering these allegations. He even managed to get hold of a CCTV video of the alleged incident.  It showed that nothing whatsoever happened.  

Greg Hadfield -  former Fleet Street journalist was elected on July 2nd as Secretary and was deposed in a coup 3 days later.  Hadfield has led campaign to uncover the truth of what happened.

Karen Buckingham, the Labour Party apparatchik conducting the 'inquiry' into what happened (first they suspend B&H LP and then they annul the elections and finally they hold an inquiry) has refused to even look at the video which shows Cllr. Warren Morgan out to be a liar and Cllr. Emma Daniels, who also testified to spitting, to be an accomplice liar.

Katherine Buckingham, LP apparatchik's invitation to a fake inquiry

Why do I mention all of this?  Because I was outside the Brighton LP AGM on July 2nd. Being suspended I could not attend but I met my family who were attending so that I could take charge of one my children.  And who should I meet but the Leader of Labour in the House of Lords, Lord Bassam.  Labour peers have virtually declared independence refusing to accept the authority of the Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.  Bassam was appointed to the peerage under Tony Blair and has done his master's bidding faithfully.  

Katherine Buckingham's redacted memo which I obtained under a Subject Access Request - she is in the thick of the witch hunt

When he saw me, Lord Bassam looked as if had seen Banquo's Ghost as he turned a paler shade of white.  It was as if the guilt of Brighton's Macbeth had returned as some form of apparition. No doubt Bassam was answering the call of his Progress friends to help save their bacon. For my part, when I saw Bassam I recalled Shelley's Mask of Anarchy, written in response to the massacre  of Peterloo.

I met Murder on the way -

He had a mask like Castlereagh -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:

This is the pamphlet I wrote circa 1997 which had a wide circulation at the time, including a caustic review by Adam Trimmingham in the local Argus.  I cannot help but feel it would be helpful!

Tony Greenstein

I attacked Bassam many years ago, as Secretary of the local Unemployed Centre, for his role as a consultant to a company which had contracts with the Council of which he was leader

Introduction

The idea for writing this pamphlet came after reading about the new Blair supporters club, Members’ First.  Its spokesperson was none other than that well-known grassroots activist, his Gracious and Noble Lord Bassam.  This couldn’t be the Steven Bassam who I stood shoulder to shoulder with, as the Police battered their way into our squat at Temple Gardens in 1975, or who – a decade later - was a founder member of National Labour Briefing?  Was this the same Steve Bassam whose commitment to members first was such that he single-handedly arranged, in the early 1990s, that 26 of us should be suspended or expelled from Brighton Labour Party for exercising our rights as members to challenge his leadership of the Council?

The newly re-established Brighton Unemployed Centre (which Bassam had done his best to close) led the campaign against a directly-elected Mayor

I have known Steve (sorry my noble Lord) Bassam since I came to Brighton as a student in the autumn of 1974.   Since then I have been mercilessly teased, by miscreants such as Andy Ward, about “your old squatting mate Steve Bassam”.  Having selflessly borne such taunts for years, and having refused on principle to disavow an old comrade because he entered the Lords in the line of duty, I feel entitled to put pen to paper in order that a little light is shed about our gracious Baron Bassam.

It is true that we squatted together, or rather we were part of Brighton Squatters’ Union.  But even in our earlier days, our noble Lord was apt to compromise, to look for the least line of resistance, despite his avowed anarchist politics.  A graduate from the Sussex University school of anarchism, if his actions were somewhat less than revolutionary then his rhetoric was always fiery and radical.  Many people are puzzled that ex-squatter Lord Bassam, who once turned a flashing red nose to that caricature of a reactionary judge, His Honour Justice Grant, has now made it into the citadel of hereditary privilege that he once decried.  How is it that someone who once told me – after we had given a talk to the Labour Party in the mid-1970’s – that he could never join the Labour Party, it was far too right-wing for him, could turn out to be the most sycophantic, on-message cipher for all that New Labour represents?  Someone whose first vote in the Lords was in support of Rupert Murdoch!!

The purpose of this pamphlet isn’t simply to single out one particular individual who tailored his political views to the needs of his political career.  Nor is it an excoriation of all that New Labour’s sharp-suited clones stand for.  Rather it is to use Lord Bassam as an example of the corruption at the heart of New Labour.  It is a corruption that isn’t merely financial, though there is plenty of that (Bernie Ecclestone, Draper, Liddle et al.) but a corruption of the political process itself, which hides behind the soundbite and verbal chaff.  It is a corruption which seduces perfectly decent people into trading political integrity for personal advancement.  It is this that Lord Bassam represents so clearly.

My response in the local Argus to Bassam's elevation to the House of Lords

Lord Bassam has made the transition from radical politics to New Labour clone effortlessly.  His ideas and beliefs are as durable as the message on the mandatory New Labour pager.  New Labour may, in many ways, be the logical culmination of Old Labour, with its class collaborationism, but it is also a break with old Labour.  In particular it reviles the organisations that the working class threw up, the Trade Unions and Friendly Societies.  Socialism and class-solidarity are part of the dark past.  The market, globalism, cheap and flexible labour are the new gods.  The political lobbyist – Ben Lucas & co. – are the real practitioners of the art of politics.  The role of New Labour is not merely to destroy the Left, but to remould that Left by reuniting the Liberal and Labour traditions.  Blairism, despite its toying with a 'third way', 'stakeholding' and much other verbal nonsense, struggles for anything new to say.  Its goal is to reverse the tide of history and go back to the golden age of Gladstone and the Midlothian campaign.

My letter to the Argus in response to a Review by New Labour supporting   columnist Adam Trimmingham

Blairism first learnt its lessons at the feet of Bill Clinton and the New Democrats.  It seeks to remodel British politics accordingly.  Its goal is the destruction of socialist politics, the idea that there is any alternative to the present way of organising society.  It seeks instead to replace the present party political system with two openly capitalist parties – Tory and New Labour/Liberal Democrat – each seeking to outbid the other in their attacks on welfare and the poor.  When political differences between parties disappear, then it is inevitable that personal advancement and corruption follow in their wake.  It is no accident that the sleaze of the latter years of the Tory Government has appeared within the first year of New Labour.  Bassam's appointment as 'consultant'  to KPMG is merely a local manifestation of the Draper, Robinson phenomenon.

New Labour’s greatest strength is its opponents' weaknesses.  Not only the weakness of the Left and the organised working class but the divisions in the Tory Party over Europe.  It was the self-destruction of the traditional party of the British Establishment that gave, and gives, Blairism its seeming strength.   The ranks of New Labour, and Lord Bassam is as good an example as any, are teeming with the superficial and mediocre, distinguished only by the extent of their ambition.  But those who live by spin and the sound-bite will also die by them.  Historically New Labour is a passing and temporary phenomenon with as much significance as the opposition of the Duke of Wellington to the Great Reform Bill.  The greater the heights of New Labour’s popularity today, the greater will be the depths of its unpopularity tomorrow.

We are all entitled to amuse ourselves at the verbal indiscretions of our rulers, their foibles and pretensions.  It needs no Oscar Wilde to point to the absurdities of ruling class speech and manners when we have the clichés of Bassam past.  Of course it is easy to quote back what people have said in different circumstances and different times.  Most peoples’ views don’t remain static.  There are those, Tony Benn for example, who have moved to the Left with age.  There are others, such as Roy Hattersley, who have travelled to the left merely by standing still, as everybody around changed.  Our noble Lord is the perfect example of the political chameleon, whose views change in perfect harmony with his surroundings.  Political principle is not only completely absent from Lord Bassam’s career, it is a concept that he would have genuine difficulty understanding.  I therefore offer, with as little comment as possible, some of the choicest sayings of the Noble and Gracious Lord Bassam, from his many interviews and recordings, and leave it to others to judge the mettle of the man.   If it takes a long spoon to sup with the devil then Lord Bassam can truly be said to be a man of many spoons.

A little background information may be useful to the reader.  In 1987, when our noble Lord became Leader of the Labour Group on Brighton Council, there was a rule that nobody could be leader for more than 3 years.  His predecessor, Dave Leppar (now MP for Brighton Pavilion) had abided by this rule but Bassam made it his first objective to overturn this particular encumbrance on his career.  In this he was successful as he carved a thin majority among his Council colleagues by promising positions and sinecures to those who proved malleable.   Those Councillors who refused to support him or his policies were subject to various levels of vendetta.  Six councillors had the whip withdrawn in 1991 because they refused to support prosecuting those who refused to pay their Poll Tax.  Others who were in the ‘soft-left’ also fell out of favour.  One particular example of personal vindictiveness that remains etched in my memory is the treatment of long-standing Councillor Joyce Edmond-Smith.  The position of mayor had always gone to the longest-serving councillor, alternating between male and female.  When it came to Joyce, the majority of the Group, after Bassam had done his usual fixing, voted not to support Joyce as mayor.  Others Councillors were simply whispered against and maligned and deprived of seats on Council committees.

Our Steve started his life strong on civil liberties, squatting, opposition to state abuse of power.  He used to sell Statewatch magazine and was active in a local radical paper, Brighton Voice (indeed he was its Treasurer for a long time).  At the GLC he worked hard in the Police Committee exposing the racism and thuggery of the Metropolitan Police.  Today, as Jack Straw reduces the right to trial by jury and gives immigration officers the right to enter any home without warrant, Baron Bassam remains silent and supportive of all that New Labour does.  Today Lord Bassam is a ‘consultant’ to Accountancy firm KPMG.  KPMG are, of course, ‘experts’ on the privatisation of Council Services, and who better as an adviser than a noble Lord who just happens to be leader of the Council.  Of course, none of this is corruption and, as Mark Anthony noted, he is an honourable man.  Of one thing we can be certain.  Lord Bassam has certainly earned his place in a future government reshuffle. 

With a glittering future ahead of him, Lord Brownnose – as he is known to his colleagues – certainly deserves greater recognition for his past.  The erudite philosophy that he espoused, the thoughtful answers,  the dedicated commitment that he showed, all of these demand a wider audience.  Perish the thought that my intention is to steal a cheap laugh at Lord Bassam’s expense.  There may come a time, when New Labour is just a bad memory, when our noble Lord will rediscover his roots, and the word ‘socialist’ will once again grace his most noble of lips.  What could be more useful than a compendium of his noble Lord’s sayings?

In His Own Words

The  Wit & Wisdom of Baron Bassam

The Role of a Labour Council

Q:        What  do you think will happen if Labour finally gains control of Brighton Council?

Bassam:        "We will start implementing a radical left-wing socialist programme."

Q:        "Surely that will lead to… conflict with the government over ratecapping?"

Bassam:        "Conflict will be of the Government's making, not Brighton Labour Party's.  If there is a conflict then I'm sure Brighton Labour Party and members of the Labour Group  will take up the issue and fight a campaign to ensure Brighton's services are maintained."

Question concerning the "failure" of the last Labour Government and a future Labour government.

Bassam:        "I hope we can make the PLP much more accountable to Conference decisions.  We must ensure that we have a decent minimum wage….I shall not be part of a Government that urges wage restraint and holds  back the demands of working people."  [Bassam at this time was Labour PPC for Brighton Kemptown]  "I think the Campaign Group has provided a very useful focus in Parliament fore the activism in the Labour Movement."  [Interview in Brighton Labour Briefing, June 1985]

In another interview which I conducted shortly after Steve Bassam was selected as Labour’s PPC he made it clear that “I am committed to fundamental socialist change, … giving workers a controlling stake in all sections of the economy…We do have to have massive wholesale nationalisation which will mean rolling back the denationalisation process… and no compensation except in cases of proven hardship.”   

Accused of being “an old-fashioned Tribunite” our future Lord reminded us that “You cannot correct the problems of capitalism by taking hold of the capitalist structure and reforming it.”  
On the Militant Tendency (now the Socialist Party) Steven was warmly appreciative: “I recognise that they work very hard in local govt. and in Liverpool Militant comrades have taken a decisive role in campaigning and have undoubtedly mobilised large sections of the working class behind a very strong defence of local government democracy.”  

When Leader of the Council he launched on a purge of  Militant Councillors and supporters.  

Asked about his attitude to Sinn Fein he was equally effusive.  “Sections of the Party will react with undeniable indignation when they talk about not having SFG coming to the GLC or House of Commons.  That is a lot of nonsense.  I agree elements of SFG policy would form part of a socialist programme and its vital that we develop some of those links, particularly since there is an electoral force now developing within SFG capable of commanding broad based support among working class catholics.” [BLC May-June 1985]

In May 1986, in a front page article our Steve was quite explicit about the task ahead.  “The challenge for the party is then to sustain the Labour Group as it battles with a largely conservative bureaucracy to implement its programme… and how to mobilise public support for policies which means a profound shift of power away from vested interest groups of estate agents, hoteliers and the business elite that have run Brighton Council for decades, to working people.”  

Expanding on his themes of empowerment, Steven explained that “Tackling discrimination within the Council’s service for oppressed groups and opening up council services to those excluded because of disability or sexual preference is vital if the Party’s manifesto commitments are to mean anything.”  Quite, and no doubt the hounding from pillar to post of travellers was uppermost in the mind of the yet-to-be enobled Bassam as he warmed to his theme.  Nobody  can accuse him of underestimating the task ahead.  

“One of the important lessons of the demise of the GLC was the failure of the Labour administration to develop a soundly based working strategy with unions to oppose abolition.  Trade Union activity in the Council must be taken seriously by encouraging time off for TU work and participation in vital decision committees.”  

He also recognised that “At some point, a degree of conflict with central government is likely….We will need a campaign unit within the Council… in order to implement the programme.  A Programme Officer will be needed to ensure the even moving into place of key parts of the manifesto.”  Does anybody know the name of this person?  All of this would, of course, require “a more open and democratic relationship with the Labour Party… to project socialism by the sea an exciting experience worth being part of.”  

Socialism by the sea became transformed into the City by the Sea. [Brighton Briefing, May 1986, ‘Brighton’s Going Labour’]

Seeking Selection as Parliamentary Candidate

In February 1996, in an article for Brighton Briefing, Steve Bassam found himself up against a fellow Cllr. Richard Stanton (who later had the whip withdrawn by Bassam’s administration).  Steven waxed lyrical about the “cosmetic electoralism” of the Labour Party, and the “Labour’s shabby electoralism was such that it failed to set the political agenda.” 

On Privatisation the future consultant for KPMG wrote that “…when the profit motive is introduced” wrote, “the standard of services declines.  We must highlight the need to take control of the industries de-nationalised (without compensation).”  [BLB 2/96] 

“So far the Labour Group has used its strength to successfully resist the privatising of council services.  The logic of central government moves against local government spending make it inevitable that further efforts will be made to drive council services further into the hands of the privateers."  Clearly the ‘logic’ of the situation demanded that we would have to wait for a Labour majority before services could be effectively privatised! [BLB October 1984]

And Bassam railed against “Arch privateers Price Waterhouse [who] have got their hands on Brighton Council.  They are proposing a Council reorganisation package which has as its main objectives cuts in services, redundancies and a running down of the local democratic process.”  Clearly what the then Deputy Leader of the Labour Group objected to was the fact that it wasn’t KPMG, with him at the helm, who were making the proposals.  

And what were these rascally accountants proposing?  “…to reduce the number of Departments from 14 to 10.  They would like to reduce them still further to 4 but realise that Labour Opposition will prevent them going that far.  If approved there would be less democratic control over the activities of Chief Officers.”    

Unlike today of course when there are even fewer departments and Glynn Jones is an island unto himself.   And in case we didn’t get the message, Bassam explained that if PW got their way then “Power would rest in the hands of a special Chief Executive Dept. team of officers, with an elite of 7-8 making policy decisions and recommendations.”  Err, isn’t that what happens now?  “The town hall trade unions are all against the amalgamations, job cuts and threats to democratic accountability contained in these proposals…. We must take up the challenge and campaign to force out PW – the sequestrators.”  (referring to their role vs the NUM).  [Brighton Labour Campaigner, March-April 1995]

In a section entitled Taking on the Strong State he noted that “The miners strike has brought the reality of the 6 counties of N. Ireland into our pit villages and shown us in the long term effects of militarised policing and repressive legislation.”  Speaking of “the dangers inherent in the Police Act 1984” he wrote that Labour must “avoid out-torying the Tories as previously Labour governments have done on prison and policing policies.”  And on Ireland Steven was equally forthright:  “To end the political veto of the unionists, the case for troops out and the disarming of the RUC remain convincing.”   It was all heady stuff, though it is doubtful if he meant a word of it. [BLB February 1985]

In 1993 Steve Bassam was instrumental in cutting of the grant of the Unemployed Centre for running political campaigns.  In the previous year Brighton Law Centre had closed when its grant was removed and partially reallocated to Brighton Rights Advice Centre.  BRAC too lost its grant and closed a year later.  In 1987 Council intervention, and a further freezing of funds, caused the Unemployed Centre to abandon any thought of future political campaigning.  All of this would not be worth mentioning except for an interesting article entitled ‘Benefit Take Up Campaign Takes Off” where our Steve states that “Most of all this is a POLITICAL CAMPAIGN, any criticism of the present inadequate benefit system must be.”  [Brighton Labour Briefing, May 1982]

Civil Liberties

In the course of a long, two-part article ‘Policing by Coercion’ Steve Bassam waxed lyrical about the attack on civil liberties that the Police Act 1984 represented.  “We urgently need a local campaign to highlight the Bill’s potential impact, we could do worse than create a Labour Party civil liberties group to give the issues of civil liberties and freedom from oppression a higher profile in our political work.”  [BLB March 1984]  

In the first part of the article he explained that “The Bill deserves to be a political priority this session because of its significance for civil liberties and organised opposition to Thatcherite policies…. Put simply, the Bill must be seen as part of the Thatcher strategy of disciplining the labour force… In short blacks, CND activists, trades unionists on picket lines, squatters, and those involved in the struggle for a united Ireland have experienced coercive policing for years.”  It was all heady stuff.

Election Results

In his role as Election Co-ordinator in 1984 Steve Bassam, noted that “hard –work around a radical socialist programme can work wonders for party unity and party morale.”  A few years later he would be singing a different song. [BLB, June 1984]

Defying The Government

In an article ‘Council Under Fire’ Bassam was withering in his criticism of the latest cuts from Patrick Jenkin, then Environment Minister.  “New public toilets… would stop.”  Unlike the later Bassam administration which introduced Shirley Porter super-loos and closed most of Brighton’s free public toilets (are there any left?!)  Roused to indignation, Bassam demanded that “Labour must confront the government and local Tories with a policy of non-compliance.”  Of course Steve could be excused the heady rhetoric, as the Miners’ Strike was still on.  “opposition must be built into our County Council manifesto and our alternative budget strategy.”  [BLB, September 1984] 

Housing

“Bad housing debilitates and depresses whole generations.”  wrote Steve.  “In Brighton we must work in the communities, the Town Hall, with the Unions, particularly UCATT and NALGO to get the message over – Brighton demands its right to good housing for all.”  (there was no caveat for the single homeless, travellers or other minorities that upset the good Lord) [BLB March 1985]  

Those with long memories will remember the eagerness with which the new Labour administration in 1987 moved to increase rents.  At one Labour General Committee, the then Mr Bassam seriously suggested that it was the tenants themselves who were demanding their rents be increased!!  It is amusing to note that prior to gaining power Bassam boasted of how “Labour Councillors successfully led opposition to the Tory’s 20% rent rise proposal at the last council meeting… Brighton’s case for cheaper rents is beyond question…  It matters not to most tenants whether the rise is £3 or £2 a week a rise at all will hurt most of the 8 000 tenants who pay all or part of their rents…”  

Alongside his Council Report was ‘Campaign Notes for Your Branch’ which called on members to distribute the NO RENT RISE poster door to door on estates. [BLB December 1984]  The previous month Bassam had written an article ‘Freeze Council Rents!’ “Brighton Labour Party can see no justification for the massive rent rises which have taken place… They represent part of the Tory offensive designed to make low income families pay more for their housing…”  except presumably when levied by Labour Council’s under Lord Bassam!! –BLB 11/94]

Looking back its clear that the future Lord Bassam was given an easy ride by the Left.  His clichés and waffling were rarely challenged (the interview in Brighton Labour Campaigner May-June 1985 was the exception).  It was also clear to some of us, even then, that the main interest of Steve Bassam was in fulfilling his political ambitions by paying lip-service to the current political fashions rather than using the achievement of office to achieve prior political aims.  I am left with only one question.  What would Steve Bassam circa 1985 would have made of the future Lord Bassam?

Warren Morgan, Emma Daniels & The Spitting Incident That Never Was

The Lies that led to the Overturning of Elections & the Suspension of Brighton & Hove Labour Party

One of Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party’s three AGM meetings on Saturday (Photograph:L @MichaelH14)

Momentum rally at Brighthelm Centre before AGM - hall is jam packed with nearly 200 outside unable to get in

Councillor Warren Morgan, Labour leader of Council, is certain that incident happened despite producing no an iota of proof.  The arrogance of the man is demonstrated at the end - he is no Mr Morgan but Councillor Morgan.  No doubt in time he will be rewarded with an even nobler title!

The real reason why Morgan invented a spitting incident - it was the only way to avoid what he termed 'an outright opponent' winning the election

Despite seeing nothing Warren Morgan is adamant that Kyle MP was abused and venue staff (note the plural) were spat on - of course Warren Morgan has a vested interest in there being such an incident

Morgan is 'saddened' that people question his lies - it is from 'people who were not there' but Morgan never claimed to actually witnessed anything - nonetheless he is in favour of expelling the person concerned

Warren Morgan's lies continue - 'several others have confirmed' yet there is no victim and no complaint and no witness names either.  Nonetheless according to  Morgan 'Someone was spat on' - a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie

Despite being contradicted and told his allegations were 'a complete lie' Warren Morgan says that 'unhappy security staff member' and CCTV footage will prove him right - problem is that they don't!

This is the story of how a false allegation of spitting at the Brighton & Hove Labour Party AGM was made into the pretext for shutting down the B&H party and cancelling the elections, in which 600 people had voted.  Despite allegations stemming from Councillors Warren Morgan and Emma Daniels that there had been a spitting incident, no victim has been produced, no complaint has been made, no CCTV has been produced nor have the Police haven't been contacted - indeed there is no evidence whatsoever apart from the lies of Daniels and Warren Morgan that an incident took place, though even they can't bring themselves to say that they actually witnessed it.

Unsigned letter sent to Secretary suspending party and accepting allegations without investigation

But even if there had been a spitting incident.  Suppose that one individual had behaved in such a manner, would that have been a reason to cancel an election in which 600 people took place?  It is reason to deal with the person concerned but it is not a reason why 600 people should be penalised.  Likewise the allegation of crowding, alleged safety concerns (though no one was hurt in any way) are just pretexts for Labour's Right-wing inability to accept a vote that goes against them.

The one serious incident that did take place hasn't merited any comment by Warren Morgan or fellow Council liar Emma Daniels, even though it was witnessed by Cllr. Julie Cattell

On Friday 8^th July, Warren Morgan, leader of Brighton & Hove Council and member of Progress, issued a panicked e-mail to a closed circle of his friends and cronies.  Morgan complained of a ‘take-over by a group of individuals from Momentum… and other fringe left-wing groups.’  Morgan warned that ‘Around 100 or so are signed up to attend a rally held just prior to the AGM.’

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, who lives in Hove, has been vociferous in attacking an election which her friends lost - which is quite understandable from a member of the unelected House of Lords

Warren Morgan, who last summer supported the 4.5% candidate Liz Kendall in the Labour leadership elections, showed just how out of touch he was.  Some 800+ people attended a rally that was so large that around 200 people couldn’t even get into the Brighthelm Centre.

Many of those at the rally made their way to the Labour Party AGM and voted to oust the old incompetent Executive.  An Executive so incompetent that despite being warned that a hall holding 200 people wasn’t sufficiently large to hold an AGM for the 6,000 members of Brighton and Hove Labour Party, went ahead and booked it anyway .

Emma Daniel states as fact that the caretaker was spat at - but complains that a newspaper is 'hassling' the original liar Warren Morgan for a comment

When confronted by the person who allegedly spat at a caretaker, Emma Daniels backs off saying 'I haven't accused you of anything' Daniels is happy to make allegations but slow to corroborate them

Daniels   doesn't like being held accountable for her lies and demands that the person she was responsible for accusing of spitting stop tweeting her with 'no evidence' normally it is the accuser who should provide the evidence

Because of the good humour, sense and patience of people queuing to vote, despite having had to wait over an hour in many cases, the meeting went on smoothly despite people having to vote at 3 separate hustings.

Up to her neck in it - Emma Daniels asks why a security guard would lie to her when the obvious question is why was she lying

Some people, in particular Peter Kyle MP and Warren Morgan and hangers on like Emma Daniels were anything but happy.  Indeed they were furious.  They had spent their lives fighting the Left.   They felt comfortable in their existing relationships with the Tories on the Council, with whom they have few real political differences.  The enemy within, socialists, had captured the Party that had given them so much.

An orderly queue forms outside City College

long but orderly queues - people determined to vote - perhaps they will expel 200 people to get the right result next time?

Together with dinosaurs and fossils such as his nobleness Baron Steven Bassam of Brighton and her ladyship Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (though she doesn’t live there!) the basis of a plan took shape.  The idea was to emphasise the chaos of the meeting and then to inflate what was apparently a minor difference of opinion over a locked door into a major spitting incident.  By her own admission, Emma Daniels – member of the racist Zionist Labour Movement and an arch Blairite – was the first to create a storm out of a mill pool. 

Nicky Eason, a member of the previous Executive, who was voted out by the largest majority of all, takes the allegation of spitting as fact although she must have known it was a fabrication

The scene was thus set for an approach to staff in Labour HQ.  Despite Corbyn winning the leadership he hasn’t taken control of the civil service which has been running a slow burning witch hunt in the past few months via the Stalinist named Control Unit.  Closing down a dissident Labour Party is bread and butter to these people.

Warren Morgan issued a Press Statement on the Monday July 11^th stating that

'I am sorry to hear that our local MP was subject to abuse by some of those attending, and that a member of venue staff unconnected with the meeting was spat on. This is not behaviour we should tolerate in local politics or our city, and I expect the new Executive officers to identify and expel the individual concerned swiftly.'  

Note how the 'spitting incident' is a fact and how Peter Kyle has also been made the subject of abuse, though Warren Morgan doesn't tell us what this abuse consists of.  Warren Morgan, of course, was in no position to know whether there had been any spitting since he hadn't himself witnessed this alleged incident.

With the aid of the NEC’s Disputes panel, Morgan and co. secured a decision to void the result of democratic elections and to reinstate the old Executive Committee.  An unsigned letter from Labour Party HQ to the new Secretary, Greg Hadfield, spoke of ‘reports from the ballot results were not properly reached.’  It is clear that the email was drawn up in a hurry, in response to a complaint against Warren Morgan.  What does it mean that ‘the ballot results were not properly reached.’ apart from the fact that the right result was not reached?  This is bureaucratic gobbledydook.  No one has alleged people voted who weren’t entitled to or that there was fraud or malpractice in the counting thereof.  It is clear that the purpose of the letter was to cast aspersions whilst providing no evidential basis for their decision.

Matt Tully, the accused, in front of City College

This letter from LP HQ is quite amazing.  It talks of ‘the safety of members at the meeting was compromised’ – which was the reason why there was a minor disagreement with a caretaker, not a security guard.  The reason for the overcrowding and the safety concerns was that the old Executive had booked a room far too small for those attending.  So what do the witch hunters of Labour’s Disputes Panel do?  They put the same useless Executive back in charge!

The NEC letter doesn’t even pretend to investigate the matter.  On the basis of Warren Morgan’s organised complaints they shut down the party, suspending it, banning meetings and reinstating the old Executive.  The final line ‘I hope that the Party will return to comradely conduct’ seems like a sick joke.  It is the uncomradeliness of the complainants and their willing stooges at Labour Party HQ which is the problem, not the behaviour of members.

Emma Daniels spoke of the spitting incident as a fact ‘Wow the member yesterday who spat at the security guard (on CCTV) is demanding an apology for smears’.  She neither saw the alleged incident nor did she see any CCTV.  She complained that the Morning Star, which carried a story detailing how a member, Matt Tully, had been falsely accused of spitting, was ‘hassling Warren’ about it, i.e. trying to get a quote from Morgan.  Presumably Daniels thought that Morgan should have been free to make false allegations without being questioned on them.  Ms Daniels nonetheless had the audacity to proclaim that “It’s best just to let people run an investigation properly.”  Clearly she didn't need any investigation to make up her own mind.

Despite having stated that the spitting incident was a fact, Councillor Daniel said: “I think Greg has compromised the investigation by getting involved.”  Presumably her own involvement didn't compromise anything.

Matt Tully has since made a complaint about the spitting incident to Iain McNicol, Labour's General Secretary, though it is highly unlikely that McNicol, who is the eminent grise behind the suspensions, will carry out any investigation.

It’s not surprising that the Morning Star tried to obtain a comment from Warren Morgan since he had stated, in a comment on an article in Brighton & Hove that ‘The incident happened.  I’ve spoke to 3 Party members who spoke to the staff member who was spat on.  CCTV is likely to have captured it.’ We haven’t of course been told the names of the 3 members, though we can guess.

The ‘spitting incident’ was clearly concocted out of nothing between Daniels, Kyle and Morgan.  Cllr. Daniel Yates, another member of the Progress tribe, also contributed his pennyworth asking Matt Tully ‘how did they identify you if you did not spit at him?  Was he just mistaken.’

There is just one problem with all of this.  No complaint was made by the person, a member of the City College staff, who had allegedly been spat at.  There was no victim and therefore no CCTV.  One would have expected the City College authorities to have complained in the strongest manner if one of their staff members had been abused and spat at by someone attending the Labour Party AGM.  Yet when asked for a comment, City College issued a statement saying that ‘We have no comment to make about any alleged incidents concerning our staff.’  That is it.  It doesn’t even accept there was an incident.  There is no mention of CCTV.  The inference is clear.  There is no evidence because there was no incident. 

Warren Morgan, Peter Kyle and Emma Daniels between them manufactured an incident out of nothing.  Why?  Because they couldn’t accept the fact that their favoured candidates had overwhelmingly been defeated by a vote of the membership which wanted change.  Like any aspiring South American dictator they sought to annul the vote that delivered, for them, the wrong results. 

And having failed to win the vote they are now seeking to engage in a McCarthyist witch hunt against the new Chair Mark Sandell and Phil Clarke, a new Executive member and Secretary of Brighton and Hove Trades Council and a member of the NUT Executive.  Whilst ex-Tories and ex-UKIPPERS are welcomed into the Party, socialists are distinctly unwelcome to the Tory Progress Party that Daniels, Morgan and Kyle are signed up to.

But if Daniels, Kyle and Morgan are eager to invent incidents that didn’t happen, they are doing their best not to condemn a very real incident that did happen.  After speaking to the Momentum meeting, Seema Chandwani and Michael Calderbank were accosted in a pub by two  thugs, including an acolyte of Morgan and threatened with violence.  They faced ‘physical threats, swearing and aggression’ from 2 friends of Morgan and Daniel.  Present were 2 Labour councillors including Julie Cattell, the far-Right councillor from Preston Ward.  A full description of what took place was covered in an article in the Morning Star of July 11^th.

Below is a statement by the person accused of spitting, Matt Tully and you can access copies of all relevant material into the gerrymandering and subversion of Brighton Labour Party democracy here. 

Tony Greenstein

Brighton Labour member accused of spitting at party meeting makes formal complaint

Frank le Duc Posted On 18 Jul 2016 at 9:57 pm

A Brighton Labour Party member accused of spitting at a college caretaker at a packed meeting has made formal complaints as he attempts to clear his name.

Matt Tully, 36, said today (Monday 18 July) that he did not spit at anyone although a Labour Party staff member accused him of doing so in front of several party members.

The accusation was made at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party at City College, in Pelham Street, Brighton, on Saturday 9 July.

Mr Tully has complained to City College about the caretaker and to the Labour Party after the accusation was tweeted by, among others, council leader Warren Morgan.

He said that he had not ruled out legal action – such as a claim for defamation of character – adding: “It is my intention to pursue this and I will consider my options. I just want to do things in the correct way.”

He asked Councillor Morgan to retract the allegation on Twitter, identifying himself as the person accused of spitting. He said: “I identified myself (on Twitter) because I wanted the rumours and false allegations to stop.”

Matt Tully

Councillor Emma Daniel said that she had spoken to the caretaker at the meeting. She said that he told her that when he went to shut the doors “one guy was pretty horrible and spat on the floor in front of me”.

Councillor Daniel said that she reported the claim to party staff and executive members and said that she had “no idea who the person was” until he identified himself on Twitter.

She added: “It’s best just to let people run an investigation properly.”

Since the AGM the local party has been suspended by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) after “many complaints and reports of concern”.

An email, reporting the suspension of the local party, said: “These allege abusive behaviour by some attendees as well as reports that the ballot results were not properly reached.”

The election of a new executive committee – predominantly supporters of Jeremy Corbyn – at the AGM has been declared void.

The old executive committee remains in office until a new AGM and election in the autumn after Mr Corbyn learns whether he will be replaced as Labour leader.

The local party was suspended on Thursday (14 July) and yesterday (Sunday 17 July) Baroness Maggie Jones, who lives in Hove, spoke out on the Sunday Politics South East on BBC One.

She said the AGM “was a badly organised meeting”, adding that she “did witness one of the officials being very upset because he had to deal with a spitting incident”.

She also said that there were “entryists” at the meeting, indicating that they included those elected to the executive committee at the AGM.

One of them, Mark Sandell, who was elected to chair the local party, denied the claim on the same edition of the Sunday Politics.

Another, Phil Clarke, said that he had stood against Labour in previous elections and that this was known when he joined the party.

Like all the candidates, he said, his name and candidacy was published eight days before the AGM, adding: “No complaints were raised and nobody took issue with me standing.”

He said that the real reason that the local party had been suspended was because the NEC “did not like Jeremy Corbyn supporters being elected at a fabulous and well-organised meeting attended by more than 600 members”.

Greg Hadfield, who was elected to the post of secretary, has put together a dossier about the meeting and the claims.

Councillor Daniel said: “I think Greg has compromised the investigation by getting involved.”

But Mr Tully, in his formal complaint to Labour Party general secretary Iain McNicol, said that Councillor Morgan had subverted natural justice through his involvement.

He alleged that the council leader had “brought the party into disrepute” by alleging that staff at City College were spat on, adding: “These irresponsible allegations, which were quickly rebutted by others present, were nevertheless repeated without any concern for natural justice or the complaints procedures of the Labour Party.

“At least three other members of Councillor Morgan’s Labour group (of councillors) repeated the allegations, assumed them to be true and ignored my protestations of innocence.”

Sussex Police said that no complaint had been received of spitting at the meeting while City College has received a complaint – but from Mr Tully, not about him.

Having been identified while in the meeting and concerned to clear his name, Mr Tully added that Councillor Morgan’s allegations had “caused me immense distress”.

Alleged spitting incident at Labour AGM ‘never happened’

By Bex Bastable on July 18, 2016

An alleged ‘spitting incident’, which may have led to the suspension of the Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party, ‘never happened’, according to the man who has outed himself as the accused.

Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) suspended the local party on Thursday (July 14), following the local branch’s AGM meeting the previous Saturday (July 8) at City College, where Jeremy Corbyn supporters were elected to the executive committee. The results have since been annulled.

Matt Tully said the spitting allegations are false

The NEC said the reasons for the suspension included alleged ‘abusive behaviour’, concerns that ‘the ballots were not properly reached’, and safety, due to overcapacity. The meeting was held in three parts for capacity reasons, as more than 600 Labour members turned up to vote.

Matt Tully said he was involved in the incident where spitting was alleged – but said no spitting occurred.

In a statement giving his side of the story on the AGM, Mr Tully explained that he was told that when he arrived at Labour’s AGM at 3.40pm, he and others were told by a staff member at City College that ‘they could not come in and that the building was at capacity’.

Mr Tully said he asked the staff member how he was going to vote at the AGM, but the man’s response was ‘You can’t’.

“I then walked past him and joined the queue in the foyer,” Mr Tully said.

“I waited in the queue for about 10 minutes. And then I noticed the main doors — which provide the main entrance and/or exit to the building — had been locked.

“Both sets of doors were locked to prevent people entering the building. Which obviously prevents people leaving too.

“From the inside, I told the caretaker that it was dangerous to lock the doors and that it was a health and safety risk. He shouted back, through a small gap in the doors — which could not be moved — that now I was in I had to stay in and could not come back out. He was communicating with someone before this exchange via a communications device.

“Quite quickly, a security guard appeared. He asked me what the problem was and I explained that locking the main doors to the building was far more dangerous than letting more people in.

“He agreed and told the caretaker to open the doors.

“At this point, there was no mention — or accusation — of spitting.”

That didn’t come until later, when the AGM had started.

Mr Tully said: “Shortly after the chair started talking for the second round of the AGM, someone on with a Labour Party staff t-shirt  approached me and asked me to leave the room so he could talk to me.

“At this point, the Labour Party staff member said I had spat in the face of the caretaker and that they had it on CCTV.

“I said that was impossible. He asked for my name. Which I gave him. He then told me he was going to report me and I would be kicked out of the Labour Party.

“I asked him why. To which he told me again I had spat in the face of the caretaker.

“I then asked him if he’d seen the CCTV and he said he hadn’t.

“I asked him how he knew I had spat in the face of the caretaker. To which he replied, he didn’t.

“Very quickly and anxiously, the Labour Party staff member backed down and told me he never said I had done it nor that I was guilty. I agreed that he never said I was guilty. But, when he approached me originally, he did present it as fact — rather than accusation.

“He said sorry and said he didn’t mean it to come across that way.”

Mr Tully said as he missed the vote, he then sat in on the third round of the AGM and voted.

It was not until after the meeting that the spitting allegations resurfaced on social media, and less than a week later the local branch was suspended.

Statement from City College authorities - no comment on 'alleged incident'

A statement from City College said: “City College Brighton and Hove can confirm that the Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party hired our main hall on Central Campus, Pelham Street for their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, July 9. We have no comment to make about any alleged incidents concerning our staff.”

A Labour spokesperson said: 

“We don’t comment on on-going investigations.

“No abuse of any kind by Labour Party members or supporters is tolerated. Any complaints of bullying or intimidation and allegations of misconduct are always taken very seriously.

“We would encourage anyone who has been the subject of threats to inform the party and contact the police.”