A formal complaint to Iain McNicol, about the cowardly “anti-semitism” smears published and promoted by Euan Philipps and Emma Picken

Below is the text of a formal complaint I will make today (Tuesday, November 7) to Iain McNicol, general secretary of the Labour Party, copied to the Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) of Euan Philipps (Tonbridge and Malling) and Emma Picken (Lewisham East), as well as to my own Brighton Pavilion CLP.

If the Labour Party Compliance Unit does not suspend the named individuals pending a formal investigation, I will ask the CLPs to take independent action.

Dear Mr McNicol,

I am writing formally to complain about two Labour Party members who, in concert with other mainly-anonymous individuals, have repeatedly labelled me an anti-semite and suggested this is why I was suspended from the Labour Party on October 26 2016.

Euan Philipps, chair of Tonbridge and Malling CLP; Emma Picken, of Lewisham East CLP

They are Euan Philipps, the chair of Tonbridge and Malling Labour Party, and Emma Picken, a Catford-based campaigner for Heidi Alexander MP in Lewisham East. (I can provide full contact details for both, if required).

I have endured prolonged distress after these false and vile allegations were made and promoted by Mr Philipps and Ms Picken — who together and separately, in a cowardly manner, used the “Labour Against Antisemitism” Twitter account (@LabourAgainstAS).

I understand countless other victims of their online bullying have complained to you, over a substantial period, without receiving any satisfaction.

You probably know — although, despite repeated requests, I don’t know — why I was suspended 13 months ago.

You also probably know — although, despite repeated requests, I don’t know — why my case has not yet been passed to the National Constitutional Committee, some 10 months after the National Executive Committee’s Disputes Panel decided on January 17 that my case should be thus referred.

For my part, I have rehearsed in detail the concerted “dogpiling” that has trashed my reputation over the last week and more.

For this, I blame you.

Justice delayed is justice denied — for me and for the (still-unnamed) complainant, whose complaint resulted in my suspension over a year ago.

Private Eye, in a four-part series of prejudicial media leaks shortly after my suspension, seems to have been told my suspension was because of my “treatment” of Councillor Warren Morgan (and his paid organiser) — who recently complained to you about alleged anti-semitism and said the Labour Party conference would not be welcome in Brighton and Hove until you gave him some assurances.

You will, I hope, remember a formal complaint about Cllr Morgan’s previous thrice-repeated lies about “spitting” and “abuse” at the annual meeting of what was then Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party.

Unfortunately, you failed even to acknowledge the complaint from the innocent young member who was wrongly accused by Cllr Morgan.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

And, when justice is delayed, it allows justice to be betrayed — for example, by the dogpilers who (for warped and/or political reasons) fill the vacuum left by the Labour Party’s wilfully-woeful disciplinary procedures.

It is they — and people like them — who have polluted the well of political discourse for the rest of us.

And it is you and your bureaucratic, unelected colleagues — who have failed to implement the justicial recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report — who are accomplices.

Whatever the outcome of my case in the coming days or weeks or months, I will never forgive you.

Yours sincerely,

Greg Hadfield