The Labour Party purge of socialists continues in Brighton and Hove
This statement by Greg Hadfield — elected secretary with 66% of more than 600 votes at Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party’s annual meeting on July 9 — is in response to information leaked to the media by anti-democratic elements within the City Party.
“I confirm that I am the latest of many victims of the witchhunt against socialist supporters of Jeremy Corbyn within Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party (the City Party).
“After more than 10 years as a member of Labour in in our city, I have been suspended — for the second time in just over two years.
“Apparently, I have now been accused of ‘a pattern of behaviour, including intimidation of individuals, which is capable of bringing the Labour Party into disrepute’.
“Previously, I was suspended — on a similar fabricated charge — for 11 months, before it was decided that allegations against me, made by the party’s then regional director, did not even merit investigation.
“I am confident I will be found innocent again. Eventually. But only after I have been prevented from standing as a candidate in forthcoming elections.
“To be clear: the only people intimidating individuals and bringing the party into disrepute are Iain McNicol, the Labour Party’s general secretary, and right-wing supporters of the Progress Party, including Councillor Warren Morgan, leader of the Labour Group on Brighton and Hove City Council.
“Let us not forget it was Cllr Morgan who falsely accused members of ‘spitting’ and ‘abuse’ at the City Party’s annual meeting on July 9, a meeting at which members took back control of our party by voting overwhelmingly for a new leadership team for Labour in Brighton and Hove. Their votes were, literally, discarded.
“As a result, the biggest party unit in the country — with more than 8,000 members and supporters — continues to be denied a voice.
“Since then, Mark Sandell, the elected chair, has been expelled from the party and many others have been suspended, including one who was suspended — for a Facebook post made in December last year! — only days after he voted in last month’s leadership ballot. Retrospectively, his vote for Mr Corbyn was fished out of the ballot and cancelled.
“In recent days, I have seen a leaked copy of the still-unpublished three-page report of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) investigation into the lies of Cllr Morgan and others about the annual meeting.
“It contains no proof of anything that merited the City Party being suspended, its elections annulled, and it being forced to split into three constituency Labour parties (CLPs).
“These are political decisions designed to stifle the voices of democratic socialists who have united behind our party leader.
“The composition of a Steering Group to implement the NEC’s diktat, to be announced shortly, will be further proof that a tiny minority of anti-Corbyn activists are determined to trample on members’ clear desire for a new direction for the Labour Party, locally and nationally.
“Instead, they want ‘business as usual’, with an inward-looking, undemocratic, and secretive elite determined to keep power in their own hands.
“I urge members of the City Party to stay strong and to fight our enemies in the party by calling for a special all-member meeting of Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party.
“Only the members should decide who should comprise the new leadership team and the future organisation of the Labour Party in Brighton and Hove.
“And only then can we move forward together to fight the Tories and elect Jeremy Corbyn as our next democratic socialist prime minister.”
