Labour's Big Tent Politics
Labour's 'big tent' politics have gone backwards under Jeremy Corbyn who chooses to surround himself with leftist ideologues like Len McCluskey, Andrew Murray, Seamus Milne and Karie Murphy - all of whom are out of step with the vast majority of Labour supporters over Brexit.
The tail is now definitely wagging the dog which is why Labour is taking such a hammering in the opinion polls.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/jeremy-corbyn-bullying-plots-and-paranoia-inside-his-chaotic-bunker-f3frm2tvd
Jeremy Corbyn: Bullying, plots and paranoia . . . inside his chaotic bunker
MPs are increasingly frustrated by the clique controlling Labour
By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson - The Times
One Labour source says Jeremy Corbyn “is just a puppet, he can barely hold his head up. He is being manipulated and controlled” - ROB STOTHARD/GETTY IMAGES
A few weeks ago, a delegation of left-wing Labour MPs went to see John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor. The discussion about Brexit quickly turned into a conversation about the aggressive and controlling style of the unelected advisers around Jeremy Corbyn. As the MPs were explaining their concerns about the bunker mentality of his team, the leader popped his head around the door. “They are loyal to me and I need them,” was his response to the complaints. According to one MP: “It proved that Jeremy has knowledge of what is going on in his name but is too weak to act on it. Even people in his own faction are now raising concerns.”
There is a growing frustration across all wings of the party, including in the shadow cabinet, about the operation of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office — or Loto as it is known at Westminster. MPs and former Labour staff describe a culture of bullying and intimidation, with those who step out of line subjected to political “punishment beatings”.
A few weeks ago, a delegation of left-wing Labour MPs went to see John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor. The discussion about Brexit quickly turned into a conversation about the aggressive and controlling style of the unelected advisers around Jeremy Corbyn. As the MPs were explaining their concerns about the bunker mentality of his team, the leader popped his head around the door. “They are loyal to me and I need them,” was his response to the complaints. According to one MP: “It proved that Jeremy has knowledge of what is going on in his name but is too weak to act on it. Even people in his own faction are now raising concerns.”
There is a growing frustration across all wings of the party, including in the shadow cabinet, about the operation of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office — or Loto as it is known at Westminster. MPs and former Labour staff describe a culture of bullying and intimidation, with those who step out of line subjected to political “punishment beatings”.
The Labour leader’s inner circle is dominated by Karie Murphy, his chief of staff, and Seumas Milne - DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
MPs are treated with contempt by Mr Corbyn’s aides, who are accused of “arrogance and insularity” by senior figures. “There is a moral malaise at the top. It’s not just incompetence and bad management, it’s bad judgment,” one former cabinet minister says.
“It’s like Soviet Russia. They want to purge the party of non-believers but they don’t care about the state of the country. Corbyn’s slogan ‘the many not the few’ is the opposite of what is happening. He’s listening to a very few, not the many.”
Although the Labour leader boasts of creating a mass political movement, in fact power in his party resides with a tiny clique of leftwingers. Karie Murphy, his chief of staff, and Seumas Milne, his director of strategy, run his office with an iron fist. Together with Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Labour-backing Unite union, and his adviser Andrew Murray they are known as the “4Ms”.
“Seumas and Karie control everything, they’re there every minute of every day,” says one shadow cabinet minister. “Seumas intellectually enforces all of Corbyn’s instincts and Karie is a force of nature who just bosses and shouts and makes things happen. It’s an absolute car crash.”
Another Labour source draws a comparison with Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, Theresa May’s controversial former aides. “Jeremy is just a puppet, he can barely hold his head up. He is being manipulated and controlled.”
One former senior aide adds: “Lots of people were given hush money. Karie is a bully. She’s very aggressive and undermining of staff. Around the office she’s a shouter and screamer.” According to an MP: “There’s a really bullying culture which helps to create this sense of ‘you’re in or out’. ”
Insiders report an increasingly “toxic atmosphere” at the top. At least eight former members of staff have signed non-disclosure agreements forbidding them to discuss their experiences working for the Labour Party. A recent visitor to Mr Corbyn’s office describes being jabbed in the chest by Ms Murphy as she shouted at him.
An official who had fallen out of favour arrived at work to find their desk had been moved to an outer office. Others have discovered that a new person had been brought in to do their job behind their back. “It’s all about the circle of trust,” an MP says. “Because they live in a binary world of good and evil, left and right, there’s a lot of paranoia. They have written the blueprint for the bunker.”
One MP was so intimidated by the chief of staff “pacing around the office, shrieking, shouting and swearing” that they appealed to the leader to ask her to stop but he remained mute. “Karie is on the surface very warm — you get a cuddle but what’s whispered in your ear is, ‘Be careful with what you are doing,’ ” an adviser claims. “Seumas is superficially engaging but you know the reason he’s having the conversation is to try and flush you out.”
On the bullying claims about Ms Murphy, a Labour spokesman said: “These allegations are strongly denied.”
The contrasting backgrounds of the two Corbyn apparatchiks makes them a powerful combination. Ms Murphy, a streetwise Glaswegian whose father ran a pub, was a nurse before going into politics. “She is capable of great acts of brutality but also extraordinary acts of kindness. She has donated her own organs to give other people life,” one old friend says.
“She is belligerent , very direct, utterly ferocious and will use language that a lot of people are not used to. She has no respect for status — it doesn’t matter who you are, you are going to get it between the eyes from Karie.”
She has a close friendship with Mr McCluskey. A senior figure who knows them well says: “Together they are a crazily powerful utterly destructive force capable of good and evil.”
MPs are treated with contempt by Mr Corbyn’s aides, who are accused of “arrogance and insularity” by senior figures. “There is a moral malaise at the top. It’s not just incompetence and bad management, it’s bad judgment,” one former cabinet minister says.
“It’s like Soviet Russia. They want to purge the party of non-believers but they don’t care about the state of the country. Corbyn’s slogan ‘the many not the few’ is the opposite of what is happening. He’s listening to a very few, not the many.”
Although the Labour leader boasts of creating a mass political movement, in fact power in his party resides with a tiny clique of leftwingers. Karie Murphy, his chief of staff, and Seumas Milne, his director of strategy, run his office with an iron fist. Together with Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Labour-backing Unite union, and his adviser Andrew Murray they are known as the “4Ms”.
“Seumas and Karie control everything, they’re there every minute of every day,” says one shadow cabinet minister. “Seumas intellectually enforces all of Corbyn’s instincts and Karie is a force of nature who just bosses and shouts and makes things happen. It’s an absolute car crash.”
Another Labour source draws a comparison with Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, Theresa May’s controversial former aides. “Jeremy is just a puppet, he can barely hold his head up. He is being manipulated and controlled.”
One former senior aide adds: “Lots of people were given hush money. Karie is a bully. She’s very aggressive and undermining of staff. Around the office she’s a shouter and screamer.” According to an MP: “There’s a really bullying culture which helps to create this sense of ‘you’re in or out’. ”
Insiders report an increasingly “toxic atmosphere” at the top. At least eight former members of staff have signed non-disclosure agreements forbidding them to discuss their experiences working for the Labour Party. A recent visitor to Mr Corbyn’s office describes being jabbed in the chest by Ms Murphy as she shouted at him.
An official who had fallen out of favour arrived at work to find their desk had been moved to an outer office. Others have discovered that a new person had been brought in to do their job behind their back. “It’s all about the circle of trust,” an MP says. “Because they live in a binary world of good and evil, left and right, there’s a lot of paranoia. They have written the blueprint for the bunker.”
One MP was so intimidated by the chief of staff “pacing around the office, shrieking, shouting and swearing” that they appealed to the leader to ask her to stop but he remained mute. “Karie is on the surface very warm — you get a cuddle but what’s whispered in your ear is, ‘Be careful with what you are doing,’ ” an adviser claims. “Seumas is superficially engaging but you know the reason he’s having the conversation is to try and flush you out.”
On the bullying claims about Ms Murphy, a Labour spokesman said: “These allegations are strongly denied.”
The contrasting backgrounds of the two Corbyn apparatchiks makes them a powerful combination. Ms Murphy, a streetwise Glaswegian whose father ran a pub, was a nurse before going into politics. “She is capable of great acts of brutality but also extraordinary acts of kindness. She has donated her own organs to give other people life,” one old friend says.
“She is belligerent , very direct, utterly ferocious and will use language that a lot of people are not used to. She has no respect for status — it doesn’t matter who you are, you are going to get it between the eyes from Karie.”
She has a close friendship with Mr McCluskey. A senior figure who knows them well says: “Together they are a crazily powerful utterly destructive force capable of good and evil.”
Mr Milne, director of strategy, “intellectually enforces all of Corbyn’s instincts” - LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES
This “chaotic” energy is “corralled” by the “disciplined factionalist” Mr Milne, a former Guardian journalist who was educated at Winchester. He and Mr Murray (a former member of the Communist Party who also went to an independent boarding school) are “the holders of the Stalinist flame”, according to one MP. “The iron-discipline, doctrinaire approach that Stalinism gives them is combined with the sense of aristocratic entitlement they have from their background.”
The leader himself is strangely elusive. A former cabinet minister compares him to “a fly in a spider’s web”. According to another Labour source: “Corbyn is just not really there, he zones out of meetings. It’s like he’s not fully engaged. They’re manipulating him and acting as a filter between him and the outside world.”
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the former lord chancellor, says: “There are similarities between the sofa government of the Blair years and the cronyism of the tiny clique that runs the Labour Party now. The difference is that the group around Tony came from the Labour Party and were trying to appeal to the general public whereas now the group around the leader comes from outside the Labour Party and is trying to appeal to various shades of the left.”
Labour’s confusion over its Brexit policy is driven by the clash between the Eurosceptic 4Ms and the party’s pro-European members and MPs. Mr Corbyn was shocked by Labour’s defeat in Islington, his own backyard, at the European elections, because he had been told by his aides that the threat came from the Brexit Party, not the Liberal Democrats. Shortly afterwards, he suggested in a small meeting that the party should throw its weight behind a second referendum. According to one source: “Karie got up . . . and screamed at Jeremy, ‘We’re not doing that, we’re not selling out our class.’ He just sat back terrified.”
On another occasion, the chief of staff told a People’s Vote supporter that Labour would never agree to a referendum because working-class people would be better off under Brexit. The decision to expel Alastair Campbell for voting Lib Dem was driven “entirely by Karie” and without the approval of Mr Corbyn, Mr McDonnell told a friend of the former spin doctor. The shadow chancellor said that he and the leader both thought it was a “terrible idea”.
This “chaotic” energy is “corralled” by the “disciplined factionalist” Mr Milne, a former Guardian journalist who was educated at Winchester. He and Mr Murray (a former member of the Communist Party who also went to an independent boarding school) are “the holders of the Stalinist flame”, according to one MP. “The iron-discipline, doctrinaire approach that Stalinism gives them is combined with the sense of aristocratic entitlement they have from their background.”
The leader himself is strangely elusive. A former cabinet minister compares him to “a fly in a spider’s web”. According to another Labour source: “Corbyn is just not really there, he zones out of meetings. It’s like he’s not fully engaged. They’re manipulating him and acting as a filter between him and the outside world.”
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the former lord chancellor, says: “There are similarities between the sofa government of the Blair years and the cronyism of the tiny clique that runs the Labour Party now. The difference is that the group around Tony came from the Labour Party and were trying to appeal to the general public whereas now the group around the leader comes from outside the Labour Party and is trying to appeal to various shades of the left.”
Labour’s confusion over its Brexit policy is driven by the clash between the Eurosceptic 4Ms and the party’s pro-European members and MPs. Mr Corbyn was shocked by Labour’s defeat in Islington, his own backyard, at the European elections, because he had been told by his aides that the threat came from the Brexit Party, not the Liberal Democrats. Shortly afterwards, he suggested in a small meeting that the party should throw its weight behind a second referendum. According to one source: “Karie got up . . . and screamed at Jeremy, ‘We’re not doing that, we’re not selling out our class.’ He just sat back terrified.”
On another occasion, the chief of staff told a People’s Vote supporter that Labour would never agree to a referendum because working-class people would be better off under Brexit. The decision to expel Alastair Campbell for voting Lib Dem was driven “entirely by Karie” and without the approval of Mr Corbyn, Mr McDonnell told a friend of the former spin doctor. The shadow chancellor said that he and the leader both thought it was a “terrible idea”.
Len McCluskey, the Unite chief, has a close friendship with Ms MurphyROB STOTHARD/GETTY IMAGES
Dame Margaret Beckett, the former deputy leader, warns that Mr Corbyn is in danger of “trashing his own brand” over Europe. “If the people who are most listened to are people who have never fought an election and who are not electorally vulnerable then that’s not healthy,” she says. “He trusts them because he thinks they are utterly loyal to him but what they are advising him to do is not actually in his own interest.”
The leader’s office is disdainful of the party’s elected representatives. One backbencher was told: “You need to learn your place.” Politicians who cross Mr Corbyn’s aides are publicly humiliated. When Emily Thornberry was replaced with Rebecca Long Bailey at prime minister’s questions this month MPs were in no doubt that it was what one called a “vindictive, juvenile and petulant” response to her call for the party to campaign for a second EU referendum. “It’s a punishment beating, a way of saying that ‘we are the ones in charge’,” according to a Labour source.
The veteran MP Dame Margaret Hodge says: “The dismissive attitude to the MPs means people who should be Corbyn’s allies end up being his enemies. He’s surrounded by a circle who keep him detached from reality. They live in their own revolutionary world.”
Even loyal frontbenchers turned against the leader’s team when a decision by the shadow cabinet to withdraw from cross-party Brexit talks in May was simply ignored by his office.
“People were incandescent,” one source says. “Until then many had assumed the criticism of the 4Ms was right-wing anti-Corbyn stuff. But that was unelected advisers overruling politicians.” Shadow cabinet ministers have started writing on a piece of paper what has been agreed at meetings and reading it out to their colleagues so that there can be no ambiguity.
Lord Blunkett, the former home secretary, says: “Sensible members of the unions and Momentum need to look at those round Jeremy Corbyn, work out if this is the direction they want the party going in and act quickly if it’s not.”
Insiders say the leader’s team is preparing for power. According to a source, Ms Murphy has already started thinking about what dress she will wear to meet the Queen. “She thinks she will be going to the Palace when Jeremy is prime minister. . . because obviously Jeremy is not allowed to meet anyone on his own,” a former staff member says.
There is a deep suspicion of the civil service, which is seen as the enemy within by Mr Corbyn’s advisers. One source said they planned to replicate the “orders in council” used by Mr Blair’s advisers Mr Campbell and Jonathan Powell, giving them legal authority to issue instructions to officials. “Karie and Seumas are not going to stand for a situation where Jeremy is surrounded by the mandarins who are separate source of power. I think Karie might end up appointing herself cabinet secretary . . . they believe the party should control the state.”
A Labour MP says: “It is mortifying, the prospect of these people in power.”
A Labour spokesman said: “These allegations are clearly based on politically motivated anonymous briefings rather than fact. No complaint of this nature has been made through union or party processes, and if they were, they would be fully investigated.”
Dame Margaret Beckett, the former deputy leader, warns that Mr Corbyn is in danger of “trashing his own brand” over Europe. “If the people who are most listened to are people who have never fought an election and who are not electorally vulnerable then that’s not healthy,” she says. “He trusts them because he thinks they are utterly loyal to him but what they are advising him to do is not actually in his own interest.”
The leader’s office is disdainful of the party’s elected representatives. One backbencher was told: “You need to learn your place.” Politicians who cross Mr Corbyn’s aides are publicly humiliated. When Emily Thornberry was replaced with Rebecca Long Bailey at prime minister’s questions this month MPs were in no doubt that it was what one called a “vindictive, juvenile and petulant” response to her call for the party to campaign for a second EU referendum. “It’s a punishment beating, a way of saying that ‘we are the ones in charge’,” according to a Labour source.
The veteran MP Dame Margaret Hodge says: “The dismissive attitude to the MPs means people who should be Corbyn’s allies end up being his enemies. He’s surrounded by a circle who keep him detached from reality. They live in their own revolutionary world.”
Even loyal frontbenchers turned against the leader’s team when a decision by the shadow cabinet to withdraw from cross-party Brexit talks in May was simply ignored by his office.
“People were incandescent,” one source says. “Until then many had assumed the criticism of the 4Ms was right-wing anti-Corbyn stuff. But that was unelected advisers overruling politicians.” Shadow cabinet ministers have started writing on a piece of paper what has been agreed at meetings and reading it out to their colleagues so that there can be no ambiguity.
Lord Blunkett, the former home secretary, says: “Sensible members of the unions and Momentum need to look at those round Jeremy Corbyn, work out if this is the direction they want the party going in and act quickly if it’s not.”
Insiders say the leader’s team is preparing for power. According to a source, Ms Murphy has already started thinking about what dress she will wear to meet the Queen. “She thinks she will be going to the Palace when Jeremy is prime minister. . . because obviously Jeremy is not allowed to meet anyone on his own,” a former staff member says.
There is a deep suspicion of the civil service, which is seen as the enemy within by Mr Corbyn’s advisers. One source said they planned to replicate the “orders in council” used by Mr Blair’s advisers Mr Campbell and Jonathan Powell, giving them legal authority to issue instructions to officials. “Karie and Seumas are not going to stand for a situation where Jeremy is surrounded by the mandarins who are separate source of power. I think Karie might end up appointing herself cabinet secretary . . . they believe the party should control the state.”
A Labour MP says: “It is mortifying, the prospect of these people in power.”
A Labour spokesman said: “These allegations are clearly based on politically motivated anonymous briefings rather than fact. No complaint of this nature has been made through union or party processes, and if they were, they would be fully investigated.”
