How the Labour leadership race suddenly turned ugly
- Published
If you accept that public civility and private poison are normal in politics, the Labour Party leadership campaign - which until now has been a tad sedate - has taken a lurch into ghastly normality.
Labour's accusation of hacking of the party's membership database has now been met with a flat denial from Sir Keir Starmer's team in public, and behind the scenes, with rage.
Speaking on my Radio 5live programme Pienaar's Politics, his campaign chair, Jenny Chapman, said Labour's suggestion her team had hacked and used information from the Labour database was "utter, utter nonsense".
Their version of events is that two campaign team members were probing the database, named "Dialogue", for vulnerability to those seeking improper access, as a campaign tool.
They were emphatically not, according to the Starmer camp, trying to mine data themselves.
Rather, they say, it was the campaign team of Rebecca Long-Bailey which sent a mass email to volunteers containing a succession of links, a trail of digital breadcrumbs leading to the database doorway.
Her campaign has maintained there was never any intention on its part to lead volunteers into the Labour database. Labour says it does not have firm evidence of what happened.
Meanwhile, the Information Commissioner's office confirmed it had received the report containing accusations against the two Starmer officials and will now investigate.
The former Labour Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, suggested the party's left wing could be out to derail the Starmer campaign.
"Who do you believe John?" he asked me. "Do you believe Keir Starmer or do you believe that shower that have been around dealing for example with allegations of anti-Semitism... My money is on the Keir Starmer side…not on that lot…we know they can't be trusted."
The party insists there was a data breach, and it was their duty to report it to the watchdog. There'll be an inquiry into what happened. but whatever the outcome, Labour's leadership campaign has turned very ugly.
I learnt that Robert Buckland finds his mother and wife more scary than the PM's enforcer Dominic Cummings
Meanwhile, there's been an unexpected outbreak of normality on the government side.
The Lord Chancellor, and Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland told me two quite surprising things in quick succession.
First, he shared his view that the coming review into the constitution and relationship between the government and the courts will likely consider whether judicial appointments should be subject to a more intense form of screening.
Then, he volunteered to fight for the independence of the judiciary in Cabinet - even if that meant standing up to the prime minister and Boris Johnson's inner circle, including his famously pugnacious adviser, Dominic Cummings.
I asked him whether he was scared of Mr Cummings. "I'm not scared of anybody," he replied.
"Perhaps the Queen and my mum are probably the two people… Or my wife I suppose now and again. Though she will hate me for saying that. But no. I am here to fearlessly uphold my oath."
This was fighting talk but would he stand up to Mr Cummings and others, when need be, in cabinet?
"And I do, and I will carry on doing that," he insisted. "And the prime minister knows that."
It was time to test this steely resolve. "They do say Robert, that Dominic Cummings can be pretty scary," I reminded the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. "Erm," he said, "Look, robust debate is something that both he and I enjoy."
I felt it would be a treat to be able to hide, unseen, behind the curtains for a while in 10 Downing Street. Not for long, though.
- Published6 November 2019
- Published13 July 2020
