Did I make mistakes? Of course everybody does.
Did I make mistakes in bad faith I don't think so,
I think I made mistakes in good faith,
One of which was to trust people who turned out
to be deeply untrustworthy.
The media silence on the Ford report is absolutely deafening.
The Guardian, the BBC and others that obsessed day in day out
on my supposed deficiencies barely mentioned it.
The Forde report has been a long time coming out.
My thoughts are one that it is comprehensive,
two it has a rather false Narrative of saying
there were two camps in the party
who was equally bad towards each other.
Which I actually rather resent and reject.
As the leader of the party I appointed a team around me
in order to liaise with the party and run things
and they were constantly undermined
from the Labour party head office.
But, park that for a moment I think that the Forde report
calls into question the behaviour
of senior officials of the party.
In particular during the 2017 election
when completely unbeknown to me the general secretary
diverted a very substantial tranche of our much-needed funds
towards what he called the Ergon House project.
Which was to protect the majorities of a number of MPs
all of whom had one thing in common.
Being undermining and critical of my leadership of the party
and would be part of a leadership challenge
straight after the 2017 election
had the result been very much different to what it was
and I find that utterly appalling.
You've also said each day I try and think of ways
to undermine Jeremy Corbyn?
I did say that yes.
Well that was a mistake wasn't it?
Well no I wasn't alone amongst people who
founded his performance disappointing.
If he'd had your backing he might have done a lot better?
Well he might have done.
We achieved 41% in that election we could
and should have achieved more.
Had the party been united in at least accepting that the
leadership had a case to put to the people of this country.
And this was borne out very much by the leaked report
which came out more than 2 years later on the behaviour
of very senior officials in WhatsApp groups
that seem to be in constant touch with each other
which were disparaging about the policy the manifesto
and individually very abusive towards senior people
in our team using racist and misogynist language,
despicable.
it's not about me it's not about sour grapes,
what it's about is that our Manifesto offered Hope.
On public ownership on an education service on a mental health service environmental concerns
on International strategy of peace and Justice and democracy and human rights and all of this
mobilized so many people and gave so much hope to people little did they know that the party
they were funding in order to achieve this a significant number of very senior officials
were working against everything that was being said and done it's never happened before in labor
election campaigns I've been in the party under many leaders when I first became a party remember
Harold Wilson was the leader of the labor party I've been there through all of that I've often
disagreed with party policy I've disagreed with the direction the party's taken I've disagreed
with the politics of individual leaders but I've never sought to go out and defeat labor in an
election when I was elected to the labor party it was never about me it was about a popular
demand for anti-austerity policies following the disastrous financial crisis of 2008. therefore the
attacks so well documented in the forward report were actually attacks on democracy and attacked
on those people that wanted to live in a world of Hope many people have now had an opportunity to
read the forward report in detail and I think that opportunity should be used to say well actually
we need to have a restoration of democracy in the party and many people who've been through
the most awful stress of having been suspended from party membership in some cases expelled
from party membership field of an injustice has been done I think these injustices have to be
righted wrongs must be righted that surely is the best way of bringing the party together we've got
to unite our party or we won't win I inherited a system that was dysfunctional the leader's office
was far too involved in day-to-day disciplinary matters this is the way it always been done in
the party if you're suspending members or even expelling members or investigating members that
some or other leaders office should have a comment to make on this I didn't want that I thought there
should be a separate process independent of the leader's office and they should not be involved
so I developed a process of separation and I invited shami chakrabartic to examine the issues
of anti-Semitism and disciplinary processes at the party and she did produce a very thorough and
comprehensive set of proposals to do that what I later discovered was that some of the cases where
allegations were made of anti-Semitic Behavior by party members that we ourselves had referred
to the party because they've been referred to me were then delayed and I got the blame for them
not being handled correctly which I find more than discomforting and disconcerting we were on list in
our determination to root out anti-Semitism but I was also very clear about the number of cases
and number of complaints there had been and I made that clear in my response to the equalities in the
Human Rights Commission report that was made into the party I said anti-Semitism is wrong I support
the findings of the HRC report I support rule changes to implement those findings I also said
the levels and prevalence of anti-Semitism in the labor party had been grossly exaggerated the
number of people accused of anti-Semitism was actually quite small my membership was briefly
suspended the day that I made that statement I appealed against it with a very strong statement
and a huge body of evidence to explain that this was completely wrong and I was unanimously
reinstated by an NEC panel and then I got word that the whip would not be restored until I took
back everything I'd said and this has gone on ever since the Ford report in my view completely
vindicates the position that I took the Fight Against Racism will be won by a party United to
defeat racism in its entirety in all aspects of our society that is what I've spent my life doing
that is what I'll spend the rest of my life doing well I was suspended from members of the labor
party for a Facebook post that I put up which was actually a considered response to a significant
report and document it's very strange that many of those people that spoke up against curtailment of
free speech this has become a row over freedom of speech a wave of censorship that seeks to silence
conversation to stifle debate we're talking about freedom of speech shutting down freedom
of expression I set up the Free Speech Union we're remarkably silent where I was concerned
I think it's not a disgrace that the whip was removed from me because our party is supposed
to be a Democratic party and the authority to become MPS to become leading figures in the labor
party does not come from the Parliamentary party it comes from the membership and the Affiliated
membership through the trade Unions that's how I was elected leader that's Tokyo storm was elected
leader if we're now in a position where the leader of the party will use his power over
the Parliamentary party to remove somebody from the whip it's very perplexing for my
constituency I was first elected in 1983 so next year I will have been a member of parliament for
the same constituency on the same boundaries for 40 years and I work as hard as I've ever
worked to represent the people that have put their trust in me the attacks on me which have
now been analyzed and chronicled and dealt with an afford report vindicate everything we said and did
in 2015 onwards and I'm proud of the changes we brought about very proud all around the country
and we meet people who say they were inspired and mobilized by the new mood that we brought
to the labor party and to politics in this country if we're going to be condemned for
that then I'm proud to be condemned for that because I absolutely believe in the power
of ordinary people to bring about change I've spent my life doing that and but you know what
I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing that as well you can't rely on the mainstream
media to cover the forward report so we rely on others The Independent Media are analyzing
it are reporting it and are covering it so if you can join Double Down News on Patron