‘Dark practices’ may be at work in Labour feud, says union leader

Agents of the security services may be responsible for the bullying and abuse of critics of Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to stir up trouble for the Labour leader, general secretary of the Unite trade union Len McCluskey has claimed.

Mr McCluskey, a strong supporter of Mr Corbyn, said the security services had a history of “dark practices” and suggested “right-wingers” in disguise may be responsible for the actions attributed to the Labour leader’s supporters.

“Do people believe for one second that the security forces are not involved in dark practices?”

“We found out just a couple of years ago that the chair of my union then . . . was an MI5 informant at the time that there was a strike taking place that I personally as a worker was involved in.”

‘Culture of bullying’

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of allowing a “culture of bullying” to take hold within Labour by his leadership rival.

Owen Smith said “something had gone badly wrong” since Mr Corbyn took charge amid fresh claims of abuse being directed at critics of the leader by activists.

Mr Corbyn insisted he is not a bully and said he was “disappointed” at the claims made against him, which included a suggestion he threatened to ring the father of a critical MP in order to put pressure on him.

Former shadow cabinet minister Mr Smith warned the party could be “destroyed” and “consigned to history” unless it could unite. Mr Smith told Sky News he had received death threats and the problem of abuse had not been there before Mr Corbyn’s leadership win.

He accepted he had “never been bullied by Jeremy” personally but “under his leadership, there has been a culture of bullying, I fear”. He added: “Jeremy, of course, always says that he doesn’t condone it but somehow under his leadership – we can’t deny the facts that this wasn’t something that we saw in the Labour Party before Jeremy Corbyn became leader – and it’s now become commonplace in the Labour Party. So something has gone badly wrong under his watch.”

Mr Corbyn is favourite to win the postal ballot of Labour’s members – whose ranks he said have swelled to more than 500,000 – as well as the 183,000 people who signed up this week as registered supporters and the affiliated supporters in the unions.

Addressing allegations of abuse from former leadership contender Angela Eagle and party whip Conor McGinn, he told Sky News: “I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues. I regret the language that’s been used, by all of them.

“I don’t do any abuse, I don’t do any bullying, I don’t allow it to be done anywhere to do with any of my campaign teams and I’m very surprised and very disappointed they should say that because politics has to be about bringing people in.

“I think we have done that spectacularly well – we now have the largest membership we’ve ever had. That’s good, that means more and more people are involved in politics.

“That’s good, it’s not a threat, it’s a good thing that people come together and want to debate and be active in politics in our society. Isn’t that good for democracy?”

Father

His comments follow a claim from Mr McGinn, who said Mr Corbyn considered calling his father – a former Sinn Fein councillor – in an effort to “bully” him following critical comments the MP made in a magazine interview.

Mr Corbyn’s office dismissed the allegation as “untrue” but St Helen’s North MP Mr McGinn accused the party leader of hypocrisy for talking about a “kinder, gentler politics” when “he had proposed using my family against me”. He said: “The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad.”

In a statement, Mr McGinn said he and other Labour MPs had been subjected to a “torrent of abuse and threats” from supporters of Mr Corbyn.

“In my constituency, a group of people gained access to my shared office building under false pretences and filmed themselves protesting outside the door of my office, in an incident that has been reported to the police,” he said.

“They threatened to disrupt my surgeries and events I was attending, requiring me to have a police presence at those last weekend.

PA