Labour’s Toxic Culture: ‘Trigger Me Timbers’

Labour’s Rot Runs Deep: The “Trigger Me Timbers” Scandal Exposes a Party in Moral Freefall.

When Sir Keir Starmer vowed to clean house in the Labour Party, who could have guessed he meant selectively fumigating only the rooms that housed the left wing? When he promised to root out antisemitism, who would have thought it would be done with the precision of a gardener pruning inconvenient branches while letting the rest of the rot spread unchecked? Well—most of us, actually. 

The latest Labour WhatsApp scandal—dubbed ‘Trigger Me Timbers’—tells us everything we need to know about its participants’ mindset before we’ve read a single message. It’s a name that manages to be both a bad dad joke and revealing: “triggered,” that sneering shorthand used to dismiss genuine hurt and outrage, married to a pirate’s oath in a ‘wink-wink’ attempt at wit. Like schoolyard bullies trying to disguise cruelty as comedy, they gave themselves away at hello. Judging by the name alone, this group was set up with the explicit intention of provoking, ridiculing, and indulging in the kind of vile, vindictive comments that have now come to light. Of course, this is speculation—but if I were a betting man, that’s the name that would sink my ship.

First came the sacking and suspension of Health Minister Andrew Gwynne. Then his fellow Labour MP Oliver Ryan followed. By Monday, three senior councillors had stepped down from the executive, and now, another 11 councillors have been suspended. The scandal has engulfed Tameside council, where even Gwynne’s wife, Councillor Allison Gwynne, is among those caught in the fallout. 

The contents of this WhatsApp group aren’t just embarrassing—they’re damning. Messages exchanged between Labour MPs, councillors, and aides include racist jibes about Diane Abbott, misogynistic smears against Angela Rayner, and homophobic slurs targeting fellow party members. One message fantasized about a constituent being “mown down” by a lorry for complaining about bin collections. Another mocked Diane Abbott, referencing her participation in Prime Minister’s Questions with a sneering “Yep, because it’s Black History Month apparently.” One participant asked if David Lammy was unavailable, quipping that even “the corpse of [Black Labour MP] Bernie Grant” would do. Gwynne’s own contributions included a joke about someone sounding “too Jewish” and referring to a colleague as “Colin Cmface.” 

These are the things Starmer promised to root out, it seems they’ve been growing like weeds…

And that’s just what has leaked. 

The most damning revelation? Former Tameside council leader Gerald Cooney had flagged these concerns to Labour’s regional officials over a year ago. The leadership’s response? Deafening silence—until the media spotlight forced their hand.
This is how Labour operates now: swift and merciless when targeting the left, mysteriously patient when their centrist darlings indulge in racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and homophobia.

Selective Accountability, the Labour Way 

Labour’s defenders might argue this is just a few bad apples. But it fits a pattern that has become all too familiar. When accusations of wrongdoing are directed at left-wing figures, the response is swift, ruthless, and unforgiving. Yet when it’s the Party’s own centrist loyalists engaging in outright racism, misogyny, and homophobia, there’s suddenly a patience for “internal processes.” 

The Forde Report warned us. Now “Trigger Me Timbers” confirms it: Labour hasn’t changed—it’s merely gotten better at managing its PR.

The Forde Report already exposed how Labour officials weaponised disciplinary measures to crush internal opposition while tolerating the worst behaviour from their own allies. This scandal only reinforces what many on the left have long suspected: accountability in Labour is not about principles—it’s about power. 

A Party Rotten to the Core 

The ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ group wasn’t a momentary lapse in judgement. It was a sustained culture of mockery and contempt, where elected Labour officials ridiculed the very communities they claim to represent. They jeered at Black MPs, working-class women, Jewish colleagues, and even their own constituents. 

This isn’t a Party of the people. It’s a Party of careerists—hand-picked nasty little people, self-serving, insulated, and sneering at those who put them in office. It is a Party that rails against prejudice when it’s politically convenient but harbours it behind closed doors. And it is a Party that, despite Starmer’s promises, has never really changed, yes it was a scam… 

Red Tories, Blue Tories—same circus, different clowns. The joke, as always, is on us.
The real question isn’t whether Starmer can weather this storm—it’s whether there’s anything left worth salvaging.

God knows it’s time we put our hopes in a new Party…

Paul Knaggs