Starmer claims this is about putting Labour on an election footing, something they have declared several times in recent months. The truth is, this is a Power Grab…
Sir Keir Starmer has sacked his chief of staff claiming it to be part of a major shake-up in what he says is designed to take advantage of “the Conservative Party implosion” and put the party on a general election footing.
The Labour leader spoke to party staff at 10am to inform them of the changes, which will see chief of staff Sam White leave his role.
Speaking alongside the party’s general secretary, David Evans, Starmer said: “This is not the time for complacency or caution”.
He added: “I can’t tell you how confident it makes me feel knowing that behind us, we have such a brilliant team.
“The government’s collapse has given us a huge chance. The instability means they could fall at any time.
“Because of that, we need to get on an election footing straight away.”
Power Grab…
Of course, Labour has stated many times they are permanently on an election footing while recently declaring they were actually on a war footing in case the new prime minister called a general election, which at this point as stated by Liz Truss the earliest general election would be in 2024.
The changes to party structures will see policy and communications roles move to Labour HQ, reporting directly to general secretary David Evans.
We all know what happens when power is consolidated into the hands of a few.
Evans was appointed on 26 May 2020, after twenty of the thirty-eight National Executive Committee members voted for him. His appointment was seen as a victory for Starmer, as Evans was described by The Independent as Starmer’s “first choice” candidate. The Jewish Chronicle described Evans as a “staunch opponent of hard left politics” and a “fierce critic of anti-Zionism”.
On 29 October 2020, Evans, along with the party’s chief whip Nick Brown, suspended former leader Jeremy Corbyn due to his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. When Corbyn was reinstated by the ruling NEC Starmer proceeded to remove the whip from his former boss leaving Jeremy Corbyn outside the parliamentary Labour Party.
It was always a controversial appointment, David Evans is on record for opposing the very concept of Party democracy, as Labour General Secretary he has proved controversial on many occasions. He is a Blairite dinosaur with a record of cronyism in Croydon, who has happily presided over the McCarthyism and whichunt while under Starmer. To add policy and communications roles to his portfolio now seems more like a consolidation of power and a ‘Fait Accompli’ for the right wing.
The staffers that run the machinery of the Labour Party have had a history of attacking the Left-wing and the elected representatives of their own Party. The #LabourLeaks dossier and subsequent #Fordereport shows how Labour staffers undermined Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership with evidence to suggest they throw a general election rather than have any form of socialist policies in the UK.
The takeover of the Labour Party by the right has become increasingly alarming but to add ‘policy and communications’ to David Evans’s role gives him the power of Big Brother.
His approach has been authoritarian at best Evans. He has recently subjected Labour members to diktats of silence, ordering them not to discuss controversial issues or make proposals on topics, such as the Forde report or the Labour Leaks.
Evans’s views on democracy leave very little to be desired, he advocates an unaccountable authoritarian style of political management outside of membership scrutiny.
As West Regional Director David Evans once produced a paper entitled ‘A New Labour Party’ advocating that ‘representative democracy should as far as possible be abolished in the Party. All members are equal, so there is no need for General Committees’. Ironically, Evans proposes that GCs be replaced with ‘a working Executive’, a smaller, much less inclusive body. This Executive would be elected by an annual all-member meeting. There would be no chain of accountability as presently exists, whereby GC delegates regularly report back to their branches. Instead, Evans’ proposed annual jamboree would oblige members to vote for people many will hardly have heard of, if at all. Most would be voting for unknowns. For the remainder of the year, the Executive – insulated from pressure from party branches – would have a blank cheque to run the CLP. So much for all members being equal.
Evans’s proposal was seen as a pretext to extinguish what remains of participatory democracy. It was a bid to remove all intermediate structures in the Party so that it was left with a passive, powerless membership and an all-powerful leadership, now it looks very much like he got his way by taking over the very machinery that runs the Labour Party.
His proposal to “overhaul” the party’s structures, stating that: “representative democracy should as far as possible be abolished in the Party” leavers the Labour party with one unaccountable, antidemocratic system, or what’s commonly known as a dictatorship.
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