Former Labour staff urge Corbyn to respect party workers

Former Labour staff have decried the way current party staff have been publicly attacked and urged Jeremy Corbyn to respect the party’s workers, in a letter on Thursday.

In a letter to the Guardian, over a hundred former and retired Labour party staff said the attack on workers was “depressing” in wake of the recent legal challenges to the voting rules for the leadership race from members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and general secretary Iain McNicol, who could be ousted from his position.

The signatories said that staff work long-hours and have little job security in an organisation that is almost entirely voluntary.

“Despite this, staff remain completely loyal to the party and to their employers, and the least they are entitled to expect is some loyalty and respect in return. To hear members of the Labour party attack their own employees is depressing; to hear talk about “clearing them out” is unacceptable; to hear such statements from the most senior level is intolerable.

“We call on all party members, whatever their view or role in the leadership election, to treat their staff as they themselves would expect to be treated by their own employers.”

Signatories to the letter include two past NEC general secretaries, Lord Collins and Peter Watt, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, and former adviser to Ed Miliband and comedian Ayesha Hazarika.

On Thursday, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth gave their support for the letter on Twitter.

Recently Corbyn’s supporters won all six of the contested seats on the NEC and as Corbyn tightens his grip on the party’s governing body it could mean that McNicol’s position is under threat if he is re-elected in September.

At the latest leadership hustings in Solihull on Thursday, challenger Owen Smith accused Jeremy Corbyn of never believing in the European Union, in a bid to restructure the debate with Europe at the centre. Smith is currently trailing in the polls.

Labour’s official party line is pro-Europe and was in favour staying in the EU for the referendum.

Smith said: “I think Jeremy can’t bring himself to say he would argue for a second referendum or put into a Labour manifesto that we would stay within the European Union because he fundamentally never believed in the European union.

“That is why he steadfastly refuses [to agree to a second EU referendum], even though he acknowledges a likely Tory Brexit will diminish workers’ rights; damage social protections; damage our ability to deal with tax avoidance. Even though he thinks that is likely to happen, he thinks it more important that we stay outside the EU. I think that is a deep, deep mistake.”

Corbyn responded: “The referendum took place, the result is there, we know the Tory agenda. But we have to recognise there were some problems before the referendum with the EU ... There is an agenda in Europe which is not something Labour would support which is the free market agenda.”