Another day, another termination
JVL Introduction
On 5th June Diane Pearson, long-time Labour activist, received an email from the Governance and Legal Unit of the Labour Party alleging that she had committed “a prohibited act” viz: “Possessing membership of, providing financial assistance to, sitting on the ruling body of or otherwise supporting (as may be defined by the NEC) any political organisation that the NEC in its absolute discretion shall declare to be inimical with the aims and values of the Party.”
We all know the various left organisations that were banned in July 2021 under this clause and association with them made retrospective i.e. you are equally guilty for having liked a tweet from one of these organisations years before it was banned as you are from being a leading and active member – leaving aside the dubious reasons given for banning such organisations in the first place.
Diane Pearson is (or rather was) an active member of Keir Starmer’s constituency party, Holborn and St Pancras. On 7th July she received a formal notice of “Termination of Membership of the Labour Party”.
We repost below her heartfelt letter to her MP expressing her feelings about the Party and its leader.
RK
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2023 at 15:28
Subject: Expulsion from the party
To: Keir Starmer <[email protected]>, Keir Starmer QC MP <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
Dear Keir
As I told you in the street today I was kicked out of the Labour Party yesterday (7 July). I have to say I am relieved as being a member in Holborn and St Pancras CLP has become like being in a viper’s nest. I was kicked out for being a member of a proscribed group. Utterly ludicrous. I recall that on 19th November 2021 you were on Radio 4 Today programme and you said, among other things, in reference to MPs’ lobbying and second jobs, “Don’t penalise people now for doing things in the past that were allowed at the time.” Which is exactly what you are doing with regards to purging left members that you and your friends Evans, Blair and Mandelson among others want rid of. Many Jewish members have been purged for their support of Palestine and BDS. This is pure anti-semitism.
I didn’t vote for you to be my MP and I am so glad my instinct was right. I would have hoped for better, you being a Human Rights Lawyer, you are certainly no politician and will never be, I hoped you would be honest and fair and not a liar like Johnson but you are no better. You used the very popular 2019 Labour Party manifesto, fully costed, to get elected as leader as you knew you would woo those who hadn’t already seen through you. Then as soon as you got elected you used the state of the country as an excuse to ditch every single pledge. You were also the cause of the 2019 election result although you can never bring yourself to admit it, and now you blame others. If you hadn’t dreamt up the sentence at the 2018 Conference about having another referendum ‘with the option to remain on the ballot paper’ Labour would have done better than they did by following the country’s wish to exit the EU, as happened in 2017. Jeremy Corbyn should have sacked you on the spot, but unlike you, he is an honourable man. Of course Labour did so well in 2017 but you and your cronies have decided to airbrush that result from history. It is now clear that despite having been a key member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team and calling him a friend that you were always working to undermine him and his policies, which were supported by the majority of the country. Now you have withdrawn the whip from lifelong socialists like Jeremy, Diane Abbott, Claudia Webbe and others, which is not in your remit, while welcoming Christian Wakeford, Luciana Berger and others who have all at times belonged to other parties.
On the subject of lies, I cannot forgive the people who selected the recent batch of Camden Councillors in your name. The interviews that standing leftwing Councillors went through, my husband included, carried very disproportionate aggressiveness compared to right wing candidates, not to mention the inaccurate information that was put in front of the candidates by the interviewing panels. Three hour long interviews filled with inaccurate information passed on by the Chief Whip. Absolutely disgusting and deplorable. Very much like what is happening now. How can you deny Jamie Driscoll from standing on the long list when he has done so much for the area and proved that he is a very good Mayor? You are so dishonourable. However much I want to be rid of the Tories, I really fear for this country should you become PM.
For thirteen years I knocked on doors, I delivered leaflets, I fund raised, I ran branch meetings and now it has come to this.
Your former friend
Diane Pearson
And the reply, unsigned:
From: Keir Starmer KC MP <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2023 at 13:18
Subject: Re: Expulsion from the party (Case Ref: XXXXXXX)
Dear Diane,
I can see that you have discussed this matter with Keir already, but I have noted the contents of your email and will let him know that you have been in touch.
Best wishes,
Office of Rt Hon Keir Starmer KC, MP
Member of Parliament for Holborn & St Pancras
Leader of the Opposition
“Leader of the Opposition”
I have seen none.
Diane’s letter says it all. Keir Starmer is truly worse than utterly useless. I have observed that Keir Starmer is untruthful and hypocritical. Keir Starmer cares only about himself. I despise the establishment liars who conceal the truth.
if i had stayed in the labour party i would be ashamed right now. this man should never be PM he is obviously no better than the Tory’s , i would actually say worse than. i for one wont be voting for the occupied labour party while Starmer and his cronies are in occupation.
Diane Pearson – your letter exactly sums up my feelings about Starmer and his “gang”. It was obvious by May 2019 that “Ref2” was a disastrous policy. I sat up and watched the local election results on TV with the Labour leaders of the “Red Wall” Councils desperately worried and wanting it abandoned.
The muddle of the planned implementation of “Ref2” as explained by LP Candidates as we approached Election Day proved even worse. During
the lead-up I had nightmares that the Tories would gain massively and this proved only too true.
Of course Johnsons “Oven Ready Deal” proved to be a complete lie as most of us knew but unfortunately the electorate were taken in.
I really don’t see how ANYBODY can remain a member of the Labour Party. Only rude words can adequately described what it has turned itself into.
Sir Keith Stalin is doing the same for the Labour movement as Trump did for Conservatives
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears”, Winston Smith, 1984, George Orwell.
Today (12.7.23), the Guardian’s article on expulsions within Labour notes that 100% of those members suspended have been subsequently expelled. No fair disciplinary process produces such a result – and that point was made within the article.
Get it printed on a t-shirt and make a fortune from it’s sales. I’m a large. Black text on a red background please.
Everything Diane wrote to Starmer is true and in effect he has hijacked OUR Labour Party under false pretences for his own treacherous ends and those of his equally traitorous band of cronies. He should be kicked out asap and the Party returned to its socialist roots with all the long established MPs and members reinstated as they should never have been expelled in the first place. JC4PM.
The brutal treatment by Starmer’s henchpersons of Diane and of so many other committed activists who have devoted years of their lives to the Labour Party is particularly emotionally devastating – far more so than similar brutal treatment meted out to those like myself who only joined the party when Corbyn became leader.
Diane is quite right to say that she really fears for the country should Starmer become PM. The parliamentary labour party is now an embryonic authoritarian government, constitutionally divorced from an impotent lay party membership, with a leadership in lockstep with oligarchic capital controlling an overwhelmingly spineless flock of MP’s. The majority of the latter, with just a handful of exceptions, behave like predictable robotic goons. In practice the parliamentary party is even more totalitarian than the Tories. Once in power the LP will either turn into a totalitarian dictatorship crushing all opposition or – more likely – it will provide a gateway for the rise of a more traditional fascist party, formed from the ashes of the Conservative party in combination with the existing fascist right. For this reason no socialist or decent human being should be supporting a single one of Starmer’s acolytes: their dishonest ideological charlatanry must be exposed at all costs. Nothing would be more conducive to the crushing of the labour movement and to the subsequent triumph of the fascist right in this country than a Starmer government with a large majority.
In this connection I would like gently to remind the JVL Executive that at JVL’s AGM on 18 June, ALL EXPLICIT REFERENCE to membership of the Labour Party was removed from JVL’s statement of principles and its membership criteria – a change which several of us had long been campaigning for. Unfortunately the JVL website has not yet been updated to incorporate this crucially important change.
[The JVL website was undated the day after the 18 June meeting(s) but George is right to point out we didn’t do it everywhere! We hope we’ve picked up the inconsistencies now. See the amended Statement of Principles. – JVL web]
Outrage is not enough.
Disgraceful I will be resigning from the Labour Party
It is good to see that Diane has stood up to Starmer and his cronies, though to no avail. He is happy to send people away from the LP when their views differ from what he has set out to be his path to power, which Diane so clearly explain in her letter. Thanks Diane for speaking out on behalf of those who have been expelled or has left the party.
Love & Solidarity Diane.
So sorry to read this Diane. To be honest I feel pity for Keir Starmer. Does he have no idea the burden of karma he is building. Creating such division and bitterness does not suggest a man at ease with himself. Whatever drives him to destroy will have an impact. I hope you can forgive him and continue to fight for justice and peace for the many and include also the few. We are after all one human family????
If all of us expelled from the Labour Party as part of Starmer’s Purge were to gather together as a new socialist party we would outnumber Starmer’s shrinking membership and become the largest party in Europe, as the Labour Party was under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership
Another sad story of betrayal and victimisation. I agree with this: “However much I want to be rid of the Tories, I really fear for this country should you become PM.”.
“I have to say I am relieved as being a member in Holborn and St Pancras CLP has become like being in a viper’s nest.”
Not seeing the problem here then.
Diane – you are now a martyr for the cause and a standard bearer for The Big Lie. I recall now why I was non-aligned in the broad left at Uni . I canvassed for Audrey Wise in Coventry but did not join the party. Michael Foot was worth his weight in gold – sticking to principles.
Perfidious Albion , A powerful bbc smell of mendacity , sharks among the socialists . I will never forgive the destruction of the party.
Thank you for supplying Starmers office address I now know where to send letters expressing my disgust.
I am sick of saying that Starmer will do more harm to the UK than even the current toxic government. He has no honour and thank goodness that I didn’t join the Labour Party in its current form. I think that it was despicable the way Jeremy Corbin and others have been treated. God help us all should he gain the power he craves.
Starmer & Co need to be attacked from every angle up and during the coming General Election. I dread to think these people will ever get their hands on power. We need to get rid of Starmer and his cult then take on the Tories who we can beat. The 2017 GE proved that. In the words of Nye Bevan “as far as I’m concerned they are lower than vermin”
Best wishes, Laura.
Extremely good letter but as we all
know ‘the truth hurts’ and he will just carry on his Tory agenda until the LP is destroyed.
He is after all Blair’s puppet.
Solidarity my friend thank you for all your efforts.
Respect to Diane Pearson. Brilliant letter which sums up where Labour is right now and it’s not a good place for any socialist. Hope Starmer is unseated asap.
Absolutely deplorable actions of a Labour Party leader,and the same to all who support him and agree with his decisions.
Diane Pearson I congratulate you for your honesty & such a wonderful letter which goes without saying is truthful throughout!
It was a sad day when Starmer got elected I would never vote for a Tory hence Starmer will NEVER get my vote!
Everyone had the chance of Mr.Corbyn & the genuine Labour MPs & Councillors but his opponents decided to use antisemitism as a weapon much to the shame of thousands of Jews who were & are targeted by the Confirmed Zionist Starmer!
Smearing an honest man, like Mr. Corbyn whose lifetime’s work has been exemplary & being a Human Rights Activist has shown just ignorant & arrogant Starmer really is as his record as the DPP was so flawed even the staff spoke of his incompetence!
I’m sorry you have been cast aside by this appalling man but you now have a badge of honour for being a decent human being ,rejected by liars & criminals who collude with the Tories & Blair the war criminal & Mandelson who’s fortune is a Russian connection & a dubious friendship with the late Epstein! Respect to you Diane .
I have realised that as Diane is a constituent, her constituency MP, Starmer, is obliged to respond to her. Note the minimalist and cowardly way in which Starmer has actually not responded to Diane’s comprehensive letter. The Labour Party Leader and prospective Prime Minister has, as always, nothing to offer. Starmer hides behind his office and is shielded from his constituent’s summary of the ghastly facts. Note the hypocritical pseudo response from disinterested staff, complete with smarmy mock courtesy.
Thanks for sharing your story Diane. Sadly it could have been written by thousands of members that have been expelled by Starmer. I warned colleagues that he couldn’t be trusted, he was given a safe LP seat by Ed Miliband. He’d only been an MP for a couple of years, yet he campaigned for Owen Smith’s challenge against JC, for the Leadership, posing for photos, hiring an ice cream van to give away free ice creams in the hope of getting a crowd. He proved then that he was anti Corbyn, that should have been a wake up call. The Evidence now is overwhelming that he’s a Liar, a Fraud, a Dictator and a Traitor to Socialism and the People. I’ve posted this hundreds of times on Facebook and Twitter, including on his Facebook page and Twitter account. I have no idea why I haven’t received a Suspension yet but I’ll keep on attacking and highlighting his actions and policies or lack of them, right up to the next GE.
Now will they be told? There is no Labour Party anymore. What does it take for some good socialists, clever, degrees to the nines, published and on, to see what is staring them in the face? Leave before you discover what you are a part of.
Sir Kid Starver owned by the enemies of the many and paid by the greedy few! A Tory plant inside Labour along with many other back stabbing traitors who really should be in the Tory Party!