An anonymous letter to the President of the GMB Trade Union (a woman) earlier this year claimed that an employee of the Union raped a female Labour MP. This has been splashed all over social media (including the identity of the alleged victim) but the mainstream media has been silent on this - although commenting on other issues raised in the letter.
There appears to be an extensive cover-up of this sordid story by the Union and the Labour Party and it appears - at least from what is in the public domain - that there has been no police involvement in this affair either in respect of the alleged sexual assault or allegations of other serious misconduct including the alleged use of Class A drugs. But other details of appalling behaviour within the GMB Union have been slammed by a QC and raise questions why the Labour Party is continuing to accept money and political direction from such a vile organisation.
We sent the following letter (with minor redactions) to the Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, by post on 15th November, 2020 and followed up bt sending it again via email. He has not replied. (The first part of the letter refers to shocking misconduct within Sandwell (a dirt-poor Labour Borough in the West Midlands) Labour Party.)
"Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP,
The Labour Party,
Labour Central,
Kings Manor,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 6PA 15th November, 2020
Dear “Sir” Keir,
THIS IS NOT A PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION. PRESS ENQUIRY.
I write with regard to (a) the relationship between The Labour Party and the “institutionally sexist”, “bullying” and misogynistic [4] GMB Union and (b) the role of you and senior Labour MP’s in dealing with an allegation of a “serious sexual assault (rape)”, “drug-use” and “predatory sexual behaviour by a senior man within the GMB” [7].
I shall be referring to the whitewash report of Karon Monaghan QC dated 31 August, 2020 and the page numbers from her Report are shown in square brackets.
I suppose the first question is whether you are supporting misogyny and bullying in your Party despite your lawyerly posturing and thus in a position to comment? There is a rumour sweeping the Labour cesspit that is Sandwell that you are making the mistake of listening to the poison of the Londoner who purports to represent the sole remaining Labour seat, John Spellar (and his NEC puppet, Gurinder Josan).
It is said that Spellar, who has done so much harm to the Borough, is heavily involved in trying to bring back the disastrous former regime in a Labour Council riven by civil war. That horrendous prospect is not for consideration here but Spellar and Josan are also said to be working assiduously to have the Party suspension lifted on former leader [sic] Steve “Spunk Brother” Eling.
Again, this letter is not the place to discuss Eling’s catalogue of misconduct but as we are talking about maltreatment of women you should take time out to personally speak with three local Labour women and listen to how they feel about his behaviour:
Cllr Olwen Jones: Eling and his sidekick set up a WhatsApp feed to attack his perceived enemies including Labour colleagues. The feed suggested that Cllr Jones’s husband, also a Labour Councillor, should “spunk” over Cllr Maria Crompton “in her bikini” as that would be preferable to him “doing” his wife. Perhaps you approve of this sort of obscenity being sent to a journalist by Party members? Why don’t you ask the victims how distressing they found this?
Cllr Maria Crompton: was, as above, subjected to vile and obscene comment. Further, when she tackled Eling about this he lied to her face telling her the Feed was a fake and entirely invented. Cllr Crompton (the current interim Leader who has steadied the sinking ship in the most difficult circumstances) soon found out the truth. What is significant here is that Cllr Crompton was, at the time, also an EMPLOYEE of the Party. Do you approve of party members making such obscene comments against employees and then lying to them about it?
Melanie Dudley: Labour’s unsuccessful candidate for Dudley North in the December debacle. Check out the WhatsApp feed and local blogs showing how Eling forced her out as Assistant Chief Executive of the Council at huge cost to the taxpayer. Does that constitute bullying in your book? Ask her what happened at a funeral some time afterwards?
(The role of Eling in the unlawful suspension of six secretaries at the Council is still unproven but perhaps YOU can identify via your contacts who the bullying Councillor was shouting “I want the fuckers out and I don’t want the fuckers back”.)
No doubt - given your pusillanimity in passing the buck re suspending Corbyn - you will say that all this is for the General Secretary etc but that is not good enough. You are now seised of this information and whether the rumours of your local involvement are right or not you surely have a moral obligation and a duty of care to members and employees to finally listen to Eling’s victims?
Part One - Is the GMB Union a fit and proper organisation to be associated with The Labour Party?
The GMB Union is a major donor to The Labour Party and thereby exerts considerable influence over it. As a QC you will be familiar with the concept of selling your services for cash and having to jump to the payer’s hideous tune which is presumably why you have appointed such seemingly untalented GMB MP’s as Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy and “Princess” Stephanie Peacock to your top team [sic]. (It is noteworthy that the Union did not back your leadership campaign but you still have to kowtow to them!)
Ms Monaghan not only stated that the GMB is institutionally sexist but stated:
“Bullying, misogyny, cronyism and sexual harassment are endemic within the GMB” [4]
She stated that:
“The culture in the GMB is one of heavy drinking and late night socialising, salacious gossip and a lack of professionalism.”
Private Eye recently reported that: “One senior GMB Union official went on the piss so frequently he lost not one but six union credit cards in various drinking dens around London - including the Strangers’ Bar at the House of Commons.” The hard-pressed members who pay their dues to this rotten organisation are now having to fork out for a “comprehensive audit” of the Union’s spending by mega-expensive beancounters PWC (whose hourly rates probably exceed even your own). How can a nominally socialist Party take money from an organisation which is financially shafting its own members?
The QC wrote of the “sheer volume of examples of bullying, threats and victimisation” by the boys (and it is almost exclusively boys) running the Union [30].
With regard to sexual harassment by the Union of its own employees Ms Monaghan says women are warned that they may face disciplinary action if a complaint is made and not believed and that “this is particularly inappropriate in the GMB because making complaints of sexual harassment is anyway so difficult, and the risk of retribution so great."
In a specific case a person was investigated following “a serious incident of sexual harassment” and found to have committed an act of gross misconduct but a senior male within the GMB intervened and helped the perpetrator move to a new employer with a payment of £30,000 of Union cash. The QC states, “I also heard that complaints were frequently dealt with by moving people or shuffling them out”.
On page 51 of her Report Ms Monaghan repeats her damning charge: “The GMB is a very masculine organisation in which misogyny, sexual harassment, bullying and cronyism are endemic.” The working environment within this appalling organisation can be poisonous and “horrible” where meetings can be held in an “aggressive” and “testosterone fuelled” way, and a bully-boy atmosphere prevails. She heard “much evidence of cronyism” and an “ingrained” drinking culture. At Congress free alcohol is available [52]” I assume by “free” the QC means “paid for out of members’ dues”?
Whilst the report was principally concerned with sexual harassment Ms Monaghan skated over racist conduct with the weaselly “I am satisfied that the GMB is not a comfortable place to be for many employees and members [my emphasis] from Black and minority ethnic groups.”
It is necessary to quote at length from pages 54/55 about the Union of Rayner, Nandy and Peacock (mentioning incidentally that Ms Nandy herself is widely described in male Labour and GMB circles by a very abusive and derogatory nickname):
“Sexual harassment is common in the GMB. Examples of sexual harassment I heard about included touching hair, leering, commenting on body shape and clothes, placing hands around a woman’s waist, staring at a woman’s breasts or “tits”, propositioning young women, “sloppy kisses”, “lip kisses”, “sticking a tongue” in a woman’s ear, touching of knees, bottoms and hips, hugs and slapping of a backside.”
The QC heard of sexual harassment being used as a form of bullying and she heard “of more serious sexual assaults”. She also heard that there was a general “predatory” attitude to women in the GMB. There is also “a demeaning and misogynistic narrative that women who do succeed in securing senior roles in the GMB have done so through having sex with a senior man” [55]. How can Labour take instructions and money from such a filthy, disgusting, outfit?
Being a wealthy QC yourself I do not anticipate that you will agree with me that, whilst the Report does make significant recommendations for reform, it was a ruse to draw a line under the lurid allegations sinking the Union [see also Part 2 below]. Heaven knows how much the Solicitor and QC have been paid for the so-called “investigation” - as ever from the funds of hard-pressed members - but you are unlikely to push back against fees for your learned legal elite. The whole thing smacks of the usual “lessons have been learnt” guff and the can of reform has been kicked down the road. Ms Monaghan states that, “the reality is that the culture and practices and culture of the GMB are so entrenched that a complete transformation if required”.
I do not intend to write much about the former General Secretary, Tim Roache. I comment in passing of his closeness to Tom Watson once they cosied up together. I believe [Watson's] relationship with [GMB female offical] started before he jumped onboard the GMB gravy train. But what did he know of the appalling state of affairs with the Union since he never said anything?
There have been some very lurid allegations against Roache but that is for others to investigate. However, Private Eye have again reported that he received a pay-off from this vile Union in the region of half a million pounds. Whatever the position regarding xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the ordinary members - many of whom are likely to be Labour supporters - have been financially raped by this shower. I appreciate that a woman has only been President of the Union for two years but Barbara Plant has not resigned in respect of anything to do with this grotesque saga and so one has to assume she condones what has gone on and/or the curtailment of the terms of reference to the QC and/or the huge pay-off to Roache.. Do you? Do you think that a Union ripping off members £164.40 a year to pay for all this is remotely acceptable and should Labour continue to take a cut of members’ dues until the “fundamental reform” has actually occurred?
I am shortly launching a campaign to scrap Facility Time ie. where the taxpayer is forced to pay the wages of a large number of Union officials. It cannot be right that the taxpayer is paying the salaries of ANY GMB officials at any time but certainly not when the Union has misbehaved so egregiously and is so unfit to play a role either in the workplace or in public life.
Of course, the Monaghan report is farcical anyway because it does not deal with the allegation of serious sexual assault/rape of a Labour MP made by the “GMB Sisters” as we shall see further in Part 2. The reason given by the QC for this astonishing omission is that any investigation of this was barred by her terms of reference from the Union.
Again, a woman was President at the time the terms of reference were framed so what on earth is going on here?
Part Two: Alleged Sexual Assault/Rape of Labour MP
The anonymous “GMB Sisters” letter addressed to Barbara Plant and widely circulated on social media alleged that an official of the Union sexually assaulted/raped one of your MP colleagues. You come across, to me at least, as a cold and calculating individual but maybe you have sought to assist the alleged victim privately? I cannot trace any public comment from you on any of this shaming saga. Maybe there are criminal investigations going on behind the scenes which I do not know about (though see further below)?
You have, however, been very publicly bragging about your former role as DPP/Head of the CPS* Surely you of all people cannot be satisfied with the apparent lack of investigation into an alleged serious offence? Surely you cannot approve of the way the GMB have simply tried to brush this sordid allegation under the carpet?
There are, as you will know, seven employees of the GMB Union publicly named by “The Sisters” who it is alleged “have knowledge of the incident” and so why is there not, at the very least an enquiry by the Union itself? (I should add that it is not alleged that any of the seven are themselves involved in any wrongdoing.) [See further below.]
Maybe you and/or some of your colleagues have referred this matter to the Police for investigation. Three female MP’s (none of whom are the alleged victim) Louise Haigh, Angela Raynor and Sarah Owen are said by “the Sisters” to “have knowledge” of this incident plus Jonathan Ashworth. Have they referred this matter to the Police (and, incredibly, Haigh was Shadow Policing Minister!)
The Sisters say people at senior levels of the Labour Party and TUC knew of the allegations. Are you and the others involved in a massive cover-up here and, if so, why?
I appreciate that it is not easy for a victim to report such an awful crime to the Police herself but Labour MP’s (quite properly) proselytise about the efficacy of so doing? Is the Party diluting its own message to women victims of male sexual assault?
Given the seriousness of the alleged offence and the apparent cover-up I personally referred this allegation to The Metropolitan Police under reference CDS-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx many months ago but have heard absolutely nothing. Perhaps you can use your influence to have them respond?
There are further allegations relating to drug-use.
The victim, the four above-named MP’s and yourself are aware of this allegation. That is at least six Labour MP’s and I am sure there are many more who have heard the gossip or seen the social media commentary. How on earth can you allow this to be brushed under the carpet and keep on accepting funding from such an apparently sick organisation? Have you - or the others - no scruples or moral fibre?
Can you commit here and now that there will be no dealings by Labour whatsoever with the GMB until:
1 There has been a police investigation into the allegation of sexual assault (rape) of a Labour MP by a GMB official; and
2 The recommendations of the Monaghan Report have been implemented by the GMB Union IN FULL?
If you cannot give that commitment, why not?
* I should add that ex-Cllr Eling tried to convince West Midlands Police to prosecute me after I exposed some of his misconduct and when he was dissatisfied with their response he wrote to your alleged mate Spellar asking him to intervene with the CPS. Spellar had refused to say whether he actually did so. Is this wholly inappropriate behaviour something else you condone - especially given your previous position?
Yours faithfully, (End of Letter)
With regard to the employees of the GMB Union referred to in the above letter we are aware that one of them has - with GMB funding - instructed solicitors who are sending letters to any identifiable people who retweeted the "GMB Sisters" letter on Twitter. And the GMB are fishing to try and discover the identity of "the Sisters" rather than getting on with root and branch reform.
We have also written (again by post and email) to Angela Rayner, Louise Haigh, Sarah Owen and Jonathan Ashworth asking giving them the opportunity to respond to the allegation that they had knowledge of some of these lurid allegations but, like their Leader, they have not seen fit to respond.
Upon receipt of the Monaghan Report (which did not report on the allegations of serious criminality) the GMB Union claimed that it had taken the recommendations on board and would change its atrocious behaviour. To the outsider there is precious little evidence of that too date and, in the unlikely event that members are stupid enough to remain in this repugnant union after reading this, they need to demand change and find out how much of their money has been lavished on pay-offs to errant officials and for the all these investigations.
In the meantime a Trade Union that has accepted the QC's view that it is "institutionally sexist, bullying and misogynistic" still feels able to tout for business with sick tweets like this!
