Corbyn's Office Ordered 2017 Election Campaign Funding Cuts For 'Moderate' Labour MPs, Ex-Campaigns Chief Reveals
Jeremy Corbyn’s office ordered that a raft of “moderate” Labour MPs should be stripped of extra campaign funding in the 2017 general election, a senior former party official has revealed.
Patrick Heneghan, who was executive director for elections and campaigns, said that he was asked to withdraw top-up spending earmarked for deputy Tom Watson, Yvette Cooper, Rachel Reeves and a string of other MPs seen as critical of his leadership.
The 14-strong “hitlist” – seen by HuffPost UK – also included current shadow cabinet ministers Kate Green and Bridget Phillipson, Tony Blair’s successor Phil Wilson, ex-minister Caroline Flint and former leadership hopefuls Dan Jarvis and Angela Eagle.
Heneghan was instead given an alternative list of MPs who should benefit from special central campaigns cash, including close Corbyn allies John McDonnell, Ian Lavery, Andy McDonald, Jon Trickett and veteran leftwinger Paul Flynn.
Seats like Lavery’s and Trickett’s had majorities of more than 10,000, as did many of those held by “Corbynsceptics” such as Watson, Reeves and Jarvis. Many of the constituencies held by both factions had large numbers of Brexit-backing Labour voters who distrusted Corbyn.
In his submission to a party inquiry into alleged “sabotage” of Corbyn’s leadership, the former elections chief admits that he defied the order to axe funds from the prominent MPs.
He further confirms that and other officials used a secret unit to keep cash and campaigns material going into the seats that internal polling suggested were at risk.
Heneghan defended the move because it was legally authorised by general secretary Iain McNicol, and said that other seats helped by the secret unit – Ashfield, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Barrow, Bishop Auckland and Dudley North – narrowly avoided falling to the Tories.
Corbyn supporters insist that the creation of a secret campaign unit without the knowledge of the leader is clear proof of disloyalty by senior staff.
They argue...
