Labour Chief Karie Murphy Took City Break In Vienna Weekend Before General Election
Jeremy Corbyn’s chief of staff Karie Murphy went on a European city break just days before the general election, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Murphy, who led Labour’s election team at its party HQ, was in Vienna in Austria with a close friend during the final weekend of the campaign, multiple sources have alleged.
They claim she was not present in the office for key strategy meetings at the party’s HQ on the Saturday before the poll itself on December 12.
Murphy insists she only took one full day off in the final 15 days of the campaign – as “personal, private weekend time” – and during her absence joined meetings by phone on a conference call. She says she was “physically” in the office on the Sunday in question.
It is understood that she told colleagues she was “off” on the Saturday.
But with many activists and candidates on the doorstep launching a last-ditch effort to persuade voters to back Labour that weekend, her decision to leave the country was met with disbelief by several party insiders.
“It was incredible. Unbelievable,” one party source said. “The weekend before the election and she’s not here.”
Another party staffer added: “Taking herself off to Vienna in the final week of the campaign was a slap in the face not only to Jeremy but to every staffer who worked round the clock, including weekends, and to every party member who put their heart and soul into campaigning to put Jeremy in Downing Street.”
Former Ed Miliband aide Stewart Wood said that, in his opinion, if a figure like Murphy had been absent days before the election: “It would be extraordinary for someone senior in a campaign not to be in the country during the weekend before a general election, unless there was a very good reason for their absence.
“Anything can happen in a campaign and a senior figure being abroad, even if they try and work remotely, is an extra risk you don’t need.
“Labour was in such a vulnerable position, it would be remarkable if key...
