Peter Hain leak
Tory blogger Guido Fawkes has obtained Peter Hain's team's campaign plan for the deputy leadership.
I'm sticking a link into it here as I doubt many of my Labour readers sully themselves with visiting Guido's site:
http://base.google.com/base_media?q=hand1133240668858147741&size=8
It looks real to me given some of the names listed.
It's worth a read, mainly to marvel at the foolishness of someone typing up a list of the "campaign team" that includes a number of full-time Labour Party regional staff - the terms and conditions of whose employment prohibit them from interfering in the internal elections they referee -one hopes they are being badly served by this document implying something that isn't true...
and rather fewer actual Labour Party activists of the not-on-the-payroll variety.
Other howlers include:
"Hywel Francis - Aberavon – one of the safest Labour seats in the UK, it also has a long and impressive pedigree of producing Labour politicians, including Ramsay Macdonald."
(I bet Hywel is chuffed by that comparison ...)
and the number that say "cannot go public"...
posted by Luke Akehurst at 2:13 pm
22 Comments:
There are some disappointing names on that list who I would have hoped might have more sense - and good point about the Party staff.
2:33 pm, January 29, 2007
Oh dear!
2:38 pm, January 29, 2007
This is a disaster for Hain. Only 31 MPs, some of which have publicly backed other candidates. I don't think he'll make the ballot after this. Feel sorry for him. Think the named staff members will be s****ing themselves as they wait for the complaints to role in. Barckley Sumner could do a whole edition of Tribue on this.
3:09 pm, January 29, 2007
The list looks very old (for example, Mark Tami is down as a target, but has actually now agreed to back Hain). It doesn't look good for the guy, but it doesnt mean he's definitely not got the numbers.
What will really be a killer is the listing of party staff. The other candidates will rightly go nuts about that. The staffers themselves will be livid that they have been listed. All in all, not a good day to be peter hain or his staff.
3:16 pm, January 29, 2007
"The list looks very old (for example, Mark Tami is down as a target, but has actually now agreed to back Hain)."
yes, and some of the names labelled as "will no go public at this point" have already gone public (like Jessica Morden)
"Only 31 MPs, some of which have publicly backed other candidates"
Gordon Banks has come out for Benn, for ex
3:30 pm, January 29, 2007
Ah, btw, do the "No...C Bryant (HH)" in the Wales targets mean that Bryant is backing Harriet Harman?
3:32 pm, January 29, 2007
"Ah, btw, do the "No...C Bryant (HH)" in the Wales targets mean that Bryant is backing Harriet Harman?"
That's certainly what I assume it means.
The list is obviously out of date - "targets" include people who have declared for at least three other candidates and even some of the 32 have switched.
Similarly the "campaign teams" - I can see two or three people straight away who I know have definitely declared for other candidates.
It doesn't bode well for Hain that so much of his support has gone elsewhere in the meantime.
I agree that the real scandal is the party staff though - including two or three Regional Directors by the look of it. The fact that some of them are listed as "will help behind the scenes" also seems to show that they know what they're doing is against the rules.
It'll be interesting to see what Hazel Blears has to say about that!
3:44 pm, January 29, 2007
"I agree that the real scandal is the party staff though - including two or three Regional Directors by the look of it. "
one of the Regional Directors named in that document is Sheila Murphy who is also involved in Ian Stewart complaint about Worsley and Eccles South selection. I suppose the last thing she needs is to be involved in this thing too.
5:46 pm, January 29, 2007
Explosive stuff. Why on earth did they ever write half of it down, let alone circulate it such that it got leaked?
Perhaps most damaging aspect will be that it not only smacks of corruption but that it looks like utter incompetence - a toxic combination if ever there was.
5:53 pm, January 29, 2007
What's interesting it says that Edmonton has changed hands loads of times. No thats a lie, it only changed in the 1980s when all the working class voted for Thatcher. Took us a while to get it back though, granted.
9:32 pm, January 29, 2007
This is a disaster for Hain. Only 31 MPs
That's actually more than anyone else in the deputy contest has got at the moment and John McDonnell only has about 38 in the leadership campaign, so it's not a disaster for Hain.
10:04 pm, January 29, 2007
"Sully themselves?" You make me laugh.
So tell me, did you sully yourself reading the blog, or did you get the link by immaculate duplication.
12:43 am, January 30, 2007
did you sully yourself reading the blog
I expect the water board will record a mysterious peak this evening, as we all took extra showers.
1:24 am, January 30, 2007
"That's actually more than anyone else in the deputy contest has got at the moment and John McDonnell only has about 38 in the leadership campaign, so it's not a disaster for Hain."
Erm, both Benn and Cruddas are known to have more than thirty, and Alan Johnson is thought to have at least sixty.
Hain may be beating Harman and Blears, but once one of those two is out of the way then the "must be a woman" vote will coalesce.
Time to sell any shares in Hain, if you want my advice...
8:49 am, January 30, 2007
Anon @ 10.04pm - "That's actually more than anyone else in the deputy contest has got at the moment and John McDonnell only has about 38 in the leadership campaign, so it's not a disaster for Hain."
No true on several levels. Johnson has got well over 60, probably nearer 80. Cruddas is into the 50s, and Benn is over 40. 38 may be pretty good for Hain, but its going down, not up.
Also - McDonnell will be pleased that you have tripled his number count, but his pleasure wont make it true.
9:08 am, January 30, 2007
Bubble, where have you got these figures from? Wouldn't want people to think you've just plucked them out of thin air or anything, would we? I mean, you must be the most well-connected (by far) person in Westminster...
10:01 am, January 30, 2007
Bubble's figures sound about right, from what my MP told me they're saying in the tea rooms. Though s/he's muddled up Hain and McDonnell with the figure of 38 - Hain has 31 according to the leaked doc, though he has both lost and gained MPs since that was written by the looks of it.
Though he may lose some more now they discover he's leaking like a sieve!
12:21 pm, January 30, 2007
Jonny - I work in westminster and its my job to know. You dont have to believe me if you dont want to!
3:51 pm, January 30, 2007
How is it your job to know exactly? I also work in Westminster and let's just say I have a very good idea about what's going on.
4:08 pm, January 30, 2007
Which bit are you querying Jonny?
4:51 pm, January 30, 2007
Cruddas is lower, McDonnell is higher. Figures for Johnson, Benn and Hain are fairly accurate.
5:00 pm, January 30, 2007
Well, I agree that Johnson's in the 60s. Benn's getting on for the 40s but may not quite be there yet; Cruddas is now in the 40s but 50s sounds a bit high. Still, both should be on the ballot when the music stops.
Hain is generally thought to be stuck in the early 30s - not much advance on whenever this doc was written. Be v surprised if he's as high as 38.
McDonnell certainly has more than 13 (though I was assuming the "tripled" comment was facetious) but 38 is at the top end of the estimates I've heard. Though I suppose he may be counting Meacher's dirty half dozen on the grounds they will have to come to him eventually.
6:53 pm, January 30, 2007
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