An excellent article published by Jewish Voice for Labour today:
| Diane Pearson |
Various left organisations 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.
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2023 at 15:28
Subject: Expulsion from the party
To: Keir Starmer <keir.starmer.mp@parliament.uk>, Keir Starmer QC MP <keir.starmer.constituency@parliament.uk>, <keirstarmer@hotmail.com>
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 [in the EU] 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.
Young Starmer waiting in the wings
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 <keir.starmer.constituency@parliament.uk>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2023 at 13:18
Subject: Re: Expulsion from the party (Case Ref: XXXXXXX)
Dear Diane,
 |
Best wishes,
Office of Rt Hon Keir Starmer KC, MP
Member of Parliament for Holborn & St Pancras
Leader of the Opposition
