Exclusive: Action is meant to 'silence our client for his legitimate, honestly-held criticisms of Mr Corbyn’s failure to address the scourge of antisemitism'
August 7, 2018 09:37
The backbench Labour MP facing disciplinary action after protesting to the Party’s chair about the failure of leader Jeremy Corbyn to address the “scourge of antisemitism” has labelled GeneraL Secretary Jennie Formby’s investigation into him a “farce and a disgrace.”
A letter, sent by legal firm Hamlins on behalf of Dudley North MP Ian Austin, says that the high-profile investigation against him has “plainly been designed to silence our client for his legitimate, honestly-held criticisms of Mr Corbyn’s failure to address the scourge of antisemitism in the Labour Party."
Echoing the attack on Labour’s disciplinary processes made by Dame Margaret Hodge’s lawyers, Mr Austin’s legal team write that Mr Corbyn’s Party “has failed to observe the most rudimentary principles of natural justice, due process and transparency" and that they are “prejudging the complaints.”
It is also suggested that Mr Corbyn himself had made his own complaint about Mr Austin - whose adoptive parents were Czech Jewish refugees who lost relatives in the Holocaust – in a conversation with Labour’s Chief Whip Nick Brown.
The letter, which was sent to Ms Formby on August 1st, states that Mr Austin had contacted Mr Brown on July 24 to “obtain some basic information about the complaints against him.”
It emerged that complaints had been made against him by Mr Lavery, by pro-Corbyn MP Chris Williamson – and by Mr Corbyn, although the Labour leader had not made his formally.
“At the meeting Mr Brown said he wanted to help resolve matters,” it is suggested. “Or client denied that he had done anything wrong, and in particular, reflected the claims the he had ‘intimidated’ Mr Lavery or ‘berated’ Mr Corbyn (who apparently objected to something our client had said to him but about which Mr Corbyn had, apparently, not formally complained to the party).
The Dudley North MP was sent a letter earlier this month from the party’s head office warning that he was being investigated for “abusive conduct” in parliament after a similar disagreement over the code of conduct.
The JC first revealed the story of Mr Austin’s clash with Mr Lavery on July 18. It followed reports of Dame Margaret Hodge’s confrontation with Mr Corbyn in which she branded him an "antisemite" and a "racist."
On Monday, Labour dropped the case against Dame Margaret.
The party briefed journalists that the MP had “expressed regret” to Labour’s chief whip for the way she raised her views - prompting Dame Margaret to hit back.
The MP tweeted a letter from Mishcon de Reya, her lawyers accusing the party of misrepresenting her position in the “misguided and baseless” process against her.
Folowing the clash with Mr Lavery, Mr Austin told the JC he got into an "emotional, heated discussion" with Mr Lavery shortly after Labour's national executive committee agreed to reject the Party's adoption of the international Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism on July 17.
He confirmed reports that he told the chairman Labour was "becoming a sewer" under Mr Corbyn's leadership.
Mr Austin said he had berated the Party's chairman after he suggested he could not influence the decision as he was not himself a member of the NEC.
"I told him I thought the NEC decision was a disgrace," said Mr Austin. "He said 'I'm not on the NEC' and I said 'But you are chair of the party.'
"It was that sort of discussion. The account that suggests I swore in his face is not true. I did not swear at him."
