Labour MPs Wes Streeting and Lisa Nandy insisted John McDonnell was not telling truth over party’s handling of previous antisemitism claims. Former Labour staffer James Mills set them straight

Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting insisting to John McDonnell: “it’s not true”

Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting were absolutely convinced of their own rightness when they insisted Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell wasn’t being truthful in his account of how his former ‘PPS’ Naz Shah was dealt with after posting an antisemitic tweet.

As McDonnell tried to explain how been taken, the two MPs were having none of it, frequently interrupting to tell the veteran left-winger he was wrong on ITV’s Peston programme. Predictably, the host made much of it on social media:

Labour’s @wesstreeting and @lisanandy tell @johnmcdonnellMP that he is not telling the truth on how previous cases of antisemitism were dealt with within the Labour Party.



Full interview 11.10pm @ITV #Peston pic.twitter.com/kZHFHW49L9 — Peston (@itvpeston) February 27, 2019

Nandy went further, tweeting her insistence that “This matters” – a comment retweeted by Peston and Streeting:

But they were both wrong according to former Labour staffer James Mills, who remembered the event well and was one of only three people present at the time. Mills shared his knowledge on social media – and flatly contradicted the pair.

Mills recalled clearly that both McDonnell and party leader Jeremy Corbyn had personally – and swiftly – taken action:

Neither MP has apologised, at least publicly. As of half an hour before the time of writing, Nandy was still arguing with Mills on Twitter about the matter.

However, the Guardian article she pointed to during the dispute as evidence supporting her position states that Shah was sacked within hours of the news breaking – which appears to contradict her assertion on the programme that “it had been going on for 24 hours and no action had been taken“.

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