Iain McNicol’s performance – when he’s even here – as the most senior employee of the Labour Party stumbles from awful to culpable.

In February, Tony Blair’s oily right-hand man, Peter Mandelson, said he worked every day to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

He wasn’t subtle about it. He was speaking to the House of Lords. He wanted to be sure he got his message across, too – so much so that he said it twice, with a slight variation:

I work every single day in some small way to bring forward the end of his tenure in office..Something, however small it may be – an email, a phone call or a meeting I convene – every day I try to do something to save the Labour party from his leadership.

Many Labour members were outraged. At least one enough so to write to Iain McNicol, the party’s General Secretary, to ask him to take action against Mandelson, who was unquestionably acting against Labour’s ‘aims and values’ and bringing it into disrepute. She had to do so on a number of occasions to get even a first, inadequate answer.

Here is the email chain. Highlighting is by the SKWAWKBOX:

From: Christine

Sent: 21 February 2017 17:25

To: Iain McNicol

Subject: Peter Mandelson Dear Sir It seems that missives complaining to you have to be written on a regular basis. I am appalled that Peter Mandelson should publicly admit that he is working on a daily basis to bring down the elected leader of the Labour Party. It is no wonder that the party are apparently falling behind in the polls when he and members of the PLP are continually sniping at Jeremy Corbyn, thereby encouraging the negative press coverage which seems to be a daily event at the moment. When will the NEC do something to correct this situation? unless of course they are in agreement with the way things are. Yours faithfully

McNicol’s reply took six days to come (another vacation?) was so meaningless as to be non-responsive:

From: Iain McNicol <iain_mcnicol@labour.org.uk>

Sent: 27 February 2017 13:05

To: Christine

Subject: RE: Peter Mandelson Dear Ms _______ Thank you for your email regarding comments made by Lord Mandelson. Both the Rule Book and the National Executive Committee make it clear that the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions should not in itself be a cause for disciplinary action. If you are not happy with comments made by a Labour politician you may wish to take that up with the person in question as I am sure they would be interested to hear the view of Labour Party members. You can get contact details for Members of the House of Lords from:

http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/lords/ Yours Iain McNicol

General Secretary

The Labour Party,

Southside,

8th Floor, 105 Victoria Street,

London SW1E 6QT

Iain_McNicol@labour.org.uk

Christine’s reply was considerably more prompt – and on point:

Sent: 28 February 2017 14:55

To: Iain McNicol

Subject: Re: Peter Mandelson Dear Sir Thank you for your reply to my previous e-mail. However I do not accept your argument that Peter Mandelson was merely expressing an opinion. Stating quite clearly that he does everything he can to bring down the current Leader of the Labour Party is something quite different. I repeat, he should be suspended from the Labour Party and you and your team should be looking at this. You were certainly quick enough to suspend and expel members for far less during the Leadership election last year. I think you will find that there is much support amongst members for this course of action. You cannot have one rule for one and another rule for others, however much influence they may have on senior party members. Yours faithfully

McNicol’s contemptuous – and contemptible – response was to completely ignore everything Christine had said and merely to repeat his nonsensical point. He’s clearly good value for the huge salary that sends him on all those holidays:

From: Iain McNicol <iain_mcnicol@labour.org.uk>

Sent: 01 March 2017 14:44

To: Christine

Subject: RE: Peter Mandelson Dear Ms _________ As previously explained both the Rule Book and the National Executive Committee make it clear that the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions should not in itself be a cause for disciplinary action.

Your complaint has been reviewed by the Chair of the NEC and no further action will be taken in this matter. Yours sincerely

Iain McNicol

General Secretary

The Labour Party,

Southside,

8th Floor, 105 Victoria Street,

London SW1E 6QT

If working for something is the same as holding an opinion, we should all be getting paid a lot more.

The word ‘undermine’ has its roots in siege warfare. If a fortress’ walls could not be breached directly, the attacking force would dig under the walls, literally ‘mining under’ the foundations – which would either fall under their own weight or else be brought down by explosives planted among the foundation.

Undermining in siege warfare

By McNicol’s logic, if anyone went round to his house and started digging out the foundations of his house, he would take no action – the demolition team would simply be ‘holding or expressing an opinion’.

But of course he would act to stop them – because he would want to stop his house falling down. It appears he is far less committed to the continued stature of the Labour Party – in fact, he’s quite prepared to see it fall, as long as it brings down Jeremy Corbyn with it.

It seems he’s so arrogant about this that he doesn’t even try to camouflage it – as long as you’re a right-winger opposed to Corbyn, you can do whatever the hell you want. You’re just expressing your opinion.

But if you’re pro-Corbyn, retweeting a Green party tweet – or even just expressing how much you really, really like a band – well, that’s an unacceptable action and grounds for suspension.

Was anyone ever less fit?

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