Labour have waited 14 years to get back into government. Now, after just seven months in power, three ministers have already been brought down by scandal.
Publishing just one of the outrageous comments Andrew Gwynne posted in the “Trigger Me Timbers” WhatsApp group is likely to have been enough to bring his ministerial career to an abrupt end.
But the combination of messages exposed by the Mail on Sunday – from describing a man as “too Jewish and too militaristic”, wishing a 72-year-old non-Labour voter would “croak” before the next local election, to suggesting that Diane Abbott MP was taking to the despatch box at PMQs “because it’s black history month” – makes for sickening reading. It’s not surprising Mr Gwynne was sacked as soon as No 10 were approached for a response.
Read more on Andrew Gwynne:
Minister sacked over WhatsApp comments
Comments ‘unacceptable’, minister says
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The broader problem for Sir Keir Starmer is that the casual nature of Mr Gwynne’s remarks, the fact that they were written down and shared with a wider group of people, seems to lift the curtain on an ecosystem in which both constituents and senior female party colleagues were treated with open contempt.
For the prime minister, who made tackling antisemitism such a defining feature of his leadership of the party, the casual antisemitism in these comments will be especially alarming.
Alex Burghart MP, speaking for the Conservatives this morning as shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, described the remarks as “sinister”, claiming that “it really does suggest that just beneath the surface, between all the sort of the window dressing that Sir Keir Starmer has done, that with senior Labour politicians there may still be a very serious problem with antisemitism”.
He also criticised the apparent failure of other members of the group to challenge or report those comments at the time, and urged the Labour Party to investigate.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook confirmed that that was the case, telling Trevor Phillips “there’s an investigation taking place into the whole incident” and insisting Mr Gwynne’s language was “completely unacceptable, and in some instances, deeply concerning”.
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Mr Pennycook repeatedly made the point that the prime minister had “acted decisively” to sack Andrew Gwynne and suspend him from the party, claiming “I don’t think anyone can be in any doubt about this prime minister and this government’s commitment to upholding the highest standards in public office and to rooting out antisemitism from the Labour Party, root and branch”.
It looks like many of these messages date back to the years before Sir Keir became leader of the party. But for a prime minister who promised “a return to the politics of public service” the questions raised by the attitude of a minister he appointed to public office won’t go away.
