Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has a ruthless streak when it comes to suspending MPs who’ve brought the party into disrepute or failed to toe the line.
It’s no surprise that Andrew Gwynne was sacked before the story of his outrageous comments on WhatsApp had even been published, given that Sir Keir has built his leadership of the party on the promise to root out antisemitism.
Labour ministers sent out to bat for the party have highlighted that decisiveness as evidence of the PM’s determination to hold its representatives to the highest possible standards.
Once it emerged that there was a second Labour MP in that toxic WhatsApp group, Oliver Ryan, it was surely only a matter of time before he faced his own retribution.
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We’ve only seen a handful of the messages sent by the 29-year-old Burnley MP, as published in today’s Daily Mail.
He was a 23-year-old councillor when the group was set up – and while clearly highly inappropriate, his comments are not in the same league as those of his former boss, Andrew Gwynne. But it also seems clear he failed to challenge, let alone report, what was going on.
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In his statement last night Mr Ryan said he fully condemns the “unacceptable” comments made in the group, that he regrets not speaking out at the time, recognises that failing to do so was wrong, and apologised for his own comments.
It was a much more heartfelt, detailed mea culpa than Mr Gwynne’s apology for “any offensive I’ve caused” and description of “badly misjudged comments”.
But the party leadership wants to make it abundantly clear that the offensive comments in the group, and the offensive attitudes fuelling them, are utterly condemned.
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It’s hard to see how they could have avoided suspending Mr Ryan. It’s understood the decision had been taken as a result of the party’s internal investigation and before his meeting with the Chief Whip this afternoon – at which he was informed of the outcome.
The danger for Number 10 is if there is anything more to emerge both from the cache of messages, and whether substantial previous concerns had been raised about the individuals involved.
Sir Keir will be hoping his rapid response will have taken the heat out of the scandal, and limited the damage to the party’s reputation. But there’s no doubt the damage has been done.
