The Croydon Labour Party is going “undercover” again, keeping the venue for one of its General Election fund-raising events top secret – even from their own members – to try to avoid any protests over the genocide in Gaza or, on this occasion, the illegal war in Iraq that they helped to start when Tony Bliar was Prime Minister.
Because coming to an as-yet-undisclosed venue in Croydon on January 25 will be Alastair Campbell, the Blair spin doctor notoriously linked to the “sexed up” “dodgy dossier” on the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction that was used as a premise for Parliament to vote in favour of joining US President George W Bush’s war in 2003.
Anyone foolish enough to pay £30 (“plus a small booking fee”) for this event organised by the new Croydon West Constituency Labour Party will get to witness a cosy chat between local MP Sarah Jones and Campbell. And then they might buy one of Campbell’s books, or even get him to sign a copy.
The evening is most unlikely to be as journalistically scrupulous as Jon Snow’s interview of Campbell for Channel 4 News some 20 years ago or so, nor as high-tension entertaining as when Ian Hislop chided the former Mirror political journalist on Have I Got News For You in 2012. Campbell is notoriously short-tempered whenever the dodgy dossier that led to an eight-year foreign war gets even a sideways mention.
Big draw: Croydon Labour are promoting this without any mention of the Iraq War or votes for the LibDems
Campbell has spent two decades working on reinventing his public image from his time as a Downing Street hate figure – the sweary Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It is widely thought to be based on Campbell – into some kind of bagpipe-playing, high-level sports pundit, an expert on depression and now as the host of a money-spinning podcast.
And although he was expelled from the Labour Party in 2019 for voting for the LibDems, Campbell has been welcomed back into the fold by current party leader Keir Starmer. And by Croydon MP Jones.
According to the less-than-detailed bookings page for Jones’s fund-raising event, Campbell “is well known for his prolific role in New Labour’s electoral success between 1997-2010”.
They add that the LibDem-voting Campbell “remains a household name in the Labour movement”.
There’s no mention of the Iraq War. Or the dodgy dossier. Or Campbell’s chequered recent voting record.
Promising “a fascinating evening”, Jones says that the session with Campbell will help “to understand what we can learn from the years leading up to the largest electoral victory in the Labour Party’s history”.
Money raised will go towards campaign funds in Croydon West and Croydon South.
But when it comes to stating where the event will be staged, however, Jones and her organisers are noticeably coy. “Venue will be announced shortly before the event but will be in a Croydon Central location.”
Nothing like Alastair Campbell: Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi
Croydon Labour are very twitchy over their events attracting anti-genocide protests, after a venue refused to stage a fund-raising dinner in November because of Jones and fellow MP Steve Reed’s voting record on the Israeli military operation in Gaza.
Veteran political journalist Michael Crick, who runs the @TomorrowsMPs Twitter account that has been keeping a close track on who will be standing where in the forthcoming General Election, seemed deeply unimpressed by the prospect of Labour in Croydon organising a fund-raiser when they cannot manage to organise a fair parliamentary candidate selection process.
“No doubt Alastair Campbell will grill Sarah Jones on the suspended selection in Croydon East, and ask how some contenders were sent a membership list that appeared to have been tampered with,” Crick snarked last night when he heard of Campbell’s planned visit to Croydon.
There’s been no news from Labour about the selection process in Croydon East for almost two months. The selection was halted after reports of “suspected fraud” and “large-scale tampering” with membership lists.
And grassroots Labour Party members are distinctly underwhelmed by their local party’s choice of guest for this latest event. “It’s a bit on the nose isn’t it,” one told Inside Croydon, “an MP who’s being accused of facilitating war crimes in Gaza swapping notes with one of the biggest facilitators of war crimes this century.”
Estimated death tolls in the second Iraqi War vary from 110,000 to 500,000, with most of the casualties being civilians.
Those socialists and trades unionists who continue to campaign for Labour to adopt a more humanitarian stance and to back a ceasefire in Gaza remain determined to voice their views.
Hearing of the as-yet unannounced venue for the evening with Alastair Campbell, one said, “They will be met with a demonstration outside. Or more.”
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