Tag: Jennie Formby

The Labour party’s general secretary has told colleagues she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will start treatment this week. Jennie Formby said she would continue to work as much as possible. Formby said: “I have been diagnosed with breast cancer and will be starting my treatment this week. Before that she was a long-serving union official with Unite and its predecessor the TGWU. “Breast cancer has had so much investment that outcomes are really positive, but I know that other cancers have less funding for research and treatment and that access to such good cancer care isn’t the same all across the country,” Formby said. I will continue to work as much as I can. For those days when I can’t, the executive directors and my direct team will make sure everything carries on as usual.” Corbyn tweeted: “All my love to you Jennie … I know you will cope and deal with this in the admirable way you cope and deal with everything else.” Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) All my love to you Jennie, our wonderful General Secretary. My heart goes out to you. https://t.co/KkdNcOwdc7 March 25, 2019 A Labour spokesman said: “Jennie Formby has told colleagues today that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will be starting treatment this week. Jennie will continue to work as much as she can, but is taking a realistic approach towards her treatment.

Formby accused Watson of “completely unacceptable” behaviour after he asked for antisemitism complaints to be forwarded to him. They said that during and soon after the period in question, Formby overhauled the process she inherited, to cut out the leader’s office and her team. In response, Murray called for an investigation without a suspension. “I was asked by party staff a year ago to give advice on 13 individual cases relating to alleged antisemitism, to assist in getting through the backlog,” he said. In April, Formby’s official opposed a recommendation to suspend a member who claimed that a Labour Jewish group had links to the Freemasons, instead backing an investigation with no suspension. Play Video 0:41 In another April case, a recommendation to suspend a member who had already been given a warning was opposed by Formby’s official, who instead backed an investigation. In each of the cases, Labour staff dropped their recommendation in favour of the action backed by the official or, in the mural case, Murray. The Observer has also seen cases in which the pair agreed with the recommendation from Labour staff. Members can be suspended while further investigations are carried out. Staff in the investigations team have always led on investigations and recommendations on individual cases.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has privately told Labour MPs the party should have severe reservations about backing a fresh Brexit referendum, saying voters could see it as a betrayal. The deep scepticism from one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest and most powerful supporters is likely to unnerve MPs and campaigners hoping the party is warming to the idea of a fresh Brexit vote. The private intervention comes at a fractious time for the party, as the leadership agonises over what its tactics should be if Theresa May loses a vote on the Brexit deal in parliament. McCluskey said he believed Labour MPs would need to eventually back some version of a Brexit deal, sources said. I wouldn’t say that majority of MPs agreed with him at all. Watson said a second vote would only come after “a failure of parliamentary arithmetic and political leadership”. However, other close allies of Corbyn remain sceptical about how a second vote would go down in leave-backing Labour constituencies; and the party’s pollsters have been researching the views of voters in heartland seats. There are also fears that a significant minority of Labour MPs would not back the policy, even if it was backed by the frontbench. Snell, the MP for Stoke Central, told the Guardian he had “huge reservations about the practicalities and politics of holding a second referendum and that is a view that is shared by more and more Labour MPs”. “The fragility of the government along with their obvious lack of majority means we are more than likely heading toward a general election,” he said.