Hounding Jess Barnard

JVL Introduction

On 3rd September we reported that Labour Party Young Socialists were told by the Party bureaucracy they couldn’t have a speaker from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign at their conference. That decision was rapidly reversed before it blew up spectacularly in the Party’s face – see our report in Labour Party Conference and Palestine, a post that includes an account from Jess Barnard, Chair of the Young Socialists at the end of that report.

But a week later a new story emerged  about Jess Barnard receiving a notice of investigation – emailed at 1am! – for “two anti-transphobia tweets posted last year” – see Sienna Rodgers’s story on LabourList below.

But by the end of the same day came a message from the Labour Party that the notice of investigation “was issued in error” – “We apologise unreservedly to Jess for the hurt and upset this has caused.”

What on earth is going on?!

Following the LabourList story we repost Alex Nunns’ twitter thread explaining just what is going on.

It’s not a pretty story – one of a party machine at war with itself with independent rogue operators seemingly operating from its very heart.

You’d have hoped the Party would notice that we are in the midst of a series of social, political and environmental crises which it could well turn its attention to. Instead its paid officials seem to be spending their time hounding socialist members…

Young Labour chair under investigation by party over anti-transphobia tweets

Sienna Rodgers, LabourList, 10 September 2021

A fresh row between Young Labour chair Jess Barnard and the Labour Party has exploded as the activist was informed overnight that she is under investigation over two anti-transphobia tweets posted last year.

Update, 8pm: A Labour spokesperson said: “We apologise unreservedly to Jess for the hurt and upset this has caused.” LabourList understands that Jess Barnard is not under investigation, the notice of investigation was issued in error and has been rescinded, and Labour has apologised to her. The notice was apparently sent outside of the usual processes and the party is looking into how the ‘error’ happened.

The notice of investigation from the party, seen by LabourList because Barnard sent it to all members of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), states that it is investigating allegations she may have broken party rules.

The document refers to “your conduct over email” and asks whether Barnard regrets “posting such comments on Facebok [sic]”, although the posts in question are tweets. The two tweets were both posted in October 2020.

The first tweet includes the question “Guess how many T%RF accounts I had to block today?”. The second is a reply to a Labour councillor, which states: “Expect better from a Labour representative.” It adds: “There’s no fishing for anything I just won’t be intimidated in to giving transphobes energy”.

LabourList has spoken to Labour NEC members who are angry and/or confused by Barnard being investigated over the tweets. One described the action as “outrageous” and another said they “can’t see the issue”.

In an email to NEC members, Barnard noted that the notice of investigation was sent to her at 1am. She said there is “no discrimination” in the evidence presented by Labour and “I haven’t identified any individuals” in the tweets being highlighted.

The Young Labour chair was told that she has not been administratively suspended by the party, there is no assumption of guilt and no restrictions have been placed on her membership rights.

But the document from Labour goes on to specify that the party could suspend her in the future and that “upon the conclusion of this investigation, the NEC may impose such disciplinary measures as it sees fit”.

The move comes less than two weeks after Barnard publicly raised concerns over organising Young Labour day at party conference. YL had been told Labour could not complete checks on speakers until September 20th, just days before the start of conference.

Barnard tweeted today: “I hope you can understand I am not at present free to discuss the investigation.” She adds: “It has been a relentless time and I would be lying if I said this wasn’t impacting my mental health.”

Momentum co-chair Gaya Sriskanthan said: “This is a new low. Transphobia is a serious problem in both Labour and wider society – we should be investigating those with a track record of discrimination, not the people standing up to them.

“This is part of an emerging pattern of political harassment and intimidation of members that is making a mockery out of the party’s disciplinary process.”

Jess Barnard is not giving further comment at this time. The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.

And here is Alex Nunns to explaining what is going on

The real story of what happened with @JessicaLBarnard yesterday is incredible.

The party said she was sent a notice of investigation “in error”. That was mocked—how do you investigate someone & send them an intimidating letter at 1 am by mistake? But it was actually true.

True in the sense that it was done completely outside the official processes in what must count as the definition of bringing the party into disrepute.

First, the context: Young Labour is a thorn in the side of the leadership, a left-wing outpost in the party. The leaderhship’s plan is to revive Labour Students (traditionally a right-wing part of the party) to displace Young Labour.

There’s a concerted campaign against Young Labour and its chair Jess originating from within the party, It’s the usual recipe: bureaucratic obstruction with coordinated attacks from the media and smears (alleging they want a second Holocaust—can’t get more grotesque than that).

Labour’s bureaucracy has been sabotaging Young Labour’s program for conference. Jess exposed it on Twitter. That didn’t go down well. Someone at a senior level in the party wanted to punish her for her insubordination and stop her speaking at conference.

That’s why she was sent a notice of investigation. But something was amiss. The notice was emailed at 1 am. The charges were not only baseless, they were ridiculous—under investigation for opposing transphobic abuse.

It made the party look bigoted and sent a message to trans people that they can’t be defended or protected in the Labour Party. It was a disgrace. When it was exposed the party quickly rescinded the investigation and apologised to Jess. It was highly embarrassing for them.

So what happened? From talking to several people in Labour I have a good idea. First, this wasn’t done by the disciplinary team, the Governance and Legal Unit. Any investigation would have to be carried out and signed off by GLU. This one wasn’t. It didn’t actually exist.

There was no investigation. Someone recycled an old vexatious complaint that GLU had previously dismissed. Jess was sent essentially a fake notice of investigation that bypassed the system—except it was sent from the official address in the standard format on headed paper.

Reportedly it was sent by one of the insecure & inexperienced agency staff brought in to work on complaints while the party was making permanent staff redundant—a great advert for hiring cheap labour from the party of labour.

But an agency worker didn’t spontaneously decide to do such a weird thing at 1 am. They were directed to do it. Who by?

It wasn’t David Evans. He demanded to know why a notice had been sent at 1 am. It wasn’t GLU.

It was someone else senior enough to be able to get agency staff to do their bidding in the middle of the night. Someone who has got it in for Jess. Someone with an interest in disrupting Jess’ and Young Labour’s conference. People within the organisation will know who it was.

The trouble is, they did such a shoddy job. Fine if it stays secret—Labour tells people under investigation they can’t speak about it. But once Owen Jones tweeted an email leaked from the NEC and questions were asked, Labour couldn’t answer—cos it wasn’t a real investigation.

They also had to respond to a furious letter from Jess’ very committed lawyer. So the thing fell apart immediately and they unreservedly apologised, rightly.

This all made Labour’s disciplinary system look like an amateur, shoddy, factional, petty, chaotic mess. You might say that’s what it is. But the managers of GLU must be furious.

The EHRC report last year said complaints must not only be “handled in a fair, impartial and transparent way” but must be “perceived to be” handled as such. What happened to Jess blows that apart. It showed the complaints system to be polluted.

The director of GLU and the executive director who oversees it, if they have any professionalism, will be demanding an investigation and consequences for the person who made them look so corrupted.
Someone at the top of Labour was willing to bring the whole weight of the party’s machinery down on a young, working class woman. There’s a word for that: bullying.

But what about a bureaucracy where this can happen & where no one will likely be held to account? It’s rotten.