LIVERPOOL, England — Housing Secretary Steve Reed said that a forthcoming book about the campaign group Labour Together would “whitewash” concerns over antisemitism from Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party. Corbyn, who is no longer a Labour MP, led the party from 2015 to 2020.
Speaking in the POLITICO Pub at Labour conference Tuesday, Reed — a close ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s embattled chief of staff Morgan McSweeney — said that the forthcoming book “The Fraud” by journalist Paul Holden was written by the “son-in-law of somebody who worked very closely with Jeremy Corbyn in [his] office.”
He added that it was “trying to whitewash the antisemitism scandal that happened under Jeremy Corbyn, so you can draw your own conclusions about why they’ve written what they’ve written.”
Reed’s remarks come as around £740,000 in unreported donations to the think tank Labour Together, which was instrumental in Starmer’s becoming Labour leader, have come under renewed scrutiny.
Holden told POLITICO: “I don’t know how Reed has seen my book to comment. I suspect it has been leaked, which could only be the result of some grave professional misconduct or other nefarious methods.”
Reed — along with now-Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and several other cabinet ministers — were all involved with the group.
In 2021, the Electoral Commission investigated the unreported donations, which Labour Together had self-disclosed.
It found that the failure to disclose the donations could not been an administrative error and fined the group £14,250, saying it had committed more than 20 offences under electoral law.
Holden’s upcoming book — with help from the Conservative Party, whose chairperson Kevin Hollinrake said the donations amounted to a “secret slush fund to install Starmer as leader” — has brought the unreported donations back onto the agenda.
However, the Electoral Commission recently dismissed a complaint by the Conservative Party regarding Labour Together, saying it found “no evidence of any other potential offences” beyond those alleged in 2021.
When asked by POLITICO about the donations, Reed said: “Labour Together identified the mistake itself and reported it to the Electoral Commission. They investigated it years ago, imposed a — in relative terms — small fine, and closed the case.
“Now, the Tories tried to sling mud and claimed there was something else going on. The Electoral Commission have considered what they said and said, ‘No, there was nothing else going on.’ The case was closed years ago, and that really is it.”
When asked if the donations had been concealed to hide the support for Labour Together, he responded: “Of course not. I mean, that was closed years ago and it was fully dealt with. And as soon as Labour Together realized its own mistake, it was Labour Together that reported it.”
He added: “If you’re covering things up, you don’t self-report them.”
The subject is a thorny one for the Labour government, which is mired in scandal and unpopularity after the departure of three senior figures in 10 days earlier this month, and is trailing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the polls.
When asked by Sky News last week about the scandal surrounding unreported donations to Labour Together, Reed’s internet appeared to cut off. Reed told POLITICO that the iPad he was using for the interview suddenly ran out of battery.
Holden said: “It’s astonishing that Reed is commenting on a book he shouldn’t have seen, that exposes him, only days after the Mail on Sunday confirmed that Labour Together hired private investigators to trace and track my family, work colleagues and other relationships in search of ‘leverage’, and in the midst of privacy concerns being expressed about digital IDs.
“But more than anything, Reed sounds rattled. He should be. My book will show he should be nowhere near power.”
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