One year ago exactly the former Labour Party Chief Whip was suspended from the party over allegations that were made against him. At the time last September, the Guardian said:
Veteran Labour MP Nick Brown has had the whip suspended after a complaint was lodged against him under the party’s new independent complaints process.
The Guardian understands that the senior politician, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East, who has been chief whip for every Labour leader from Tony Blair onwards, is under investigation after a complaint was made against him.
Brown, 72, one of Labour’s longest-serving MPs, has also had his party membership suspended until the case is resolved. The nature of the complaint is unknown.
The former minister said he had not been told what the complaint was about but that he was “cooperating fully” with the investigation.
A whole year has passed since Nick Brown was suspended from the party and there has neither been a completion of the investigation nor any inkling as to what the allegations against him were. Nick Brown and the Labour Party establishment are keeping the public and especially voters in the dark and this is giving rise to a tidal wave of speculation as to why Nick Brown and the allegations has been seemingly hidden.
It’s difficult to disagree with those who say that for there to be so much silence around this case and for the investigation to take so long then there might well be enough in the allegations to damage the Labour Party itself as well as Mr Brown’s reputation and career. The longer the silence about the Brown case the more lurid will be the speculation from members of the public. If Labour want to be seen as a party with decency and principles then they would lift the veil of silence and lance this boil as soon as possible. So what’s it going to be Labour? Are you going to deal with this issue before the election or wait until after the election when the possible fall out from this case is less able to damage the party’s vote share? I don’t know what the delay is for or why there is so much obfuscation about this case but what I do know is that it stinks.
You are implying that Labour voters might be motivated at the next election in 2024 to vote for their candidates as supsr clean and apart from the alleged Tory corruption. This isn’t going to happen, and my prediction is a very messy election resulting in yet another hung parliament. I could be wrong of course, but time will tell.
Some Labour voters might not vote Labour if there are senior members of the party who have serious allegations against them. If the allegations against Nick Brown are really bad then it could propel some to abstain. BTW it’s not just the Tories who give the impression of corruption, all the Westminster parties are tainted by this. Labour have the grooming gang issue and migration issus around their necks and the Lib Dems have their usual sex scandals and taking money from puberty blocker producers ones.
I would relish some form of hung parliament but with new smaller challenger parties in the House of Commons being able to hold back some of the more questionable policies of both Labour and Tories.
*super