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Starmer’s chief whip allegedly became an MP via Mandelson fix

Mandelson

As highlighted by journalist Michael Crick, Labour’s chief whip apparently got where he is today with a little help from the ‘prince of darkness‘ himself — Peter Mandelson:

Funny, isn’t it, how so many people in the Starmer government seem to owe their career to Peter Mandelson.

It’s almost as if Mandelson is actually the architect of this loathsome abomination of a government.

Mandelson — All coming out

The page Crick highlights reads:

I was of course a part, that a normal selection process could not take place – something that James almost certainly had planned on. The National Executive of the party convened a panel consisting of Tom Watson MP, Keith Vaz MP and a trade unionist member of the National Executive Committee to interview would-be candidates. The local party were informed that their panel’s decision on a shortlist of candidates was sacrosanct and appeals were not allowed.

The panel duly came forward with a shortlist that did not include James Purnell’s office manager, Johnny Reynolds – his favoured candidate. Not to be thwarted, Purnell, together with some assistance from Peter Mandelson MP, went over the head of the interviewing panel.

It was revealed in The Times Guide to the General Election of 2005 that Mandelson then surprised the National Executive to include Johnny Reynolds on the shortlist, which they dutifully did.

As Johnny Reynolds had managed Purnell’s office, he had a great advantage over the other candidates regarding access to the names and addresses of local party members, which greatly helped with canvassing and postal votes. Johnny became the candidate, and subsequently MP.

I was asked three times to go on BBC’s World at One with Mandelson to discuss whether there was any malpractice, but I refused as it could have harmed Johnny’s chances had I done so. Peter did go on and, as I understand, he said he didn’t intervene in the selection process – if that is what he said then that would be a blatant distortion of the truth, as pointed out in The Times Guide that stated that Jonathan Reynolds was ‘selected amid a huge row with Peter Mandelson’s involvement after failing to make the initial shortlist’.

In the Corbyn years, the media would call you a ‘Stalinist’ even if you carefully did the precise opposite of the above. You’ll notice they’ve turned a blind eye to how the likes of Starmer and Mandelson operate, however.

Or they did, anyway.

Obviously they taste blood in the water right now, so they’re noticing all the things they allowed to fly under the radar with Starmer.

Surprise, surprise

We’ve never cared for Reynolds, reporting in 2023:

We’re at a point now at which even the austerity-pushers in the media are looking at Britain’s crumbling infrastructure and saying ‘maybe we should spend the bare minimum on this stuff‘. Among the public there’s been a hunger for public spending for years; now we’re at a point at which you can voice that feeling without being dogpiled by the nation’s thickest columnists. And yet – and fucking yet – Labour are using this situation to promote – of all fucking things – more austerity – i.e. the thing which got us here in the first place – the thing which we know from history never works:

Here’s what our own James Wright wrote on him in 2024:

The Labour Party has offered corporate bosses the “unique opportunity to become a commercial partner at our business policy round-table over breakfast” for up to £30,000 – in another cash-for-access scandal.

For £15,000, corporations would give a keynote speech, have photographs with business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and have a dedicated Labour Party staffer to make introductions. And for £30,000, the corporation could also decide who else would attend the breakfast.

Given Reynold’s track record, it’s entirely unsurprising to learn that the sulphurous stench of Mandelson has clung to his career from the jump.

Featured image via Number 10 (Flickr)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.