British opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy after he demanded the release of a report into the 'Patygate' scandal.
Left-wing members and supporters of Starmer's Labour Party took to social media to ask when the long-delayed Forde Report into anti-Semitism and internecine warfare in the official opposition would finally see the light of day.
That was after the Labour leader tweeted his latest demand for the publication of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into alleged staff parties at 10 Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown — while pre-empting its findings with a repeat of his call for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.
Gray's report, originally set for release last week, has been delayed again after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick announced a formal investigation had been opened. She asked Gray to omit details of possible breaches of temporary laws against socialising brought in during the pandemic — offences only punishable with a fixed penalty fine similar to a parking ticket.
That prompted Johnson's critics to change tack from demanding a police probe to accusing Dick, who was appointed by Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in 2017, of corruptly trying to protect the PM.
Leaks from the Forde Inquiry in April 2020 — the month Starmer was elected leader — revealed that Labour apparatchiks deliberately sabotaged the party's campaign in the 2017 snap general election, in a bid to undermine Starmer's left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
Party officials have confirmed reports citing inside sources last July that the party's financial woes since Starmer took over were partly due to £2 million spent dealing with legal claims by those accused in the leak — while a slump in membership from 550,000 to around 400,000 severely cut income.
Replies to Starmer's tweet called him out for "hypocrisy" and stalling.
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Martin Forde QC had promised his report would be delivered at a meeting of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday. But the barrister wrote to the party on Monday saying it was not yet ready — while claiming it was "largely completed and we hope to be in a position to deliver it next month."
"We’ve been let down," Labour General Secretary David Evans reportedly told the NEC, calling the latest delay a source of professional embarrassment.
The same meeting voted by 23 to 14 against a motion to re-admit Corbyn to Labour's Parliamentary group. Starmer ordered his former boss suspended from the party in October 2020 and withdrew the Labour whip from him after Corbyn insisted anti-Semitism claims against the party had been exaggerated by its enemies.