Sophy Ridge on Sunday Interview with Ian Lavery Labour Chairman

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY

SOPHY RIDGE: Now when we do look round the Sunday papers we’ll find they are full of Conservative splits and Brexit rows, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Labour should be charging ahead in the polls by now but they’ve spent the summer struggling to shake off the anti-Semitism row, something which should of course be top of the in-tray for our first guest this morning, party Chairman Ian Lavery who joins us now from Wansbeck. Hello to you and thanks for being on the programme. Now before I get on to Labour, I do want to get your reaction to this Boris Johnson intervention claiming that Theresa May has wrapped a suicide vest around Britain in the Brexit negotiations. On this occasion do you agree with Boris?

IAN LAVERY: Well listen, Johnson is getting exactly what he wants, you know, Sophy. He is on every newspaper front page this morning, he’s on the inside pages, he’s the first item on Sky News, he’s the first item on this first interview with myself and at the new time of 9 o’clock. Johnson says things which are absolutely despicable and he does it for one reason, he does it for the publicity and that’s what he’s got. We need to be ignoring this individual, he’s an absolute embarrassment, he was probably the worst Foreign Secretary we’ve ever had and now with the comments he makes with regards to suicide bombers, Theresa May and Brexit, that’s totally unacceptable. Let’s just forget about Johnson and let’s discuss the real problems facing this country, for heaven’s sake.

SR: Okay, I’ll take you at your word, let’s forget about Johnson, let’s move on. The last time you came on this programme, Mr Lavery, this is what you said to me, you said “Anti-Semitism has no role, no place at all in the Labour party, we will root it out from top to bottom and that as Chairman of the party I can categorically tell you.” So how’s that going?

IAN LAVERY: It’s been a massive challenge, I’ll not deny that but we are on to it. We’ve had Jennie Formby, we’ve had the National Executive Disputes Committee basically come right up to speed with the complaints which have been lodged with the party. I think we’re right up to speed with the complaints other than those that have been pushed up to the next stage of the NCC to there has been a lot of progress with regards to complaints but listen, we’ve got a huge challenge ahead with the Jewish communities. We understand fully the hurt which has been caused within the Jewish communities and we want to make amends, we want to make amends. We’ve said all along that we want to discuss things, whether it be with the Board of Deputies or the other Jewish groups and the Jewish community themselves but it takes all parties to come together to try and at least, at least draw a line in the sand and try and rebuild that trust. We had an NEC meeting Tuesday past where the NEC unanimously agreed the IRHA definition with the 11 examples and also a statement by Jeremy, the leader, with regard to free speech and the Palestinian issue, all which were passed unanimously so I think we’ve made a lot of headway since the last time we spoke, Sophy, and we hope that that continues but I make a plea to the Jewish communities and the leaders and the rabbis and everyone concerned, let’s get together, let’s talk about the issues and let’s see if we can rebuild that trust which we’ve lost over the past few months if not a year or so.

SR: A key part of rebuilding that trust of course is actions not words, so a couple of questions for you about the progress that you have made, that you say that you’ve made. Firstly, how many people have been expelled from the Labour party when it comes to anti-Semitism and secondly, have you received any complaints specifically against Mr Corbyn?

IAN LAVERY: Well I’m not someone who would deal with the complaints per se. We’ve got a … the party structure deals with that. The complaints go directly to the complaints committee via Jennie Formby, the Secretary of the Labour Party…

SR: You must know if anyone has been expelled though, surely.

IAN LAVERY: Well there’s been people suspended, there’s been people expelled, there’s been people basically booted out the party because I’ll tell you again …

SR: How many?

IAN LAVERY: … the same as what I said the last time, Sophy, let me tell you there isn’t any room in the party for anti-Semitism, there isn’t any room in this party for any type of harassment, intimidation or bullying. Anybody who is proven through the right process and the right procedures, will be dealt with swiftly and will lose the membership of Labour party. You keep saying how many …

SR: Well how many people have been expelled or suspended?

IAN LAVERY: Sophy, it’s a [grim] number of people who have been expelled, it would be wrong of me to try and tell you exactly what the number is but it certainly, there certainly has been people kicked out the party and rightly so.

SR: Don’t you think you should know the number as party Chairman?

IAN LAVERY: Well I don’t ring in every day and ask for statistics on what’s happening with every facet of the Labour party. I’m sorry for that but we have got a lot of work to do, this is very, very important. One thing I am confident is, is that we are dealing with the issue of anti-Semitism within the party, it hasn’t got any room in our party.

SR: Okay, thank you for your words on that. Now I’m keen to talk to you about someone that we’ve got coming on the programme after your interview, Chuka Umunna. He made an intervention yesterday where he asked Jeremy Corbyn to, in his words, ‘call off the dogs’. What’s your message to Mr Umunna when he comes on the show later?

IAN LAVERY: Well I may tell you, that is so disrespectful, it’s so offensive to members of the Labour party. Calling anybody a dog is absolutely outrageous in the extreme and Chuka Umunna of all people should know that and I hope when he comes on to your show this morning that he takes this opportunity of apologising to those people who he has offended immensely. These are the people who keep Chuka Umunna and myself and other MPs in a job, these are the people who deliver leaflets, these are the people who speak to people on the doorstep, these are the people who go out in rain, hail or shine to ensure that we’ve got the best possible chance of winning an election. To then denigrate them, to call them disrespectfully dogs is absolutely outrageous so Chuka, be respectful to these people, these are the people who keep us in employment, these are the grassroots of foot soldiers of our wonderful party.

SR: Is there not though an important point that Mr Umunna is trying to make? He is effectively saying, isn’t he, that he feels that centrists like him are perhaps no longer welcome in the Labour party and actually if you look at the evidence perhaps he’s got a bit of a point. Joan Ryan and Gavin Shuker both losing votes of no confidence in their constituencies, one of them live on radio and TV, Chris Williamson a Corbyn loyalist is currently on a tour of the UK where he is drumming up support for mandatory reselections and Sky News research that we’ve done for the show shows that 87% of the Labour constituencies that he’s visited are those people who have been publicly critical of Jeremy Corbyn. I mean don’t you think you need to engage a bit more with the content of what Mr Umunna is trying to say?

IAN LAVERY: Well listen, the reality is with regard to mandatory reselections, that issue probably will come up at the party conference and will be discussed. Mind you, as Party Chair, I am quite happy with the current rules and that is the trigger ballot situation but you know, these votes of no confidence hold no water, they are basically a statement from the constituencies and somebody says people are being targeted, these aren’t individuals being targeted, they’re being challenged. Being a Member of Parliament, when you sign up, when you want to be in this privileged position, you should expect to be challenged every day of your life, that’s the rule of a Member of Parliament so you know, when people think they are being unfairly challenged, they need to be accountable to the people that they represent. They need to be accountable to the people who vote them into office. There’s been people from years gone by, year after year after year, receive votes of no confidence that went on to maintain their position in the parliament for years and years to come. It’s nothing new, it’s nothing fresh and people just need to understand that MPs should be accountable, again that’s the job, that’s the duty of a Member of Parliament, not be frightened to speak and try and understand the views of your constituency, that’s your role.

SR: Just finally, before we come to the end of the interview, I’m keen to ask you about a tweet by the person who founded Momentum, Jon Lansman. Now he tweeted earlier this week to say that Tony Blair was never in the right party and there will never be a return to his politics in the UK Labour. Do you think that Tony Blair was in the wrong party?

IAN LAVERY: Listen, Tony Blair won three elections for the Labour party, Tony Blair did a lot good things within the Labour party in the 18 years tenure as a leader but I think that Jon Lansman makes a point with regard to the situation in the Labour party as it stands now, as it was in those days gone by. We are a different party, we’re in a different direction. We’ve got 550,000 members, we’ve got a manifesto and policies that actually are enthusing people, young, old and in between. People feel for once that they have got a say in politics, people are queuing up for this year’s conference for example. We had 13,000 people at the conference last year and we’re hoping to top that this year. Political parties in this day, you just cannot [manager?], we are, we have and are heading in the right direction. That’s the point that Jon Lansman made, I believe, in the tweet which you’ve just recited Sophy.

SR: Thank you very much, Ian Lavery, from a beautiful looking Wansbeck I have to say.