Betting The House: The Inside Story of the 2017 Election by Tim Ross & Tom McTague

Author:Tim Ross & Tom McTague [Ross, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: azw, epub
ISBN: 9781785903236
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2017-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

DEPUTY HEADS WILL ROLL

Inside the crisis meeting, the inquest began immediately. Milne ordered a full investigation, to report to him, as soon as possible. Meanwhile, suspicion turned towards Watson, the man the leader’s office appeared to blame for every plot, real or imagined, against Corbyn.

The leader’s aides initially believed that different versions of the manifesto had been leaked to the two papers and that the draft given to the Mirror was the latest.

This was the proof the team thought they were looking for. There were only three people who had seen the copy of the manifesto leaked to the Mirror – Corbyn himself; the author of the manifesto, Andrew Fisher, who was in room; and Watson. Therefore it had to be Watson, they felt.173

But the pressure of the crisis in the middle of the night was pushing people to the wrong conclusions. Officials involved later admitted the information they had that night was ‘partial’. One of those who has seen the conclusions of the leak inquiry says it absolves Watson of blame.

The version that was given to the Mirror was, in fact, the same as that given to the Telegraph. Both papers were leaked a draft version given to the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation, or TULO as it is known, at a meeting at 10 a.m. at Southside on Tuesday 9 May, the day before it was leaked. Every copy of the manifesto handed out at the TULO meeting had been numbered and collected before people were allowed to leave, so the leak was unlikely to have been from the union officials who attended. Nevertheless, the number of people who had been given access to the leaked manifesto was significantly larger than the three individuals initially identified.

Furthermore, although the findings of the leak inquiry remain closely guarded, it concluded that Watson could not have leaked the manifesto because he did not have the draft that made its way into the hands of the two journalists.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.