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It has been just over a year since Labour, led by Keir Starmer, took office with a huge majority. But a lot can happen in a year, and Starmer’s approval has tanked, making him the second most unpopular leader in Europe. Across Britain, voters seem to be turning their backs on the two-party system that has dominated British politics since the 1800s, looking to Reform on the right, the Greens and Your Party on the left, for a political offering that meets the moment.
On Downstream this week is investigative journalist Paul Holden. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, they discuss the book Holden has spent the last four years writing. The Fraud is a meticulously researched account of the political machinations at the heart of the Labour Party currently ruling Britain.
How did Holden first get hold of a cache of leaked Labour Together emails, pointing him towards wrongdoing by a little-known member, Morgan McSweeney? What was it like to watch from the sidelines as that same McSweeney rose through the ranks, becoming Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and, according to Andrew Marr, the most powerful man in Labour history? What role did McSweeney’s political group Labour Together play in sabotaging the Corbyn political project? And does Holden think we should believe McSweeney’s claims that they committed massive electoral funding fraud by mistake?
00:00 Intro
01:47 Formative Years in Apartheid South Africa
05:42 Accidentally Becoming an Investigative Journalist
11:26 First Suspicions Towards Labour Together
15:36 Who Is Morgan McSweeney?
20:16 Why Is the Labour Party So Factional?
25:04 McSweeney’s Purge of the Labour Party
30:20 ‘So Many People Knew’
35:31 Starmer’s Leadership Ambitions
41:24 How McSweeney and Starmer Joined Forces
49:50 Labour Together’s Hand in the Antisemitism Crisis
58:30 What Was Operation Red Shield?
1:01:43 Pretending to be Leftists
1:06:52 The Conspiracy Against Corbyn Explained
1:09:11 McSweeney’s Dirty Money
1:15:37 How Does This Shape British Politics?
1:22:25 Who Will Succeed Starmer?
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