The latest revelation that nobody in the Labour knew nothing about the emails, the line that has been peddled by Gordon Brown and all the ministers all week appears to not be true. It appears that Labour’s General Secretary Ray Collins chaired a meeting that was to set up the Red Rag website for which McBride prepared the smearing emails he sent to Derek Draper. In a new email that has surfaced written to the then head of Labour's Internet campaign Draper allegedly shows the who, when, where and what was on the the agenda of that meeting.
Who was there:
- Ray Collins
- Derek Draper
- Charlie Whelan (Political Director of Unite, Labour's largest donor, and former Brown spin doctor)
- Damian McBride
- Andrew Dodgshon (Unite Press Officer)
- Kevin Maguire (journalist and friend of Brown) although only in a private capacity
When: 1 December 2008 (7 weeks before McBride's emails)
Where: Charlie Whelan's Office, Unite London HQ, King’s Street, Westminster,
What: How to set up, run and work out how to finance the Red Rag site, which had been registered 4 weeks before on 4 November, from the Houses of Parliament.
Collins has stated that McBride and Draper were acting alone. Amazing how that was done in a minuted meeting with 6 attendees.
A shocked Labour party insider has finally spoken some truth on this issue
"It is devastating that Collins was there. It was a meeting called to set up, run and work out how to finance the Red Rag site.
"It’s no coincidence either that it wasn’t held at Labour Party HQ, or that it was at
Charlie Whelan’s offices in Unite.
"Whelan is back as Gordon Brown's unofficial Mr Fix-it, and he’s now so powerful that he’s effectively running the party.
"If anyone in the party was still daft enough to believe the Downing Street line about this being minor, this email finally exposes that lie."
Going to be another long week in politics for Labour I expect.
