EXC: A number of Labour staffers tried to stop the party’s workplace Unite branch sending letters of solidarity to Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler and Clive Lewis - all of whom were named in the leaked internal report as victims of racism and racial profiling https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-15/group-of-labour-staffers-try-to-block-support-for-bame-mps-named-in-leaked-report-as-racism-and-racial-profiling-victim/

Earlier today 100 or so Labour Party staff who are members of the workplace Unite branch held a meeting via Zoom to discuss how to respond to the leaked report which included alleged WhatsApp conversations that detailed racism and racial profiling against the named Labour MPs.

A motion was tabled that said the report had “highlighted damning examples of casual workplace racism at the most senior levels of the party” and it called for letters of solidarity to be sent to Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler and Clive Lewis from the Labour Party Unite branch.

During the meeting some Labour Party staffers objected to this and tabled an amendment to stop the letters being sent out.

One Labour staffer, who is mentioned in the report in reference to these allegations, said that the letters served as “an implication of guilt”.

I’m told this attempt to block the letters was only supported by a “handful of people” and was swiftly rejected.

Some Labour staffers also spoke out against the motion in its entirety throughout the meeting with one source describing the discussions as “shocking”.

One source told me: “This was a straight forward motion that was designed to condemn the racism that was seen in the report. Many people are now very upset about the hostility in the response to that.”

The motion was passed with just over a dozen Labour staffers either voting against or abstaining.