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*Thread* How did Brighton Labour politics become toxic? Erstwhile Momentum organiser Greg Hadfield helped lead the way.
This photo from 2019 captures the story. Hadfield is flanked by his allies and top causes, Chris Williamson on the left and Tony Greenstein on the right. 1/12
This photo from 2019 captures the story. Hadfield is flanked by his allies and top causes, Chris Williamson on the left and Tony Greenstein on the right. 1/12
Both are key figures in the Labour antisemitism crisis. Greenstein was expelled in 2018. Williamson was suspended at this point and soon to be pushed out. Hadfield invited them to a rally held in a public square because no venue in Brighton would host them. 2/12
The local Labour MP Peter Kyle was to the fore. “Our city should not be a welcoming place for people who bait the Jewish community or sow seeds of division”, he said at the time. 3/12 https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/17826713.chris-williamson-event-eventually-held-brighton-park/
Jew baiting is Hadfield’s calling and Brighton’s misfortune. He held another nasty rally in September 2019. Listed speakers included expelled Labour member Jackie Walker, the conspiracy theorist David Miller, Williamson, and Kerry-Anne Mendoza of the crank blog The Canary. 4/12
This has been going on for years now. Look back to 2016 to find Hadfield praising Tony Greenstein versus “Zionist scum” and the tell-tale line: “they weaponise antisemitism”. 5/12
And it continues. Hadfield is a listed speaker at this upcoming “Labour Against the Witch-hunt” (LAW) meeting with Greenstein, Miller, Ken Livingstone, Walker, and Williamson. LAW has one mission: defend antisemites and attack their opponents. 6/12 https://tinyurl.com/y59zt2yg
As you can see, Hadfield is not big on party loyalty. Here’s another episode. In 2019, he backed a Labour council candidate who had been suspended from the party for spreading absurd and offensive conspiracy theories about Israel and the Rothschilds. 7/12 https://tinyurl.com/y392vqmj
Nor has the party been pleased with Hadfield. As the article above notes, he has been suspended twice, reportedly for bullying and intimidation, both hallmarks of Brighton Momentum’s horrid activism. Yet he was plainly not dissuaded. 8/12
See more from Hadfield’s catalogue of hate here.
A sample: “He told another woman – a Jew whose relations had died in Nazi concentration camps – that she was “poisonous” and a “Zio”, a “British version of the Irma Grese Nazi bitch hanged at Belsen.” 9/12 https://tinyurl.com/y3wlgcxs
A sample: “He told another woman – a Jew whose relations had died in Nazi concentration camps – that she was “poisonous” and a “Zio”, a “British version of the Irma Grese Nazi bitch hanged at Belsen.” 9/12 https://tinyurl.com/y3wlgcxs
Warren Morgan, the former Labour council leader, has profiled Momentum and Hadfield’s trail of destruction in the city. It is shameful that the party has allowed all this to happen. And a price is being paid - Momentum's people are in the news now. 10/12 https://tinyurl.com/yywxfexz
Bad news, of course. The local MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has stepped down from his shadow role. Cllr Anne Pissaridou is suspended. Cllr Nichole Brennan is under investigation. And just today, Cllr Kate Knight resigned from the party. 11/12 https://tinyurl.com/y58oswjs
Labour needs to back its good people in Brighton, who have suffered for far too long. Greg Hadfield is not one of them. He will only bring more trouble and shame if he is allowed to carry on as a member. Enough is enough. 12/12
