UNITED KINGDOM
The UK Opposition Labour Party has written to the head of the Public Service calling for an independent investigation into an anonymous leak to a newspaper that its leader, Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) was in ill health and too frail to function as a future Prime Minister.
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jon Trickett told Cabinet Secretary, Mark Sedwill that the comments amounted to a “totally unwarranted and indeed unconstitutional political intervention, with disturbing implications for our democratic system”.
The newspaper report cited anonymous senior PS employees who warned they were concerned about Mr Corbyn becoming Prime Minister after an election as he seemed to lack a firm grasp of issues and was being “propped up” by his advisers.
One was quoted as saying: “There is a real worry that the Labour Leader isn’t up to the job physically or mentally … there’s growing concern that he’s too frail and is losing his memory.”
“He’s not in charge of his own party.”
Mr Corbyn has called for an investigation, saying it was very concerning for officials to brief against an elected politician.
In his letter to Mr Sedwill, Mr Trickett wrote: “Discussion of these matters, based on false assumptions, should not be taking place.”
“Worse, it is without precedent in my experience that any high-level discussion about senior politicians, let alone the Leader of the Opposition, should be shared with a newspaper.”
Mr Trickett said there was clearly a need for an investigation into what appeared to be a breach of Public Service neutrality, and that it should be independent of the Cabinet Office to avoid any real or apparent conflicts of interest.
Leader of the Unite union and a close associate of Mr Corbyn, Len McCluskey told the BBC he believed the comments could have been entirely made up by the journalists concerned.
“They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Mr McCluskey said.
“It was fake news. It was lies. It was distortion. Jeremy Corbyn is as fit as a fiddle.”
London, 1 July 2019
