Labour MP Diane Abbott yesterday spoke out strongly in support of Harriet Harman and against Phil Woolas.

In a comment posted in response to an article by Dan Hodges at the Guardian, she said:

Dan Hodges is so anxious to defend Phil Woolas that he is missing the point. Phil is not a martyr, or a scapegoat or anybody’s fall guy. He has been convicted of lying about his election opponent’s character. And Phil has certainly enjoyed due process. No fewer than two high court judges deliberated over his case at length. Precisely because they were two high court judges there is no right of appeal.

The judicial review that Woolas is seeking is NOT the same as a right of appeal and relates to the process not the finding of fact. Unlike Dan I believe that, if this judicial finding discourages parliamentary candidates from attacking their opponent’s character (as opposed to their policies), that will be a good thing. Nor does Dan recognise that although he (as a Westminster insider) may be blase about politicians lying, the public hates the idea and will welcome any judicial check on it.

It is perfectly possible to be sympathetic to Woolas and his family but still accept that Harriet Harman was right in the stand that she took.

The courts did not take into account the nature of the campaign Woolas was waging.http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gallery/2010/nov/05/phil-woolas-campaign-literature But the email trail disclosed to the court reveals that the leaflets were not the product of an over-enthusiastic volunteer. The were part of a conscious strategy to enrage white voters and frighten them into voting Labour.

Is that a responsible path for an experienced MP to go down in a town that had already experienced race riots? And even if the courts did not (and could not) take that aspect into account; it weighs with many of us.

The loyalty of Phil Woolas’s friends does them credit. But they need to try and see this how the public does. The Labour Party should never get involved in the politics of racial division. And although lying about your opponents (both inside and outside the party) may be commonplace to Dan, it is a way of doing politics that the public loathes and the party should be moving away from.

Well said Diane.

Reader comments

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