The leaked WhatsApp messages were authored by members of Warrington, Cheshire, and posted during a debate on flying the Union Flag. The spit threatens to derail attempts by Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer to take back the Red Wall votes in northern England, which passed to the Tories in December 2019.
Many of these lifelong lifelong Labor voters are fiercely patriotic and likely to hold the party’s clumsy attempts to distance themselves from the apologist policies of the Jeremy Corbyn era in a bad light.
The controversy was sparked after former Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid, who is running in the May local election, posted a screenshot of ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
In the messages, which leaked to the Daily Mail, the TV show caption asked, “Should Union flags fly every day?” Are flags a sign of unity and patriotism or do they divide us? “
Mr Rashid then asked the group for their opinion: “What is your opinion? “
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Election candidate Amy Brooks responded, “Personally, I don’t agree with that, many use the flag to promote non-inclusive programs. “
Robin Frith, another candidate for the election and Labor Party secretary in the Warrington North constituency, said it was “another movement from the fascist playbook”.
Councilor Paul Warburton then said: “Next step: Teach the national anthem in schools and sing it every morning when the flag is raised.”
Councilor Rebecca Knowles, a member of the Adult Social Services Cabinet, replied, “It’s scary. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your nationality, but it all sounds pretty scary to me and I have to say that as a mother of a biracial family it makes me really, really nervous.
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The messages provoked a strong reaction from many Britons.
One of them raged on social media: “I have been saying for ages that there is a danger when the British hate, that’s what they are, when they run for office. Should not be allowed. ”
Another said, “Another for Starmer to put on his worry list. The job is not selectable. “
A third said: “More evidence, if any, that @Keir_Starmer is lying when he claims he runs ‘patriotic’ @UKLabour.
“If these people hate the country so much, why should we vote for them?”
In response to the leaked messages, a Labor insider told the Mail: ‘Some of these comments are quite despicable and many Labor voters in Warrington will be dismayed to have said that potential candidates and advisers have spoken of the union flag and the national anthem in such a derogatory and non-British way.
“They definitely go against all of Starmer’s attempts to use patriotism to convince voters in northern cities.”
The insider said Warrington’s Labor Party was “at war” after Corbynista Charlotte Nichols was parachuted into Warrington North headquarters in the last general election.
None of the Labor members commented on the controversy.
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