Sinn Fein Activist with Trotskyist Links Still at the Heart of Mayor Fiaz’s Plans for the Future
We have commented previously on the wisdom of appointing Jayne Fisher as Head of the Mayor’s Private Office.
Back when Mayor Fiaz thought the future was Corbynite it seemed to be a good idea to curry favour by appointing someone linked to the McDonnell/Corbyn faction. Now, when the winds have changed, it seems that even members of the Mayor’s hand-picked cabinet are also beginning to give private voice to their qualms.
In 2016 the (former Labour), MP and former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, began hiring staff to reflect the new direction in which he wished to take the party. One of these early hires was a former staff member of Sinn Fein, closely associated with the Trotskyist group Socialist Action, one Jayne Fisher.
Her (lack of) affection for the UK and her commitment to the use of the democratic process to effect change was a matter of some concern to Labour MPs, and this was illustrated when a photograph of her sharing a platform with a convicted IRA terrorist surfaced.
A video also surfaced of Ms Fisher singing on stage alongside the infamous Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane in 2009. McFarlane was convicted of the murder of five people in a bombing and gun attack on a Belfast bar in 1975. The video was published by Socialist Action at an SA event commemorating the death of Redmond O’Neill.
SA was founded in 1982, when the International Marxist Group gave up revolutionary politics in favour of ‘entryism’ into the Labour Party. Leading cadres of SA were soon to be found in well paid positions around another ex-Labour MP, Ken Livingstone, particularly during his time as Mayor of London, in what was described on the C4 programme, Dispatches as “the most successful Trotskyist entryist operation since Derek Hatton’s Liverpool.’
And then there was the time she shared a platform with Conor Murphy who also served time at Her Majesty’s pleasure for explosive offences.
Nonetheless, in the new aggressively ‘socialist’ Labour Party under Corbyn, these concerns were brushed away.
Suggestions that she might have changed her views were somewhat dented when Gerry Adams posted a photograph on Twitter in 2015.
And it was noted that she deleted several years’ worth of Tweets prior to joining Corbyn. Is it too much to suggest that this might have been to avoid embarrassing her new employer? Clearly comments supporting those who killed British soldiers and police officers, (and civilians), might have been difficult for a Labour Leader who wished to gain the support of the majority of the British people.
Having lost one Head of Office to some injudicious comments on Twitter, Fiaz recruited Fisher. Three years’ later she is still at the heart of Mayor Fiaz’s private office. The whispered comments from the cabinet describe her unflatteringly as a “shadowy presence” with influence but no mandate.
The rumour mill suggests that Fisher is retained because she is essential to Fiaz’s hopes for a continued political career, though not necessarily in Newham.
Alternatively, the stock answer from the Fiaz loyalists would be that the cabinet-men are clearly expressing misogyny and seeking to undermine either Fisher or Fiaz. Or both.
We are bound to ask why, because it is clear that none of our elected councillors are prepared to.
Ms Fisher has been the subject of interest on Guido Fawkes and in the Daily Mail. For some reason the Guardian never thought that this was a matter of concern.