Jennie Formby quits as Labour General Secretary

 Matt Honeycombe-Foster of POLITICS HOME

JENNIE Formby is standing down as general secretary of the Labour Party, it has been announced.

The longstanding ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who took on the top Labour job in 2018, said it was the “right time to step down” following the election of Sir Keir Starmer as Mr Corbyn’s successor last month.

She said: “When I applied for the role of General Secretary in 2018 it was because I wanted to support Jeremy Corbyn, who inspired so many people to get involved in politics with his message of hope, equality and peace.

“It has been a huge privilege to be General Secretary of the largest political party in Europe for the last two years, but now we have a new leadership team it is the right time to step down.

"I would like to thank Jeremy, our members and my staff colleagues who have given me so much support during what has been a very challenging period, in particular when I was suffering from ill health.”
Ms Formby added: “I wish Keir and Angela the very best of luck in taking the party forward and leading Labour to victory at the next General Election”.


Ms Formby, previously a senior official at the Unite union and a long-serving member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, took on the role in 2018, in a move that was seen as significantly strengthening Mr Corbyn’s grip on the party.

She saw off a challenge from rival candidates including Momentum boss Jon Lansman and former NUT union boss Christine Blower to become only the second woman ever to hold the key party post.

Ms Formby announced last year that she had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer - but said in January that she was now “hopefully” cancer free after her treatment ended.

In a statement, Sir Keir said:   "I would like to thank Jennie for her service, and for the personal and professional efforts she has made in advancing the cause she has fought all her life for.

“Jennie has led our party's organisation with commitment and energy through a period of political upheaval, including a snap General Election last year. I wish her the very best for the future."

The party’s new deputy leader Angela Rayner meanwhile said: "As a trade unionist and party activist as well as General Secretary, Jennie has been a great servant of our movement for many years and blazed a trail as one of our highest achieving women. 

“She goes with our thanks and gratitude, and I've no doubt she will stand squarely behind us as we continue to fight for social justice and the Labour government our country so desperately needs.”

Labour sources said Ms Formby's resignation was with immediate effect, and her exit tees up the race to be Labour’s next general secretary, with the party saying a meeting of its NEC officers would be convened soon to discuss a timetable for the contest.

The vacancy comes amid a bitter row in Labour ranks over a leaked report into the party's handling of anti-Semitism allegations, with Labour last week naming barrister Martin Forde QC to head up and investigation into the dossier.
The document, prepared for party bosses amid an investigation into Labour by the Equalities and Human Right Commission, alleged that anti-Corbyn sentiment among staff at its headquarters had hindered efforts to tackle anti-Jewish abuse.
Responding to news of her exit, pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum argued that Ms Formby had taken on the role of general secretary “at an incredibly difficult time”.

A spokesperson said: “She inherited a party bureaucracy that was often hostile to Jeremy’s leadership, with senior staff members allegedly misusing party funds and attempting to sabotage Labour’s General Election campaign in 2017. 
“Struggling against this while undergoing chemotherapy must have taken a herculean effort. 
“We thank her for everything and wish her well for the future.”

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*   INTERESTINGLY ON the 16 April 2020  GMB union members at Labour HQ backed a no-confidence motion in the general secretary, Jennie Formby.

It follows the leaking of an internal report, which included emails and private WhatsApp messages.
The motion calls on Ms Formby to "personally apologise to the current staffers named in the report".
Among its findings, the report claims factions opposed to former leader Jeremy Corbyn hampered efforts to tackle anti-Semitism.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has ordered an inquiry into why the report was commissioned, its contents, and how it came into the public domain.
But in its motion, the GMB, which is the largest union at Labour Party headquarters, accuses Ms Formby of leaking the report, the BBC's Iain Watson reports, and criticises current, as well as former, party managers.
The motion says that by "trawling the emails and instant messenger logs, the general secretary has effectively unilaterally placed all members of staff under investigation" without due process.
And it adds: "Staff can no longer be confident that the general secretary has the safety and welfare of staff as her top priority, and [she] has allowed the mental and physical wellbeing of staff to be put at risk with the creation and leaking of this report."
The motion also refers to a "hostile environment created post-2015", when Jeremy Corbyn was first elected leader, "in which staff who did not appear to support the new leader were marginalised, ignored, harassed and hounded out of the party".
The Unite union, headed by key Jeremy Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, also has a branch at Labour HQ.
It has released a statement saying the report should not have been released unredacted, according to the LabourList website.
But the branch describes as "shocking" the allegations in the report that an anti-Corbyn faction at party HQ worked against a Labour victory at the 2017 general election and warns against the investigation being "kicked into the long grass".
The GMB and Unite branches have previously clashed over their respective responses to the leaked report's contents.