WhatsApp group under investigation following Labour minister sacking
A WhatsApp group in which MP Andrew Gwynne posted “completely unacceptable” messages is being investigated, a UK minister has said.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook could not say if others in the chat, which reportedly included another Labour MP, will be suspended, but suggested the Prime Minister could take action based on what the investigation finds.
Mr Gwynne said the messages were “badly misjudged” after Sir Keir Starmer sacked him as health minister and suspended him from the Labour Party.
Comments
The MP for Gorton and Denton reportedly posted sexist comments about Angela Rayner and racist remarks about Labour MP Diane Abbott, and was also said to have joked in the private group chat with Labour figures based around Manchester about an elderly woman’s death.
Mr Pennycook told the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News: “I don’t know, personally, what other people on that WhatsApp conversation have said… I’ve been very clear, there’s an investigation taking place into the whole incident.”
“What the public can take from the way the Prime Minister has acted decisively in this case to dismiss Andrew Gwynne, is that if any other Labour MP or minister falls short he will act to uphold the highest standards in public office,” Mr Pennycook said.
The Prime Minister dismissed Mr Gwynne as a minister as soon as he became aware of the comments, it is understood.
The language the MP reportedly used in his messages is “completely unacceptable” and “in some instances, it’s deeply concerning”, Mr Pennycook added.
Mr Gwynne posted on X on Saturday apologising for any offence caused but did not suggest he would stand down as an MP.
“I deeply regret my badly misjudged comments and apologise for any offence I’ve caused. I’ve served the Labour Party all my life and it was a huge honour to be appointed a minister by Keir Starmer.
“I entirely understand the decisions the PM and the party have taken and, while very sad to have been suspended, will support them in any way I can,” he wrote.
Sinister
Mr Gwynne posted messages in a WhatsApp group called Trigger Me Timbers, which included more than a dozen Labour councillors, party officials and at least one other MP, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The newspaper said his comments included antisemitic slights and a joke about a constituent being “mown down” by a truck.
He also reportedly wrote in one message that he hoped a 72-year-old woman would soon have “croaked it” after she asked a councillor, who shared the message in the group, about her bins.
A senior Conservative said the mention of the elderly woman was “nasty”, and suggested that a message in which Mr Gwynne is said to have written that someone’s name sounded “too Jewish”, is “sinister”.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart questioned whether any other members of the chat group called out the alleged antisemitic comment.
“That is a very serious remark, and if the Prime Minister doesn’t take action against everyone in that group very quickly, we know that there is still a problem in the Labour Party,” he told Trevor Phillips.
Mr Pennycook said: “An investigation is taking place, and any action that needs to follow from that investigation will be seen through.
“I don’t think anyone can be in any doubt about this Prime Minister or this Government’s commitment to upholding the highest standards in public office and to rooting out antisemitism from the Labour Party, root and branch.”
A Government spokesman said on Saturday that Sir Keir “will not hesitate to take action against any minister who fails to meet these standards, as he has in this case”.
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Now a broad church Tory party could take both the Labour party and the Spiv’s firm under their wings leaving the Guardian to lead the rest…into the stockades…
Plaid could declare UDI up here and we could all travel by Zip Wire…
Can you imagine if anyone had said such things about black people or Muslims? The Labour Party would be screeching like scalded cats. Let’s see who was in this group, how they responded to this muppet, and what they, themselves have been saying…come on 2TK let’s see the same fervency as you & Mrs Balls showed after the Southport social media posts.
He should not get the whip back.
Meanwhile the Welsh Enoch Powell tribute act that is ARTD is still allowed an X account and he is blurting hate out in the open, I wonder what his closed account is like. We know some MS are a bit racist cos we seen the messages…..
Funny old world.
It’s not him you meed to worry about Jeff.
No time to waste on this one if Labour are to show they are not like the Tories (play down, protect defend). We need this investigation done and the resultant actions implemented early this week. So far, so good. Get on with it and shut the hypocrites up.
This is all quite in character. Labour right-wingers are a bunch of crass thugs in suits. Some of the nastiest people you could hope never to meet. Now McSweeny has purged or driven out everyone else, this dross is what we are left with. Time for our politics to detach and go our own way.