Details proving even more elusive than unicorn

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what the Momentum guy said in the Q&A that prompted Ruth Smeeth to say “How dare you?!” and a few seconds later walk out. There are videos but all the ones I’ve seen start with her “How dare you” so you don’t get what the guy said. Like this one for example.

https://youtu.be/IPt6vfBzqF0

It’s not that I think anyone’s lying, it’s that I can’t find the details. The reporting is frankly rather muddled.

A tweet by a Telegraph journalist who was there (and who is on video asking the Momentum guy if he’s going to apologize) helps some:

Then Momentum man gets Q, accuses @RuthSmeeth of colluding with Telegraph journo (me) despite Corbyn warning that Jewish/media tropes banned

So I guess Momentum guy claimed that Ruth Smeeth was colluding with Telegraph reporter Kate McCann in…anti-Corbyn reporting? Something like that? And it’s an anti-Semitic dog whistle?

I suspect it’s a lot more recognizable to people who’ve been closely following the controversies around Corbyn than it is to me.

Updating to add: someone I know was there and says Momentum guy suggested she was in cahoots with the Telegraph journalist in a ‘we know what’s going on’ way and that people were shouting at him in response (which you can hear in some of the videos – the shouting starts before Smeeth says “How dare you!”).

Comments

4 responses to “Details proving even more elusive than unicorn”

  1. Arthur Avatar

    Presumably, Kate McCann, political editor of the Daily Telegraph, is merely a neutral observer in all of this? And has no particular aim to stir up conflict in the Labour Party?

  2. Author Avatar

    Saw this today:

    https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/76781/jewish-labour-mp-left-tears-launch-anti-semitism

    During a question-and-answer session afterwards, Mr Wadsworth said: “I welcome this report you’ve been very brave Shami in refusing to raise the temperature of the witch hunt that has been going on in this anti-Semitism debate.

    “I saw that the Telegraph handed a copy of a press release to Ruth Smeeth MP so you can see who is working hand in hand.”

    A shocked Ms Smeeth shouted “how dare you” before walking out of the event. She was later said to be “in floods of tears”.

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    Ahhhh thank you Author – that’s the missing bit I couldn’t find!

  4. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    Arthur – no, I would certainly never assume a Telegraph reporter was neutral. But just accepting a leaflet is hardly collusion! However on the third hand there clearly are a lot of Labour MPs who want Corbyn out. Nobody’s neutral in this from what I can tell.