Chris Williamson welcome thank you all
good evening good evening
just tell the audience how you've ended
up in this situation well there was a
smear campaign in a concerted smear
campaign against me that's been running
really since I was re-elected back in
2017 I did an article in The Guardian or
should say an interview with a reporter
in The Guardian and that appeared the
granda full page length article about my
interview and I went to a range of
different issues that I was concerned
about
I felt passionate about and one of the
issues I discussed with the reporter who
interviewed me was the smear campaigns
against Jeremy Corbyn and I cited the
attacked about him being an IRA
sympathizer his support for Venezuela
and the absurd words against him Bertie
was in some way anti-semitic and I said
that those attacks in particular what a
dirty lowdown tricking I think was the
term as I used and that put a sort of
cross hairs on my back I think and from
that moment forward I was systematically
smeared by I think the self-same
individuals who've been going after
Jeremy but I think the main reason why I
have been targeted is because I have
been fighting for greater transparency
openness Ben democracy in the labour
party because my view is the Labour
Party belongs to its grassroots members
it doesn't belong to the palabras Labour
Party or the bureaucrats who located in
the party said office they are the party
servants not the party's master and
regrettably they seem to have got the
power relationship the wrong way around