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Chris Williamson welcome thank you all

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good evening good evening

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just tell the audience how you've ended

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up in this situation well there was a

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smear campaign in a concerted smear

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campaign against me that's been running

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really since I was re-elected back in

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2017 I did an article in The Guardian or

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should say an interview with a reporter

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in The Guardian and that appeared the

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granda full page length article about my

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interview and I went to a range of

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different issues that I was concerned

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about

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I felt passionate about and one of the

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issues I discussed with the reporter who

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interviewed me was the smear campaigns

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against Jeremy Corbyn and I cited the

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attacked about him being an IRA

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sympathizer his support for Venezuela

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and the absurd words against him Bertie

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was in some way anti-semitic and I said

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that those attacks in particular what a

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dirty lowdown tricking I think was the

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term as I used and that put a sort of

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cross hairs on my back I think and from

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that moment forward I was systematically

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smeared by I think the self-same

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individuals who've been going after

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Jeremy but I think the main reason why I

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have been targeted is because I have

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been fighting for greater transparency

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openness Ben democracy in the labour

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party because my view is the Labour

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Party belongs to its grassroots members

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it doesn't belong to the palabras Labour

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Party or the bureaucrats who located in

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the party said office they are the party

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servants not the party's master and

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regrettably they seem to have got the

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power relationship the wrong way around