The office break in that never was, John Bercow ruling

Seema on the left - on the right a Daily Mail spread against Jeremy Corbyn posted June 25

Op-ed: Any negative news pertaining in any way to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, be it fabricated, pure lies, fiction, imaginery or spin, is headline news as the leadership of the party comes under attack.

But what about any news that proves a story false or puts it in its proper place in the dustbin of history?

Sadly such stories are rarely if ever given the same pride of place by the British gutter press.

Take a story we also covered to set the record straight at the weekend.

It involved MP Seema Malhotra who opted to very publicly cry foul when she claimed her former office had been wrongly entered.

​She is one of the members of the parliamentary Labour Party who resigned their shadow cabinet jobs in an attempt to force Jeremy Corbyn to resign as party leader.

Seema Malhotra is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Feltham and Heston. As her Twitter feed says she is the "Former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury."

It apears Ms Malhotra thought she could resign her shadow cabinet post but retain her prime position office.

She named Mr Corbyn's office manager Karie Murphy and accused her, and other aides, of being "aggressive and intimidating" towards the staff involved.

Sunday we learned Karie Murphy could now face disciplinary action which could include dismissal.

You can find Seema's letter raising a formal complaint about the alleged office incident posted online and it is also available at the bottom of this report.

Sunday the mainstream media ran with the story some making it their top story.

Tuesday John Bercow speaker of the House of Commons rejected Ms Mahotra's claims that an office manager "broke into her office."

But the Daily Mail earlier this week had already opted to demonise the office manager with a report titled "Corbyn sidekick accused of raid on rebel MP's office: Aide implicated in vote-rigging scandal 'entered office twice of former shadow cabinet minister when she was not there'."

In the story the Mail digs up old history and many of its readers will have no idea if it is true, false or just plain fake. They claim "Miss Murphy, who is close to Len McCluskey, head of Unite, was at the centre of a row over Labour’s selection of an election candidate in Falkirk amid claims of vote rigging by the union in Scotland."

The dirt is irrelevant to the Mail's story but hey we are talking about the Daily Mail.

What Ms Malhotra hoped to achieve by going public with this story is not clear.

​But Tuesday the Independent reports "The Speaker of the House of Commons has poured cold water on claims by a Labour MP that there had been “unauthorised access” to her office by Labour staff loyal to the leadership. John Bercow told Seema Malhotra that claims of unauthorised entry into her office did not amount to a possible breach of Commons rules."

"Mr Bercow said no rules were broken."

So that should be the end of the story but will there be a public apology? Will Seema receive a warning to handle future perceived complaints more sensitively?

Perhaps we should end with a Tuesday tweet from Labour MP Paul Flynn "After BRICKgate, BREAK-INgate. BULLYgate & PIFFLEgate can we have PEACEgate, PUT A SOCK IN ITgate & UNITE LABOURgate?"

We are with you on that one Paul.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3706223/Corbyn-sidekick-accused-raid-rebel-MP-s-office-Aide-implicated-vote-rigging-scandal-entered-office-twice-former-shadow-cabinet-minister-not-there.html
http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/eileen-kersey/big-bad-labour-party-story-sunday-involves-office-space-spat
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-seema-malhotra-john-mcdonnell-john-bercow-broke-into-invaded-office-a7156991.html