The Labour Party wants to pay you £34,000 a year to help ‘purge’ its own members

The Labour purge is in full flow. Thousands of members have already been rejected from the party and stripped of their right to vote in the leadership election. And with no signs of stopping, the purge now looks likely to expand. The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is planning to enhance its workforce, and is offering a candidate £34,061.77 a year, plus expenses, to help them ‘purge’ their own members.

As advertised on the Labour Party website, the NEC is looking to “recruit two Compliance Officers – Investigation, to work as key member[s] of the Compliance team”.

Based in London, the candidates will “assist in the investigations relating to individual Labour Party members or groups of members which may lead to disciplinary proceedings”. The specific responsibilities of the role include:

The NEC also describes the type of candidates it is looking for:

The successful candidates will need excellent attention to detail, the ability to work proactively with a variety of stakeholders, experience of conducting investigations or fact-finding, and experience of dealing with regulatory or compliance issues.

Given the ludicrous reasons behind some members’ suspensions, it is worth noting that the NEC views this as “fact-finding”. To what extent does tweeting support for the Green Party two years ago count as factual evidence for supporting that party now? Or how does writing one angry post count as factual evidence that you are a danger to the party?

While it is unclear whether the NEC is adding to its workforce or replacing workers, the advertised posts suggest that the purge is still a key focus. Given that the application closes 25 September, it seems the NEC plans to continue its purge up until and after the Labour leadership election.

It is also notable that the NEC is offering a large salary (£34,061.77 a year plus expenses) to each of the candidates – a move that is likely to reinforce the anger at the NEC for using Labour members’ money to fuel a campaign against them.

Other roles advertised on the page are a “Political Adviser and Speechwriter to the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn” and “Policy Researcher to the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn”. Both have a shorter deadline than the Compliance Officer roles. And both are listed as “fixed term contract only for the period that Jeremy Corbyn is the Leader of the Labour Party”.

Presumably for the NEC, given their alleged attempts to oust Corbyn’s supporters and their desire to extend the purge, Corbyn’s fall couldn’t come sooner.

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– Read more from The Canary about the Labour leadership election.

– Find out what else the NEC have been up to.

Featured image via Flickr/Wikimedia Commons