Labour acts after row erupts over ‘misuse’ of party data
THE Labour Party has reported allegations of data breaches in the party’s leadership election to the Information Commissioner.
It is understood that Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, has written to all candidates following the reports about alleged misuse of membership data and party systems.
Labour is said to be conducting “a thorough investigation” into the claims.
A Labour Party spokesman said in a statement yesterday: “The Labour Party takes its legal responsibilities for data protection – and the security and integrity of its data and systems – extremely seriously.
“We have written to all leadership candidates to remind them of their obligations under the law and to seek assurances that membership data will not be misused.”
The comments came after the BBC reported that Labour had accused members of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign team of hacking into the party’s membership database.
A spokesman for Sir Keir said: “We categorically reject these nonsensical allegations and are incredibly disappointed that they have been leaked to the media.
“We are still awaiting the party’s formal response to the serious concerns we and others had about access to Labour Party membership data.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was set up to act as an independent body tasked with safeguarding information rights.
It was announced yesterday that Sir Keir’s mother-in-law had died after an accident.
The shadow cabinet member withdrew from campaign events on Friday due to the situation.
On Saturday, Labour leadership candidates Emily Thornberry and Rebecca Long-Bailey took verbal swipes at each other during a hustings event in Nottingham.
After Shadow Foreign Secretary Ms Thornberry made a pointed dig at Ms Long-Bailey, the Shadow Business Secretary responded by saying: “Miaow.”
Ms Thornberry took an apparent swipe at Ms Long-Bailey’s claim that she had to work into the night on one occasion as she had to deal with a Commons committee at short notice, and was brought pizza to get her through the preparations.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary compared this to her experience in the shadow cabinet after a mass walk-out by members opposed to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership agenda.