Labour party member at risk of expulsion over Bacik leak

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A Labour member is at risk of expulsion over what party leader Ivana Bacik said was an “inaccurate” leak to the media, after it was reported that Ms Bacik had said she had no intention of going into government.

On Friday, Ms Bacik categorically denied that she told the Labour central council that she was ruling out entering government, following reports to that effect earlier in the week.

The report was based on notes from a meeting on Saturday, but Ms Bacik said the detail recorded in that document was inaccurate.

She said she had instructed the party’s general secretary to “establish the source of the leak”.

“The leak was not an official record of the meeting nor did it accurately reflect what I said in the meeting, nor did it reflect the full context of the discussion,” Ms Bacik said.

She said Labour was taking action and she was “deeply concerned” the leak had been made.

While acknowledging it was unlikely that Labour would enter government based on the general election results, she said: “I certainly did not say I had no intention of ever going into government.

“I’ve been very clear: we have always been a party that is serious about delivering change.

“We’re a party that’s serious about engaging in talks and engaging in a process.”

She said she told the meeting that it was “hard to see how we could have sufficient leverage” to deliver its policies.

Ms Bacik told reporters: “We are taking action to explore this, and clearly there’ll have to be consequences for whoever leaked it.”

Pressed on what those consequences could be, Ms Bacik said “expulsion from the party” was clearly a possibility.

She added that she was not “prejudging the outcome” of the party’s internal processes, and that expulsion was the “last-ditch sanction” that could be taken.