Labour MP Andrew Gwynne has been sacked from the government, and suspended from the party, for sending ‘vile’ WhatsApp messages. Gwynne, who reportedly wrote that he hoped an elderly constituent who had complained about bin collections would die, is also said to have made antisemitic remarks and jokes about Diane Abbott. He stands exposed of being a callous bigot. Case closed. Gwynne’s career is over.
If making horrible jokes in private is a sin, we’re all damned
Except, of course, Gwynne – and his Labour colleague Oliver Ryan MP, who was also a member of the WhatsApp group and has been suspended – are not bigots. Yes, their remarks were tasteless and offensive – and they shouldn’t have made them. But these WhatsApp observations were clearly bad jokes, shared among friends (or people they thought were friends).
Gwynne’s downfall is satisfying. This was a man who waded in against Roger Scruton when the eminent philosopher was cancelled after being misrepresented in a New Statesman hit piece.
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