Sir Keir Starmer has become accustomed to Labour in-fighting since he became leader 18 months ago. But as the former DPP battles to drag his party into some kind of vaguely electable shape, has he been neglecting matters closer to home? For in northwest London, on Keir Starmer’s doorstep, a vicious party battle has broken out involving smears, lies and a case of mistaken identity, all splashed across the pages of the Labour leader’s local newspaper.
The Camden New Journal – on which Sir Keir has spent more than £3,500 in adverts since April 2020 – has been breathlessly reporting this past fortnight all the twists and turns of some vicious skulduggery plaguing the local Labour party. Councillor Lazzaro Pietragnoli was yesterday forced to resign as Chief Whip after admitting he has secretly been running a secret Twitter account which attacked colleagues and called the former mayor a ‘scumbag.’ After being confronted last week by the Journal, Pietragnoli denied being behind the now-deleted @PHillmum account, instead blaming university professor Valentina Arena.
Who is Arena you might ask? Pietragnoli’s, er, wife.
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