Some Shared Drive

Tom Watson’s father is ill, and it is utterly out of place to speculate further, as some people are doing, as to his decision to pull out of next week’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

Dennis Skinner is to be thanked and congratulated for having steeped into the breach, and we may hope that he will express his support for this county’s Teaching Assistants.

Meanwhile,  Daniel Boffey writes:

On Saturday night, Corbyn allies accused the parliamentary party of sabotaging Labour’s ability to hold the government to account. 

One Labour source said those at the top of the party were livid when it emerged that files on a shared Labour party hard drive relating to the finance bill going through parliament had been deleted as the shadow finance secretary Rob Marris resigned. 

An internal email seen by this newspaper said: “Unfortunately, it looks like someone from Rob Marris’s office has deleted the vast majority of the finance bill records and notes on each clause from the shared drive.” 

A Labour source raised the spectre of deselection, adding that it fitted in with a campaign of sabotage.

He said: “The finance bill is a hugely important bit of legislation. Under normal times the party’s severest punishment to my knowledge for such transgression could go as high as deselection. 

“This is because such a bill normally includes important measures involving things like tax avoidance and pensioners and working families. 

“For example, in this case his actions could have led to undermining things such as our opposition to the tampon tax, which – if he had his way – would have prevented us from ending it sooner.” 

A shadow Treasury spokesperson said:

“We don’t comment on internal matters. It has been a busy week but Rebecca Long-Bailey has stepped forward and done a magnificent job.

“The shadow Treasury team will continue holding the Tories to account at this crucial time.”