♪ >> these are the top stories. ukrainians are reporting that our soldiers are going door-to-door to get people to vote in occupied regions. they say the boats are a sham. russia is continuing its mobilization of army reservists. a stadium has been turned into a reception center. 77 people trying to migrate to europe have died after their

boat capsized off the coast of syria. rescuers saved more than 20 but 20 are more missing. he challenged the united states to prosecute those who killed and al=jazeera journalists. israeli soldiers deliberately killed her. israel denies that. >> you have all heard of her. she was shot and killed by a sniper. he deliberately killed her and israel recognized that the sniper killed her. she was an american citizen. i dare the united states to prosecute those who have killed this american national, but they will not. because they are israelis. >> they will confront enemies as protests continue after the

death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody. she died last week. she violated a headscarf law. there been days of demonstrations. the iranian government says the support rallies were spontaneous. more news coming up right after we go to "inside story." ♪

>> can the labour party heal their internal divisions. an investigation reveals how unelected officials undermined jeremy corbyn and anybody who supported him. could this affect their chances of returning to power? this is "inside story." ♪ >> hello and welcome. an investigation has exposed accusations of dirty tricks and manipulation within the labour party. hundreds of thousands of internal documents have been revealed in one of the biggest leaks in british political history.

jeremy corbyn galvanized younger voters. but there was silencing and criticizing of its supporters. some former members spoke to our investigative unit. >> saying who could be a candidate or a member. then you control the body politic. it is a group of people taking over one political party. >> the files obtained contain disciplinary records from 1998 to 2021. some members were smeared by other members with false accusations of abusive behavior, including homophobia and anti-semitism.

in 2019, jeremy corbyn resigned as leader after the party lost the general election. the documents are being released as they hold their annual conference. the party could win a general election. let's bring in our guests in london. a former speechwriter for jeremy corbyn. welcome to the program. you are actually in this documentary. you have now finally seen all of it.

it must be bittersweet. vindication that you are right but this appointment that i got for this page area >> certainly as people who worked for jeremy corbyn or were in the movement, we knew all along that this was happening. they were working as hard as they could. to make the case. we all knew it. everything was blamed on the left and right. >> it must be disappointing for

you as well. is this just the internal workings of the labour party? >> that is a good question. obviously the labour party cannot be separated from its internal mechanisms. there was a civil war between the left and right. it is disappointing. it does not bode well. divided parties do not win elections. it does not make any sense for the party to be fighting. the leadership has to look at this. the public is not going to be attracted.

>> you heard that this needs to be looked at by the leadership. we have been trying to get a sense of this. just as we were about to turn a corner, we are back here. this did not happen overnight. this is systemic within the labour party. these documents collect in 1998. >> the problem has certainly intensified. it intensified when jeremy corbyn became leader of the labour party. the left became an existential threat. it definitely became more intense. i think it is wrong to say that.

they were sabotaged internally. and then the same faction is essentially the people who surround kia starmer. they decided to launch an all-out purge of the left. they suspended the former leader, jeremy corbyn. they kicked out offensive members on dubious grounds. this has gone on and on. a very bad pastiche of the tony blair years. >> do ordinary people care about

this kind of internal fighting? >> it is pretty clear with the conservatives are doing. the way he was treated will not do that. whatever his merits.

jeremy corbyn did certainly well in the general election. that was somebody they wanted to see. they wanted to see the arguments about jeremy corbyn. >> it does have an effect. he has to publicly address all of this and try to unite his party. can he do that? >> i am not sure that he does have to address it. obviously journalists have to ask him about it. but i think he will steer the conversation away from it. to say this was yesterday's news.

he was not helped by the factions in the labour party. the british people did not want him around. they did not want his party -- what his party was offering, for a number of reasons. kia starmer will make that a point. to look at dividing lines. his job has become a lot easier in the last couple of weeks. when boris johnson was prime minister, he was very unpopular at the end. his main attack against boris johnson was on competence and character. wrist trust -- liz truss has transformed the agenda.

you have a similar gap between the two parties that you had a few years ago. that makes it easier for starmer. he can talk about policies. they are much more to the left. i think the public will be more prepared to give him that. >> i think it is a quite decent strategy. let's just avoid that. let's forget any of that. but there will be a lot of angry labor party members who want a clean house. they want reform. that will have an impact. >> at the conference they will probably keep it off the agenda if they can. publicly the labour party will say this was all in the past. it does still present practical problems.

they are trying to make it as possible for him. those tend to be the people who go around and knock on doors. the party is in a difficult financial situation because it is not getting membership money from all of these former members. they are saying we will withhold our money. it is not just a political problem for starmer. it is also a practical problem.

>> it seems to me that the natural order of things in britain is either center-right or centerleft. that is where we have been mostly. although there are extremes of that. jeremy corbyn was always going to be unelectable. people working within his own party to actually try to bring him down for trying to do the party a favor. that is one spin. >> he was probably the first party leader i am aware of who having been ocular with public actually managed to improve his popularity. his problem was what he was not able to do, which is to provide

the party with clear direction during brexit. boris johnson did provide his party with a very clear guide to that issue. that made some voters unhappy. jeremy corbyn had the gift of being party leader at a particularly difficult time. it is worth bearing in mind that this will be the first labour party conference since 2017. the labour party has come together when it is ahead in

opinion polls. party leaders tend to be relatively strong. despite all the mutterings about kia starmer, it is perfectly clear that it is someone the public can imagine as prime minister. but they do not necessarily have an enthusiasm for him like a section did for jeremy corbyn. labor does enjoy quite a substantial lead. he will have more authority at this conference than in previous ones. >> this is a very interesting point. you have a man who can be

imagined as prime minister. but he has a party that he has to bring together somehow. that has to be the focus. when this all comes out, it will be a talking point. this is a distraction that will consume the labour party for the next year at least. >> i really do not think it will be that much of a distraction. i think the media has moved on. the media was very hostile to jeremy corbyn anyways. there was not a great love for him in the british media. the political weather has changed so much. a lot of the people who are wavering about labor say it is

not just the case that they are being galvanized. to come back to the fold. what is being proposed is so radical and so on call for an unwanted by the british people. that has made his job a lot easier. a lot of the labor members are furious with him. they are resentful that he broke so many of his measures. they have rallied to him. they know what he is offering is a lot better than what jeremy corbyn was offering. >> the bottom line still remains

that this was a democratically elected leader who was brought down by unelected people that most have never even heard of. that has to make headlines. >> the key point in all of this, jeremy corbyn had democratic legitimacy. the other side was using bureaucratic maneuvers behind the scene. it is very easy to move on quickly. an elective leadership was sabotage from inside. the media was hostile.

this was an extremely difficult time. that was the main reason for the 2019 general election result. that was essentially a exit election. there were all of these other factors. it is a fascinating case study. the leadership is considered to left wing. >> this is the stuff of fiction. to see this play out in reality and see it all laid bare must have come as a shock to you. or is this just part and parcel of dirty politics? >> may be boris johnson and jeremy corbyn should get

together and start a club for deposed leaders. at the end of the day, leaders who end up being regarded as a liability are always at risk of being overturned. irrespective of how well they did in the general election. they both faced the problem that a significant section of their party did not believe they were an asset. they have constant jobs to do. they are always potentially vulnerable. >> it has often been said of the

republican party in the u.s. that they should be six different parties because of the internal divisions. we have been talking about the hard left and the hard right. is it time to actually split the labour party? they are having this constant inviting. >> the labour party is the only vehicle for progressive government in the united kingdom. it would be very good ground to split the labour party.

and then the public would have a formal coalition. that is extremely normal around the world. there is no option but for the labour party to get together. we have seen splits before, in 1981. the social democratic party merged with the liberals. some disaffected mps broke off and form another party. it was not is nearly successful. you have had breakups. that has always benefited the conservative party which has managed to stay very united. it does not have any rivals on the right. the labour party always had rivals on the left. like the green party.

the torres have rejoined the electoral boundaries. that rule will come in before the next election. the labour party really needs to coalesce. it will be much harder to win an election. >> you have actually spoken to jeremy corbyn since this came up? >> i spoke to him yesterday. i think it is a great surprise to him. i worked for him in the labour party. at the time this stuff was known. it was not in our interest at the time to expose it. we had just had another hopelessly divided, infighting bunch of rabble. it was frustrating even though

we knew this stuff was happening now the stuff is coming out. it is good to have it finally confirmed. i think something has changed in the labour party. we have some examples. since jeremy corbyn's leadership , they view the left is an existential threat. they want to get rid of it. there is an attempt to push the left out for good. suspending jeremy corbyn was a very bold step. it was not something they took lightly. i think most people around kia starmer do not care about that. i think it will have long-term consequences for the labour party. they could beat liz truss in a

general election. that is very possible. those parties collapsed. >> i want to thank all of our guests. and i want to thank you as well for watching. you can see the program again any time by joining our website. and join the discussion on our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. for me and the entire team here, have a good night. ♪

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