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Seumas Milne

February 15, 2024

Seumas Patrick Charles Milne (born 5 September 1958)[1] is a British journalist and political aide. He was appointed as the Labour Party's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications in October 2015 under Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, initially on leave from The Guardian.[2][3] In January 2017, he left The Guardian in order to work for the party full-time.[4] He left the role upon Corbyn's departure as leader in April 2020.[5]

Seumas Milne
Executive Director of Strategy & Communications for the Labour Party
In office
26 October 2015 – 4 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byBob Roberts
Succeeded byBen Nunn
Personal details
Born
Seumas Patrick Charles Milne

(1958-09-05) 5 September 1958 (age 65)
Dover, Kent, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Cristina Montanari
​
(m. 1992)​
RelationsKirsty Milne (sister)
Children2
ParentAlasdair Milne (father)
EducationWinchester College, Hampshire
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Birkbeck, University of London
OccupationPolitical aide, journalist and writer

Milne joined The Guardian in 1984.[6] He was a columnist and associate editor there at the time of his Labour Party appointment, and according to Peter Popham writing for The Independent in 1997, was "on the far left of the Labour Party."[7][8][9] Milne is the author of The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners, a book about the 1984–85 British miners' strike which focuses on the role of MI5 and Special Branch in the dispute.[10][11]

Early life edit

Born in Dover, Milne is the younger son of Alasdair Milne (1930–2013), Director-General of the BBC from 1982 to 1987, and his wife Sheila Kirsten, née Graucob, who was of Irish and Danish ancestry.[12][13][14]

Education edit

Milne was educated at Tormore School, a boys' independent preparatory school in Deal, Kent, followed by Winchester College,[1] a public school in Hampshire. In 1974, he stood in a mock election at Winchester as a Maoist Party candidate.[15]

Following Winchester, Milne attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, politics and economics, and Birkbeck, University of London, where he read Economics. While at Balliol, Milne was so committed to the Palestinian cause that he spoke with a Palestinian accent and called himself Shams (Arabic for "sun").[16] His sister Kirsty Milne, who died in July 2013, was an academic who had previously been a journalist.[17]

After graduating from Oxford University, Milne became the business manager of Straight Left, a monthly publication that began in 1979, which, according to Standpoint magazine, was produced by a pro-Soviet faction in the Communist Party of Great Britain, and included several left-wing Labour MPs with pro-Soviet bloc sympathies on its editorial board.[18][19] During his time at Straight Left Milne became friends with Andrew Murray, who much later again became a colleague of Milne in the Labour Party.[20] Milne himself was not a Communist Party member.[18]

Career edit

Journalism edit

Milne worked as a staff journalist at The Economist from 1981 but was not content working for a free-market newspaper, later describing it as "the Pravda of the neoliberal ascendancy."[21] In 1984, he joined The Guardian on the recommendation of Andrew Knight, The Economist's then editor.[6][22] Milne's early responsibilities for The Guardian included posts as news reporter, Labour Correspondent (by 1994),[23] and Labour Editor. In 1994, Milne's colleague Richard Gott resigned from The Guardian following an article in The Spectator that alleged Gott had connections to the KGB and was a Soviet agent of influence—charges that Gott vociferously denied. Milne defended Gott against these allegations, which he thought "seemed absurd", and claimed the journalists who had written the expose of his friend were connected to MI5.[23][24]

Milne was Comment Editor for six years from 2001 to 2007.[19] According to Peter Wilby in an April 2016 New Statesman profile of Milne, his most controversial decision among The Guardian staff was to print a 2004 article by Osama bin Laden, assembled from recordings of one of his speeches. While almost all thought it should have been published, a small majority thought it should not have been run as a comment piece, although the Readers' Editor later defended this decision.[14]

Milne's period in this role was described by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine as having turned The Guardian's comment section into a "truly global debating forum."[25] Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan asserted that Milne's greatest achievement "was to take full advantage of the expansion of The Guardian's comment pages ... making them the most thought-provoking opinion section in Britain."[8] Hannan also praised him as "a sincere, eloquent and uncomplicated Marxist."[8] Following changes in staff responsibilities, he was succeeded as comment editor by Georgina Henry,[26] with Toby Manhire as her deputy.[27] Milne was moved to his role as associate editor in 2007, according to Peter Wilby because he was building up too many writers in his own image, and devoting too much space to Palestine.[14]

Milne has reported for The Guardian from the Middle East, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and South Asia,[28] and has also written for Le Monde diplomatique[29] and the London Review of Books.[30] He is reported to have lobbied within The Guardian in 2015 for editor-in-chief Katharine Viner to succeed Alan Rusbridger in the post.[31]

Milne served on the executive committee of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for ten years,[7][28] and is a former chairman of the joint Guardian–Observer NUJ chapter. In the 1980s, he chaired the Hammersmith Constituency Labour Party when Clive Soley (now Lord Soley) was the constituency's MP.[32] Milne told a 2015 May Day rally in Glasgow: "Resistance and the unity of the working class is what will progress our movement."[32]

In October 2015, Kate Godfrey, who has worked as an aid worker in conflict zones such as Libya and Syria,[33] described Milne as "an apologist for terror" in The Daily Telegraph, adding: "I think that he never met a truth he didn't dismiss as an orthodoxy and that nowhere in his far-Left polemic are actual people represented."[34] The attacks on Milne struck James Kirkup in the same publication nearly a year later as being "a little silly, since part of the point of this columnising lark is to say things that get attention and provoke argument: by that measure, he was pretty good at the job."[35]

Labour's Director of Communications edit

In August 2015, Milne endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. In The Guardian, he wrote "the claim that the other leadership candidates – steeped as they are in the triangulating 'pro-business' politics of the 1990s – can offer a winning electoral alternative to Corbyn's commitment to what are in fact mostly mainstream public views, looks increasingly implausible. ... But for now the Corbyn movement offers the chance of a break with a disastrous austerity regime – and for a real democratic opening."[36][37]

Appointment edit

On 20 October 2015, it was announced that Milne had been appointed to the team around Corbyn, elected party leader the previous month, as the Labour Party's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications. Reportedly on a one-year contract,[38] he was originally "on leave" from his post at The Guardian and assumed his new role on 26 October.[3][39] Milne's friend George Galloway tweeted "Just what the doctor ordered" in response to the news.[40][41] In a soon-deleted tweet, Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore expressed her dislike of "public school leftists" in reference to the news of Milne's new role[23] and speculated that his appointment meant goodbye to Labour.[42]

According to Tom Harris, a former Scottish Labour MP writing for The Daily Telegraph, Corbyn could have chosen for the Comms post "someone whose skills in media management were better known than his personal political views. Instead he chose Seumas Milne, a hate figure for the right of the Labour Party and pretty much everyone else to the right of that."[43] Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Mandelson told the BBC that Corbyn had shown a lack of professionalism in appointing Milne, "whom I happen to know and like as it happens. But he's completely unsuited to such a job, he has little connection with mainstream politics or mainstream media in this country."[44][45]

John Jewell, an academic at Cardiff School of Journalism, criticised the articles by Harris and others which mention Milne's response to the murder of Lee Rigby. Jewell observes that "the article in which Milne wrote of Rigby not being a victim of terrorism 'in the normal sense' began with these words: 'The videoed butchery of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks last May was a horrific act and his killers' murder conviction a foregone conclusion.'"[46]

In October 2015, Patrick Wintour, the political editor of The Guardian, wrote that Corbyn "has been struggling to ensure he receives an effective press since he became party leader, and Milne will be charged with ensuring there is an improvement."[2] In July 2016, Peter Preston, Milne's first Guardian editor, commented about the ethical challenges faced by journalists-turned-political advisers shortly after Milne's appointment: "The 'on leave' tag appears to make Seumas a once and continuing Guardian man, which won't help relations with journalists from elsewhere."[22] According to Alex Spence, Milne has demonstrated a low opinion of much of the British press in his comments.[47] Milne left The Guardian's staff in January 2017, when it became known he was working permanently for Corbyn.[4]

In a July 2016 Guardian column, Owen Jones defended Milne as "a deeply insightful and thoroughly decent man who has been wronged by his media portrayal as a soulless Stalinist apparatchik."[48]

January 2016 shadow cabinet reshuffle edit

In early October 2015, a few weeks before his appointment was announced, Milne was interviewed by the Russian government-funded RT television network[49] while the Labour Party conference was in progress.[50] He said that Corbyn's initial front bench constituted a "stabilisation shadow cabinet" and was of the opinion that current Labour MPs were "not only far to the right of most Labour party members, but actually it's to the right of public opinion."[51] Milne commented that reselection in this parliament, necessitated by a reduction in the number of members of parliament due to planned constituency boundary changes, could be used for a "recalibration" of the parliamentary party.[50][51][52][53] In response to Milne's comments on RT, Corbyn's spokesman said in October 2015 that the Labour leader "has been crystal clear he does not support changes to Labour's rules to make it easier to deselect sitting Labour MPs."[51]

While the January 2016 reshuffle of Labour's frontbench was in progress, then-Labour MP Ian Austin said that Milne's actions had been "an absolute disgrace" over the previous few weeks. According to Austin, "people in the leader's office, I'm told by journalists, Seumas Milne, telling us that Hilary Benn was going to be sacked, that Michael Dugher was going to be sacked, a whole long list of people, not for questions of competence or loyalty but because they voted a different way on a free vote."[54][55] Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of The Spectator, cast doubt on this interpretation when speaking on This Week, giving credence to a view that it was other people who claim to be close to Corbyn who were briefing journalists.[56] While Dugher was sacked by Corbyn from his post as Shadow Culture Secretary, Benn survived as Shadow Foreign Secretary.[57]

Milne made an official complaint to the BBC about the 6 January on-air announcement on the Daily Politics programme by Stephen Doughty that he had resigned as a shadow Foreign Office minister. In a letter to Robbie Gibb, the BBC's head of live political programmes, Milne objected to the BBC following a "particular political narrative." Gibb responded that the programme had merely observed the convention of the BBC, and other media outlets, in breaking news stories.[58] On 21 January 2016, Milne was reported by Andrew Grice of The Independent to be aligned with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in a power struggle between two factions in Corbyn's team.[59]

June 2016 Vice News documentary edit

A Fly on the wall documentary about the Corbyn-led Labour Party, produced by Vice News, became available online at the beginning of June 2016. Milne was featured asserting that Corbyn's line of attack as Leader of the Opposition for Prime Minister's Questions was leaked to the Conservative government. In a recorded aside, Milne said that it happened "a third of the time", giving then-prime minister David Cameron "an advantage."[60][61] Labour's General Secretary Iain McNicol emailed party staff to acknowledge that they might be "upset" by Milne's comments and to reassure them that their work was appreciated.[62]

Brexit campaign and the Labour leadership crisis edit

Following the unexpected victory of the "Leave" campaign in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Milne's role as Labour strategist came under scrutiny within the party. Internal emails passed to BBC News were alleged by Labour "Remainers" to show Milne minimizing party leader Corbyn's role in the Remain campaign.[63] Following more than sixty front-bench resignations, and a vote of no confidence with 80% of Labour MPs supporting the motion against Corbyn, Milne was accused by the Labour Party's former strategist John McTernan in the London Evening Standard of talking Corbyn out of resigning.[64] According to Robert Peston, other sources have disputed this claim.[65]

Later developments and replacement edit

According to Peter Wilby, writing in the New Statesman in March 2018, Milne as Corbyn's spin doctor[66] "has proved rather good at it. Most lobby journalists, initially hostile, now respect and even like him, finding his calm, courteous and expletive-free manner a refreshing change from many of his recent counterparts." Wilby writes that Milne is the closest of the leader's team to Corbyn, after John McDonnell.[20] Milne was replaced in April 2020,[67] following the resignation of Corbyn and the election of Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party,[68] which John Rentoul of The Independent saw as "the most significant evidence of the fall of Corbynism within the party."[69]

Views edit

Communism edit

Milne has attacked what he calls "the creeping historical revisionism that tries to equate Nazism and communism."[70] In 2002, he wrote that the victims of Nazism "in the distorted prism of the new history ... are somehow lost from the equation. At the same time, the number of victims of Stalin's terror has been progressively inflated over recent years." He argues there is a tendency to "relativise the unique crimes of Nazism, bury those of colonialism and feed the idea that any attempt at radical social change will always lead to suffering, killing and failure."[71] He has written that crimes of communist states "are now so well rehearsed that they are in danger of obliterating any understanding of its achievements, both of which have lessons for the future of progressive politics and the search for a social alternative to globalised capitalism."[72]

In a 2006 Guardian article, Milne argued: "For all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality. It encompassed genuine idealism and commitment ... Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the west, boosted the anticolonial movement and provided a powerful counterweight to western global domination."[73] In an October 2012 interview with The Quietus, Milne commented: "Whatever people thought about the Soviet Union and its allies and what was going on in those countries, there was a sense throughout the twentieth century that there were alternatives – socialist political alternatives."[74] His statements were criticised by Rachel Sylvester for The Times.[75] In the same 2006 Guardian article, Milne criticised the Council of Europe and others for adopting "as fact the wildest estimates of those 'killed by communist regimes.'"[73] He has argued that the "number of victims of Stalin's terror" remains "a focus of huge academic controversy",[71] adding that "the real records of repression now available from the Soviet archives are horrific enough (799,455 people were recorded as executed between 1921 and 1953 and the labour camp population reached 2.5 million at its peak) without engaging in an ideologically-fuelled inflation game."[73]

Milne contributed a foreword to Stasi State or Socialist Paradise (2015), a book by John Green and Bruni de la Motte about East Germany. In the Germany of Angela Merkel, the denunciation of the former state has become a "loyalty test for modern Germans." Milne asserted that the former communist state delivered "social and women's equality well ahead of its times, and greater freedom in the workplace than most employees enjoy in today's Germany."[76] In 2009, Milne told George Galloway on the latter's The Mother of All Talk Shows, at that time broadcast on Talksport, that "East Berlin was absolutely at the front line of the cold war. That's what the Berlin Wall was. It was a front line between two social and military systems and two military alliances, and a very tense one at that. It wasn't just some kind of arbitrary division to hold people in, it was also a front line in a global conflict."[77]

War on terror, Iraq wars, and the response edit

Afghanistan and Iraq wars edit

Milne has been a vocal critic of the war on terror,[78] the wars in Afghanistan,[79] and the Iraq War.[80] In 2001, he argued that war in Afghanistan would fail to "stamp out anti-western terrorism", and if the United States invaded Iraq, "it risks a catastrophe."[81] In relation to Iraq, Milne argued in March 2008: "Given that the invasion of Iraq was regarded as illegal by the majority of the UN security council, its secretary general, and the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion, it must by the same token be seen as a war crime: what the Nuremberg tribunal deemed the 'supreme international crime' of aggression. If it weren't for the fact that there is not the remotest prospect of any mechanism to apply international law to powerful states, Bush and Blair would be in the dock at The Hague."[80]

According to Milne in July 2004, "the anti-occupation guerrillas" were "a classic resistance movement with widespread support waging an increasingly successful guerrilla war against the occupying armies."[82][83] In October 2009, he argued for a "negotiated withdrawal" from Afghanistan based on a "political settlement, including the Taliban and regional powers."[79] In a speech at a Stop the War Coalition rally on 4 October 2014, the day after Alan Henning is thought to have been beheaded, Milne said that "the horrific killing of the hostage Alan Henning in revenge for the British decision to bomb Iraq is a reminder, if any were needed, that another war in Iraq or Syria won't stop terror."[84] He also said that "[t]he group that calls itself Islamic State is the ultimate blowback from the invasion of Iraq",[55] calling it "the Frankenstein product of the War on Terror."[84]

Motivations of al-Qaeda edit

Milne argued following the 7 July 2005 London bombings that it was "an insult to the dead" and a "piece of disinformation long peddled by champions of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan" to claim that al-Qaeda and its followers were motivated by "a hatred of western freedoms and way of life" and "that their Islamist ideology aims at global domination", rather than "the withdrawal of US and other western forces from the Arab and Muslim world" and an end to support for Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and despotic regimes in the region.[85] Victor J. Seidler, a Professor of Social Theory from the University of London, argued in relation to Milne's article that we have to be careful "not to dismiss an Islamist rejection of the freedoms of Western urban cultures, in relation to consumerism and sexualities."[86] Seidler argued that, contrary to Milne's claims, they were at least partly motivated by "Islamist religious doctrine."[87]

Writing about Milne's articles on Muslim extremism, Andrew Anthony asserted that "whereas Milne can instantly detect the relationship between far right rhetoric and the recent murder of Ahmed Hassan, a Muslim teenager in Dewsbury, he dismisses the idea that such hatred as was captured in the Dispatches programme "Undercover Mosque" [in 2007] might contribute to the kind of mentality that resulted in the carnage of the July 2005 bombs and the many terror plots that the authorities have successfully prevented."[88]

Gaza Wars edit

In the aftermath of the Gaza War (27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009), also known as Operation Cast Lead, Milne cited allegations of Israeli war crimes in arguing thus: "With such powerful evidence of violations of the rules of war now emerging from the rubble of Gaza, the test must be this: is the developing system of international accountability for war crimes only going to apply to the west's enemies – or can the western powers and their closest allies also be brought to book?"[89] In a speech on 9 August 2014 at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration against the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict,[90][91] he said that "Israel has no right to defend itself from territories it illegally occupies. It only has an obligation to withdraw." He went on to say that "the Palestinians are an occupied people. They have the right to resist. They have the right to defend themselves from the occupier. It's not terrorism to fight back. The terrorism is the killing of citizens by Israel on an industrial scale that we have seen in the last month."[92][39][93]

On Vladimir Putin and Russia edit

Along with the journalist John Pilger and Andrew Murray, by now involved in Stop the War Coalition. He attended the Valdai Discussion Club conference in Sochi, where he conducted a discussion in 2014 with Putin and former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin, opening a session there entitled "New Rules or No Rules in the Global Order",[94] and his expenses were paid for by the organisers of the event.[14]

On the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, Milne wrote that "western aggression and lawless killing is on another scale entirely from anything Russia appears to have contemplated, let alone carried out – removing any credible basis for the US and its allies to rail against Russian transgressions",[95] and has described the annexation as "clearly defensive",[96] asserting that "the crisis in Ukraine is a product of the disastrous Versailles-style break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s."[95] Oliver Bullough, a journalist who formerly lived in Russia, disagreed with this view, asserting that "the destruction of the USSR was not some Versailles-style treaty imposed from outside. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus did it themselves."[97] Cross-checking with the leak of 4,000 Russian emails, believed to originate from Putin's senior adviser Vladislav Surkov, the Conservative MP Bob Seely, and the Ukrainian specialist Alya Shandra, have found that several of Milne's articles on the Russo-Ukrainian War appear to parallel the Kremlin's agenda at the time.[98] Bullough questioned Milne's view of Russia in general, explaining he had lived in Russia for six years, and had visited almost all the former Soviet bloc, adding that "when I read what Milne writes about it, I slip into a parallel universe."[97]

In October 2015, Brian Whitaker, former Middle East editor for The Guardian, asserted that Milne "views international politics almost entirely through an anti-imperialist lens. That, in turn, leads to a sympathetic view of those dictatorial regimes which characterise themselves as anti-imperialist. It's the same with Islamist movements where they oppose western-backed regimes (Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia) though not necessarily in other cases such as Syria."[99]

In October 2016, while serving as Corbyn's press spokesman, Milne said in response to protests outside the Russian embassy in London that the "focus on Russian atrocities or Syrian army atrocities I think sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that are taking place."[100]

Personal life edit

Milne married Cristina Montanari, an Italian-born director of an advertising firm, in 1992. The couple have two now-adult children, a son and daughter, who were educated at selective grammar schools in Kingston upon Thames.[31][42] In about 2013, Milne had a lung tumour removed.[31]

Publications edit

  • Beyond the Casino Economy. With Nicholas Costello and Jonathan Michie. 1989. Verso Books. ISBN 0-86091-967-6.
  • The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners. 1994, 1995, 2004, 2014. Verso Books/Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-86091-461-5.
  • The Revenge of History: The Battle for the Twenty First Century. 2012, 2013. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-7816-8091-9.

References edit

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  2. ^ a b Wintour, Patrick (20 October 2015). "Guardian journalist Seumas Milne appointed Labour head of communications". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
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  24. ^ The "seemed absurd" quote appears in Milne, Seumas (2004). The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners. London; New York: Verso. p. 383. ISBN 9781844675081.
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  41. ^ Galloway has said that Milne is his "closest friend. We have spoken almost daily for 30 years". See Long, Camilla (22 November 2015). The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2016. (subscription required)
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  46. ^ Jewell, John (23 October 2015). "In a spin: why Seumas Milne is the wrong spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn". The Conversation. Retrieved 23 October 2015. See also Milne, Seumas (20 December 2013). "Woolwich attack: If the whole world's a battlefield, that holds in Woolwich as well as Waziristan". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  47. ^ Spence, Alex (4 December 2015). "Corbyn and Milne, the demon duo of Fleet Street". Politico. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
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  49. ^ Putin (11 June 2013). Visit to Russia Today television channel (Television production). Moscow: Kremlin.ru. Retrieved 24 May 2018. Certainly the channel is funded by the government, so it cannot help but reflect the Russian government's official position on the events in our country and in the rest of the world one way or another. But I'd like to underline again that we never intended this channel, RT, as any kind of apologetics for the Russian political line, whether domestic or foreign.
  50. ^ a b Watt, Nicholas (25 October 2015). "MPs who regularly defy Labour whip should face reselection, says Livingstone". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  51. ^ a b c Savage, Michael (22 October 2015). "Corbyn's Stalinist recruit plans purge of moderates". The Times. London. Retrieved 9 January 2016. (subscription required)
  52. ^ Milne expressed similar opinions earlier. See Milne, Seumas (20 May 2009). "Purge the professionals and let party democracy breathe". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  53. ^ Judah, Ben. . The Sunday Times. 25 October 2015. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2016.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link) (subscription required)
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  56. ^ Andrew Neil, Isabel Hardman (7 January 2016). This Week. BBC. Event occurs at 29m04s. Retrieved 9 January 2016. Andrew Neil: Were Corbyn's people briefing that Benn was for the chop? Isabel Hardman: They have been insisting that they haven't been doing that, and it might have been other people who claim to be close to the leader, but it is not his media team personally.
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External links edit

  • "Seumas Milne", Guardian contributor page

February 15, 2024
seumas, milne, seumas, patrick, charles, milne, born, september, 1958, british, journalist, political, aide, appointed, labour, party, executive, director, strategy, communications, october, 2015, under, labour, party, leader, jeremy, corbyn, initially, leave,. Seumas Patrick Charles Milne born 5 September 1958 1 is a British journalist and political aide He was appointed as the Labour Party s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications in October 2015 under Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn initially on leave from The Guardian 2 3 In January 2017 he left The Guardian in order to work for the party full time 4 He left the role upon Corbyn s departure as leader in April 2020 5 Seumas MilneExecutive Director of Strategy amp Communications for the Labour PartyIn office 26 October 2015 4 April 2020LeaderJeremy CorbynPreceded byBob RobertsSucceeded byBen NunnPersonal detailsBornSeumas Patrick Charles Milne 1958 09 05 5 September 1958 age 65 Dover Kent EnglandPolitical partyLabourSpouseCristina Montanari m 1992 wbr RelationsKirsty Milne sister Children2ParentAlasdair Milne father EducationWinchester College HampshireAlma materBalliol College OxfordBirkbeck University of LondonOccupationPolitical aide journalist and writerMilne joined The Guardian in 1984 6 He was a columnist and associate editor there at the time of his Labour Party appointment and according to Peter Popham writing for The Independent in 1997 was on the far left of the Labour Party 7 8 9 Milne is the author of The Enemy Within The Secret War Against the Miners a book about the 1984 85 British miners strike which focuses on the role of MI5 and Special Branch in the dispute 10 11 Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Career 3 1 Journalism 3 2 Labour s Director of Communications 3 2 1 Appointment 3 2 2 January 2016 shadow cabinet reshuffle 3 2 3 June 2016 Vice News documentary 3 2 4 Brexit campaign and the Labour leadership crisis 3 2 5 Later developments and replacement 4 Views 4 1 Communism 4 2 War on terror Iraq wars and the response 4 2 1 Afghanistan and Iraq wars 4 2 2 Motivations of al Qaeda 4 2 3 Gaza Wars 4 3 On Vladimir Putin and Russia 5 Personal life 6 Publications 7 References 8 External linksEarly life editBorn in Dover Milne is the younger son of Alasdair Milne 1930 2013 Director General of the BBC from 1982 to 1987 and his wife Sheila Kirsten nee Graucob who was of Irish and Danish ancestry 12 13 14 Education editMilne was educated at Tormore School a boys independent preparatory school in Deal Kent followed by Winchester College 1 a public school in Hampshire In 1974 he stood in a mock election at Winchester as a Maoist Party candidate 15 Following Winchester Milne attended Balliol College Oxford where he read Philosophy politics and economics and Birkbeck University of London where he read Economics While at Balliol Milne was so committed to the Palestinian cause that he spoke with a Palestinian accent and called himself Shams Arabic for sun 16 His sister Kirsty Milne who died in July 2013 was an academic who had previously been a journalist 17 After graduating from Oxford University Milne became the business manager of Straight Left a monthly publication that began in 1979 which according to Standpoint magazine was produced by a pro Soviet faction in the Communist Party of Great Britain and included several left wing Labour MPs with pro Soviet bloc sympathies on its editorial board 18 19 During his time at Straight Left Milne became friends with Andrew Murray who much later again became a colleague of Milne in the Labour Party 20 Milne himself was not a Communist Party member 18 Career editJournalism edit Milne worked as a staff journalist at The Economist from 1981 but was not content working for a free market newspaper later describing it as the Pravda of the neoliberal ascendancy 21 In 1984 he joined The Guardian on the recommendation of Andrew Knight The Economist s then editor 6 22 Milne s early responsibilities for The Guardian included posts as news reporter Labour Correspondent by 1994 23 and Labour Editor In 1994 Milne s colleague Richard Gott resigned from The Guardian following an article in The Spectator that alleged Gott had connections to the KGB and was a Soviet agent of influence charges that Gott vociferously denied Milne defended Gott against these allegations which he thought seemed absurd and claimed the journalists who had written the expose of his friend were connected to MI5 23 24 Milne was Comment Editor for six years from 2001 to 2007 19 According to Peter Wilby in an April 2016 New Statesman profile of Milne his most controversial decision among The Guardian staff was to print a 2004 article by Osama bin Laden assembled from recordings of one of his speeches While almost all thought it should have been published a small majority thought it should not have been run as a comment piece although the Readers Editor later defended this decision 14 Milne s period in this role was described by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine as having turned The Guardian s comment section into a truly global debating forum 25 Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan asserted that Milne s greatest achievement was to take full advantage of the expansion of The Guardian s comment pages making them the most thought provoking opinion section in Britain 8 Hannan also praised him as a sincere eloquent and uncomplicated Marxist 8 Following changes in staff responsibilities he was succeeded as comment editor by Georgina Henry 26 with Toby Manhire as her deputy 27 Milne was moved to his role as associate editor in 2007 according to Peter Wilby because he was building up too many writers in his own image and devoting too much space to Palestine 14 Milne has reported for The Guardian from the Middle East Latin America Russia Eastern Europe and South Asia 28 and has also written for Le Monde diplomatique 29 and the London Review of Books 30 He is reported to have lobbied within The Guardian in 2015 for editor in chief Katharine Viner to succeed Alan Rusbridger in the post 31 Milne served on the executive committee of the National Union of Journalists NUJ for ten years 7 28 and is a former chairman of the joint Guardian Observer NUJ chapter In the 1980s he chaired the Hammersmith Constituency Labour Party when Clive Soley now Lord Soley was the constituency s MP 32 Milne told a 2015 May Day rally in Glasgow Resistance and the unity of the working class is what will progress our movement 32 In October 2015 Kate Godfrey who has worked as an aid worker in conflict zones such as Libya and Syria 33 described Milne as an apologist for terror in The Daily Telegraph adding I think that he never met a truth he didn t dismiss as an orthodoxy and that nowhere in his far Left polemic are actual people represented 34 The attacks on Milne struck James Kirkup in the same publication nearly a year later as being a little silly since part of the point of this columnising lark is to say things that get attention and provoke argument by that measure he was pretty good at the job 35 Labour s Director of Communications edit In August 2015 Milne endorsed Jeremy Corbyn s campaign in the Labour Party leadership election In The Guardian he wrote the claim that the other leadership candidates steeped as they are in the triangulating pro business politics of the 1990s can offer a winning electoral alternative to Corbyn s commitment to what are in fact mostly mainstream public views looks increasingly implausible But for now the Corbyn movement offers the chance of a break with a disastrous austerity regime and for a real democratic opening 36 37 Appointment edit On 20 October 2015 it was announced that Milne had been appointed to the team around Corbyn elected party leader the previous month as the Labour Party s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications Reportedly on a one year contract 38 he was originally on leave from his post at The Guardian and assumed his new role on 26 October 3 39 Milne s friend George Galloway tweeted Just what the doctor ordered in response to the news 40 41 In a soon deleted tweet Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore expressed her dislike of public school leftists in reference to the news of Milne s new role 23 and speculated that his appointment meant goodbye to Labour 42 According to Tom Harris a former Scottish Labour MP writing for The Daily Telegraph Corbyn could have chosen for the Comms post someone whose skills in media management were better known than his personal political views Instead he chose Seumas Milne a hate figure for the right of the Labour Party and pretty much everyone else to the right of that 43 Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Mandelson told the BBC that Corbyn had shown a lack of professionalism in appointing Milne whom I happen to know and like as it happens But he s completely unsuited to such a job he has little connection with mainstream politics or mainstream media in this country 44 45 John Jewell an academic at Cardiff School of Journalism criticised the articles by Harris and others which mention Milne s response to the murder of Lee Rigby Jewell observes that the article in which Milne wrote of Rigby not being a victim of terrorism in the normal sense began with these words The videoed butchery of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks last May was a horrific act and his killers murder conviction a foregone conclusion 46 In October 2015 Patrick Wintour the political editor of The Guardian wrote that Corbyn has been struggling to ensure he receives an effective press since he became party leader and Milne will be charged with ensuring there is an improvement 2 In July 2016 Peter Preston Milne s first Guardian editor commented about the ethical challenges faced by journalists turned political advisers shortly after Milne s appointment The on leave tag appears to make Seumas a once and continuing Guardian man which won t help relations with journalists from elsewhere 22 According to Alex Spence Milne has demonstrated a low opinion of much of the British press in his comments 47 Milne left The Guardian s staff in January 2017 when it became known he was working permanently for Corbyn 4 In a July 2016 Guardian column Owen Jones defended Milne as a deeply insightful and thoroughly decent man who has been wronged by his media portrayal as a soulless Stalinist apparatchik 48 January 2016 shadow cabinet reshuffle edit In early October 2015 a few weeks before his appointment was announced Milne was interviewed by the Russian government funded RT television network 49 while the Labour Party conference was in progress 50 He said that Corbyn s initial front bench constituted a stabilisation shadow cabinet and was of the opinion that current Labour MPs were not only far to the right of most Labour party members but actually it s to the right of public opinion 51 Milne commented that reselection in this parliament necessitated by a reduction in the number of members of parliament due to planned constituency boundary changes could be used for a recalibration of the parliamentary party 50 51 52 53 In response to Milne s comments on RT Corbyn s spokesman said in October 2015 that the Labour leader has been crystal clear he does not support changes to Labour s rules to make it easier to deselect sitting Labour MPs 51 While the January 2016 reshuffle of Labour s frontbench was in progress then Labour MP Ian Austin said that Milne s actions had been an absolute disgrace over the previous few weeks According to Austin people in the leader s office I m told by journalists Seumas Milne telling us that Hilary Benn was going to be sacked that Michael Dugher was going to be sacked a whole long list of people not for questions of competence or loyalty but because they voted a different way on a free vote 54 55 Isabel Hardman assistant editor of The Spectator cast doubt on this interpretation when speaking on This Week giving credence to a view that it was other people who claim to be close to Corbyn who were briefing journalists 56 While Dugher was sacked by Corbyn from his post as Shadow Culture Secretary Benn survived as Shadow Foreign Secretary 57 Milne made an official complaint to the BBC about the 6 January on air announcement on the Daily Politics programme by Stephen Doughty that he had resigned as a shadow Foreign Office minister In a letter to Robbie Gibb the BBC s head of live political programmes Milne objected to the BBC following a particular political narrative Gibb responded that the programme had merely observed the convention of the BBC and other media outlets in breaking news stories 58 On 21 January 2016 Milne was reported by Andrew Grice of The Independent to be aligned with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell in a power struggle between two factions in Corbyn s team 59 June 2016 Vice News documentary edit A Fly on the wall documentary about the Corbyn led Labour Party produced by Vice News became available online at the beginning of June 2016 Milne was featured asserting that Corbyn s line of attack as Leader of the Opposition for Prime Minister s Questions was leaked to the Conservative government In a recorded aside Milne said that it happened a third of the time giving then prime minister David Cameron an advantage 60 61 Labour s General Secretary Iain McNicol emailed party staff to acknowledge that they might be upset by Milne s comments and to reassure them that their work was appreciated 62 Brexit campaign and the Labour leadership crisis edit Following the unexpected victory of the Leave campaign in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum Milne s role as Labour strategist came under scrutiny within the party Internal emails passed to BBC News were alleged by Labour Remainers to show Milne minimizing party leader Corbyn s role in the Remain campaign 63 Following more than sixty front bench resignations and a vote of no confidence with 80 of Labour MPs supporting the motion against Corbyn Milne was accused by the Labour Party s former strategist John McTernan in the London Evening Standard of talking Corbyn out of resigning 64 According to Robert Peston other sources have disputed this claim 65 Later developments and replacement edit According to Peter Wilby writing in the New Statesman in March 2018 Milne as Corbyn s spin doctor 66 has proved rather good at it Most lobby journalists initially hostile now respect and even like him finding his calm courteous and expletive free manner a refreshing change from many of his recent counterparts Wilby writes that Milne is the closest of the leader s team to Corbyn after John McDonnell 20 Milne was replaced in April 2020 67 following the resignation of Corbyn and the election of Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party 68 which John Rentoul of The Independent saw as the most significant evidence of the fall of Corbynism within the party 69 Views editCommunism edit Milne has attacked what he calls the creeping historical revisionism that tries to equate Nazism and communism 70 In 2002 he wrote that the victims of Nazism in the distorted prism of the new history are somehow lost from the equation At the same time the number of victims of Stalin s terror has been progressively inflated over recent years He argues there is a tendency to relativise the unique crimes of Nazism bury those of colonialism and feed the idea that any attempt at radical social change will always lead to suffering killing and failure 71 He has written that crimes of communist states are now so well rehearsed that they are in danger of obliterating any understanding of its achievements both of which have lessons for the future of progressive politics and the search for a social alternative to globalised capitalism 72 In a 2006 Guardian article Milne argued For all its brutalities and failures communism in the Soviet Union eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation mass education job security and huge advances in social and gender equality It encompassed genuine idealism and commitment Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the west boosted the anticolonial movement and provided a powerful counterweight to western global domination 73 In an October 2012 interview with The Quietus Milne commented Whatever people thought about the Soviet Union and its allies and what was going on in those countries there was a sense throughout the twentieth century that there were alternatives socialist political alternatives 74 His statements were criticised by Rachel Sylvester for The Times 75 In the same 2006 Guardian article Milne criticised the Council of Europe and others for adopting as fact the wildest estimates of those killed by communist regimes 73 He has argued that the number of victims of Stalin s terror remains a focus of huge academic controversy 71 adding that the real records of repression now available from the Soviet archives are horrific enough 799 455 people were recorded as executed between 1921 and 1953 and the labour camp population reached 2 5 million at its peak without engaging in an ideologically fuelled inflation game 73 Milne contributed a foreword to Stasi State or Socialist Paradise 2015 a book by John Green and Bruni de la Motte about East Germany In the Germany of Angela Merkel the denunciation of the former state has become a loyalty test for modern Germans Milne asserted that the former communist state delivered social and women s equality well ahead of its times and greater freedom in the workplace than most employees enjoy in today s Germany 76 In 2009 Milne told George Galloway on the latter s The Mother of All Talk Shows at that time broadcast on Talksport that East Berlin was absolutely at the front line of the cold war That s what the Berlin Wall was It was a front line between two social and military systems and two military alliances and a very tense one at that It wasn t just some kind of arbitrary division to hold people in it was also a front line in a global conflict 77 War on terror Iraq wars and the response edit Afghanistan and Iraq wars edit Milne has been a vocal critic of the war on terror 78 the wars in Afghanistan 79 and the Iraq War 80 In 2001 he argued that war in Afghanistan would fail to stamp out anti western terrorism and if the United States invaded Iraq it risks a catastrophe 81 In relation to Iraq Milne argued in March 2008 Given that the invasion of Iraq was regarded as illegal by the majority of the UN security council its secretary general and the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion it must by the same token be seen as a war crime what the Nuremberg tribunal deemed the supreme international crime of aggression If it weren t for the fact that there is not the remotest prospect of any mechanism to apply international law to powerful states Bush and Blair would be in the dock at The Hague 80 According to Milne in July 2004 the anti occupation guerrillas were a classic resistance movement with widespread support waging an increasingly successful guerrilla war against the occupying armies 82 83 In October 2009 he argued for a negotiated withdrawal from Afghanistan based on a political settlement including the Taliban and regional powers 79 In a speech at a Stop the War Coalition rally on 4 October 2014 the day after Alan Henning is thought to have been beheaded Milne said that the horrific killing of the hostage Alan Henning in revenge for the British decision to bomb Iraq is a reminder if any were needed that another war in Iraq or Syria won t stop terror 84 He also said that t he group that calls itself Islamic State is the ultimate blowback from the invasion of Iraq 55 calling it the Frankenstein product of the War on Terror 84 Motivations of al Qaeda edit Milne argued following the 7 July 2005 London bombings that it was an insult to the dead and a piece of disinformation long peddled by champions of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to claim that al Qaeda and its followers were motivated by a hatred of western freedoms and way of life and that their Islamist ideology aims at global domination rather than the withdrawal of US and other western forces from the Arab and Muslim world and an end to support for Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and despotic regimes in the region 85 Victor J Seidler a Professor of Social Theory from the University of London argued in relation to Milne s article that we have to be careful not to dismiss an Islamist rejection of the freedoms of Western urban cultures in relation to consumerism and sexualities 86 Seidler argued that contrary to Milne s claims they were at least partly motivated by Islamist religious doctrine 87 Writing about Milne s articles on Muslim extremism Andrew Anthony asserted that whereas Milne can instantly detect the relationship between far right rhetoric and the recent murder of Ahmed Hassan a Muslim teenager in Dewsbury he dismisses the idea that such hatred as was captured in the Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque in 2007 might contribute to the kind of mentality that resulted in the carnage of the July 2005 bombs and the many terror plots that the authorities have successfully prevented 88 Gaza Wars edit In the aftermath of the Gaza War 27 December 2008 18 January 2009 also known as Operation Cast Lead Milne cited allegations of Israeli war crimes in arguing thus With such powerful evidence of violations of the rules of war now emerging from the rubble of Gaza the test must be this is the developing system of international accountability for war crimes only going to apply to the west s enemies or can the western powers and their closest allies also be brought to book 89 In a speech on 9 August 2014 at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration against the 2014 Israel Gaza conflict 90 91 he said that Israel has no right to defend itself from territories it illegally occupies It only has an obligation to withdraw He went on to say that the Palestinians are an occupied people They have the right to resist They have the right to defend themselves from the occupier It s not terrorism to fight back The terrorism is the killing of citizens by Israel on an industrial scale that we have seen in the last month 92 39 93 On Vladimir Putin and Russia edit Along with the journalist John Pilger and Andrew Murray by now involved in Stop the War Coalition He attended the Valdai Discussion Club conference in Sochi where he conducted a discussion in 2014 with Putin and former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin opening a session there entitled New Rules or No Rules in the Global Order 94 and his expenses were paid for by the organisers of the event 14 On the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014 Milne wrote that western aggression and lawless killing is on another scale entirely from anything Russia appears to have contemplated let alone carried out removing any credible basis for the US and its allies to rail against Russian transgressions 95 and has described the annexation as clearly defensive 96 asserting that the crisis in Ukraine is a product of the disastrous Versailles style break up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s 95 Oliver Bullough a journalist who formerly lived in Russia disagreed with this view asserting that the destruction of the USSR was not some Versailles style treaty imposed from outside Russia Ukraine and Belarus did it themselves 97 Cross checking with the leak of 4 000 Russian emails believed to originate from Putin s senior adviser Vladislav Surkov the Conservative MP Bob Seely and the Ukrainian specialist Alya Shandra have found that several of Milne s articles on the Russo Ukrainian War appear to parallel the Kremlin s agenda at the time 98 Bullough questioned Milne s view of Russia in general explaining he had lived in Russia for six years and had visited almost all the former Soviet bloc adding that when I read what Milne writes about it I slip into a parallel universe 97 In October 2015 Brian Whitaker former Middle East editor for The Guardian asserted that Milne views international politics almost entirely through an anti imperialist lens That in turn leads to a sympathetic view of those dictatorial regimes which characterise themselves as anti imperialist It s the same with Islamist movements where they oppose western backed regimes Palestine Egypt Tunisia though not necessarily in other cases such as Syria 99 In October 2016 while serving as Corbyn s press spokesman Milne said in response to protests outside the Russian embassy in London that the focus on Russian atrocities or Syrian army atrocities I think sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that are taking place 100 Personal life editMilne married Cristina Montanari an Italian born director of an advertising firm in 1992 The couple have two now adult children a son and daughter who were educated at selective grammar schools in Kingston upon Thames 31 42 In about 2013 Milne had a lung tumour removed 31 Publications editBeyond the Casino Economy With Nicholas Costello and Jonathan Michie 1989 Verso Books ISBN 0 86091 967 6 The Enemy Within The Secret War Against the Miners 1994 1995 2004 2014 Verso Books Macmillan Publishers ISBN 0 86091 461 5 The Revenge of History The Battle for the Twenty First Century 2012 2013 Verso Books ISBN 978 1 7816 8091 9 References edit a b Winchester College A Register Edited by P S W K McClure and R P Stevens on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College 7th edition 2014 pp 582 Short Half 1971 list heading amp 588 entry for Seamus Milne Published by Winchester College Hampshire a b Wintour Patrick 20 October 2015 Guardian journalist Seumas Milne appointed Labour head of communications The Guardian Retrieved 20 October 2015 a b Seumas Milne appointed Labour s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications LabourPress Labour Party press office 20 October 2015 Retrieved 20 October 2015 a b Stewart Heather 19 January 2017 Seumas Milne quits Guardian for permanent Labour party position The Guardian Retrieved 19 January 2017 Syal Rajeev 3 April 2020 Keir Starmer poised to be announced new Labour leader The Guardian Retrieved 2 August 2021 a b Milne Seumas Writer s Directory 2005 Retrieved 29 October 2015 a b Popham Peter 31 March 1997 Media families 7 The Milnes The Independent a b c Hannan Daniel 10 July 2008 My top five Leftie columnists The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 10 July 2012 In the air London Evening Standard 16 August 2006 Andrew Christopher 2009 The Defence of the Realm London Allen Lane p 677 n 49 p 968 Seumas Milne The Guardian Index entry FreeBMD ONS Retrieved 25 April 2018 Alasdair Milne The Daily Telegraph 10 January 2013 Retrieved 20 October 2016 a b c d Wilby Peter 16 April 2016 The Thin Controller New Statesman Retrieved 20 October 2016 Wilkinson Michael 8 March 2016 Revealed Jeremy Corbyn s top aide Seumas Milne backed Chinese communist dictator Chairman Mao during his elite boarding school days The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved 8 March 2016 Cummings and Milne rival advisers bent on disrupting British politics The Economist 29 September 2019 ISSN 0013 0613 Retrieved 1 October 2019 Iain Martin Obituary Kirsty Milne journalist and academic The Scotsman 16 July 2013 a b Mosbacher Michael December 2015 The Stalinist Past of Corbyn s Strategist Standpoint Retrieved 15 December 2015 a b Mosbacher Michael September 2011 Overrated Seumas Milne Standpoint a b Eaton George Wilby Peter Bush Stephen Maguire Kevin Chakelian Anoosh 5 March 2018 The meaning of Corbynism New Statesman Retrieved 6 March 2018 Milne Seumas 22 October 2008 Not the death of capitalism but the birth of a new order The Guardian Retrieved 2 May 2019 a b Preston Peter 25 October 2015 A media move like this needn t burst Seumas Milne s bubble The Observer Retrieved 25 October 2015 a b c Wickham Alex 23 March 2016 Has Jeremy Corbyn s spin doctor Seumas Milne gone rogue GQ Retrieved 24 March 2016 The seemed absurd quote appears in Milne Seumas 2004 The Enemy Within The Secret War Against the Miners London New York Verso p 383 ISBN 9781844675081 Klein Naomi 2007 The Shock Doctrine London Penguin p 530 Brook Stephen 13 March 2007 Staff shuffle for Guardian comment The Guardian Retrieved 19 March 2016 Guardian hires new comment editor Press Gazette 17 May 2007 Archived from the original on 30 March 2016 Retrieved 19 March 2016 a b Full profile The Guardian 3 June 2007 Archived from the original on 8 March 2021 Seumas Milne Le Monde diplomatique 2009 Milne Seumas 5 June 1997 After the May Day flood London Review of Books 19 11 a b c Edwardes Charlotte 2 December 2015 Seumas Milne Labour spin doctor political firebrand and Jeremy Corbyn s guardian angel London Evening Standard Retrieved 9 January 2016 a b Pickard Jim 14 January 2016 Jeremy Corbyn s strategist Seumas Milne in the eye of Labour storm Financial Times Retrieved 14 January 2014 Godfrey Kate 21 October 2015 So Jeremy Corbyn what made you appoint Seumas Milne an apologist for murderous dictators The Independent Retrieved 18 July 2016 Godfrey Kate 23 October 2016 Seumas Milne will finish Labour off The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 18 July 2016 Kirkup James 28 September 2016 In defence of Seumas Milne blame Jeremy Corbyn for Labour s poison not his creatures The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 1 October 2016 Milne Seumas 20 August 2015 Jeremy Corbyn s surge can be at the heart of a winning coalition The Guardian Retrieved 15 July 2017 The thin controller New Statesman 16 April 2016 Retrieved 2 September 2018 Rigby Elizabeth Savage Michael 12 February 2016 Guardian presses writer to quit over his link to Corbyn The Times Retrieved 12 February 2016 subscription required a b McCann Kate 20 October 2015 Jeremy Corbyn appoints top advisor who once defended terrorism The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved 20 October 2015 Patrikarakos David 25 October 2015 Corbyn s new Stalinist voice Politico Europe Retrieved 18 July 2016 Galloway has said that Milne is his closest friend We have spoken almost daily for 30 years See Long Camilla 22 November 2015 With friends like these The Sunday Times London Archived from the original on 23 November 2015 Retrieved 18 July 2016 subscription required a b Rayner Gordon 23 October 2015 Jeremy Corbyn s millionaire spin doctor Seumas Milne sent his children to top grammar schools The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 23 October 2015 dead link Harris Tom 21 October 2015 By hiring Seumas Milne Jeremy Corbyn shows his utter contempt for real Labour voters The Daily Telegraph London Retrieved 21 October 2015 Watt Nicholas 24 October 2015 Jeremy Corbyn criticised over appointment of Labour s new press chief The Guardian Retrieved 24 October 2015 Pickard Jim 23 October 2015 Jeremy Corbyn faces Labour MP anger over communications chief Financial Times Retrieved 24 October 2015 Jewell John 23 October 2015 In a spin why Seumas Milne is the wrong spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn The Conversation Retrieved 23 October 2015 See also Milne Seumas 20 December 2013 Woolwich attack If the whole world s a battlefield that holds in Woolwich as well as Waziristan The Guardian Retrieved 23 October 2015 Spence Alex 4 December 2015 Corbyn and Milne the demon duo of Fleet Street Politico Retrieved 16 October 2016 Jones Owen 14 July 2016 Labour s right are a shambles but Corbyn has questions to answer too The Guardian Retrieved 14 July 2016 Putin 11 June 2013 Visit to Russia Today television channel Television production Moscow Kremlin ru Retrieved 24 May 2018 Certainly the channel is funded by the government so it cannot help but reflect the Russian government s official position on the events in our country and in the rest of the world one way or another But I d like to underline again that we never intended this channel RT as any kind of apologetics for the Russian political line whether domestic or foreign a b Watt Nicholas 25 October 2015 MPs who regularly defy Labour whip should face reselection says Livingstone The Guardian Retrieved 9 January 2016 a b c Savage Michael 22 October 2015 Corbyn s Stalinist recruit plans purge of moderates The Times London Retrieved 9 January 2016 subscription required Milne expressed similar opinions earlier See Milne Seumas 20 May 2009 Purge the professionals and let party democracy breathe The Guardian Retrieved 15 January 2016 Judah Ben Putin never dreamt of such a useful idiot at the heart of Westminster The Sunday Times 25 October 2015 Archived from the original on 25 October 2015 Retrieved 15 January 2016 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint location link subscription required Stone Jon 6 January 2016 Conduct of Jeremy Corbyn s aide Seumas Milne an absolute disgrace says Labour MP Ian Austin The Independent Retrieved 9 January 2016 a b Kennedy Dominic 23 January 2016 Corbyn s band of luvvies and liabilities The Times Retrieved 23 January 2016 subscription required Andrew Neil Isabel Hardman 7 January 2016 This Week BBC Event occurs at 29m04s Retrieved 9 January 2016 Andrew Neil Were Corbyn s people briefing that Benn was for the chop Isabel Hardman They have been insisting that they haven t been doing that and it might have been other people who claim to be close to the leader but it is not his media team personally Pickard Jim 5 January 2016 Corbyn dallies on reshuffle in night of blunt knives Financial Times Retrieved 9 January 2016 Watt Nicholas Sweney Mark 8 January 2016 BBC justifies decision to allow Stephen Doughty to resign live on Daily Politics The Guardian Retrieved 9 January 2016 Grice Andrew 21 January 2016 Jeremy Corbyn acts as peacemaker between rival Labour factions after Neale Coleman quits The Independent Retrieved 23 January 2016 Devlin Kate 1 June 2016 Unions demand meeting with Labour s General Secretary over mole claims The Herald Glasgow Retrieved 17 July 2016 May Josh 1 June 2016 Labour aide Seumas Milne claims there is a mole in Jeremy Corbyn s office Politics Home Retrieved 17 June 2016 Waugh Paul 1 June 2016 Labour Staff Upset At Vice News Jeremy Corbyn Documentary Over Accusations of Leaks To Tories HuffPost Retrieved 17 July 2016 Kuenssberg Laura 26 June 2016 Corbyn office sabotaged EU remain campaign sources BBC News Retrieved 27 June 2016 McTernan John 30 June 2016 The cult of Jeremy Corbyn The making of a modern sect London Evening Standard Retrieved 30 June 2016 Peston Robert 30 June 2016 Last push by Labour MPs to persuade Corbyn to quit ITV News Retrieved 30 June 2016 Wickham Alex March 2018 Has Jeremy Corbyn s spin doctor Seumas Milne gone rogue Retrieved 2 September 2018 Read Jonathon 7 April 2020 Keir Starmer replaces Seumas Milne with new director of communications The New European Retrieved 2 August 2021 Hughes Laura Parker George Pickard Jim 9 April 2020 Starmer alarms Corbyn supporters with Blairite appointments Financial Times Retrieved 2 August 2021 Rentoul John 7 April 2020 Goodbye Seumas Milne another press officer who became the story The Independent Retrieved 2 August 2021 Milne Seumas 9 September 2009 This rewriting of history is spreading Europe s poison The Guardian a b Milne Seumas 12 September 2002 The battle for history The Guardian Milne Seumas 12 May 2007 Movement of the people The Guardian a b c Milne Seumas 16 February 2006 Communism may be dead but clearly not dead enough The Guardian Kennedy Joe Milne Seumas 21 October 2012 Vindicated Prada Meinhof Seumas Milne Interviewed The Quietus Retrieved 19 January 2016 Sylvester Rachel 19 January 2016 The Corbynistas love of Putin is a toxic trap The Times London Retrieved 23 January 2016 subscription required Cohen Nick 6 June 2017 Seumas Milne and the Stasi The Spectator Retrieved 7 June 2017 Niemietz Kristain 25 August 2017 Seumas Milne on East Germany Historical revisionism at its worst IEA Retrieved 26 November 2017 Milne Seumas 21 November 2002 A war that can t be won The Guardian a b Milne Seumas 14 October 2009 In a war for democracy why worry about public opinion The Guardian a b Milne Seumas 20 March 2008 There must be a reckoning for this day of infamy The Guardian Milne Seumas 11 October 2001 Lurching towards catastrophe The Guardian Milne Seumas 1 July 2004 The resistance campaign is Iraq s real war of liberation The Guardian Retrieved 21 October 2015 Coates Sam 21 October 2014 Labour recruit backed Iraqi insurgents The Times London Retrieved 21 October 2015 subscription required a b Dominiczak Peter Swinford Steven 5 December 2016 Jeremy Corbyn Execution of Brit by Jihadi John was the price we pay for war The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on 5 December 2015 Retrieved 23 January 2016 Milne Seumas 14 July 2005 It is an insult to the dead to deny the link with Iraq The Guardian Seidler Victor Jeleniewski 2007 Urban Fears and Global Terrors Citizenship Multicultures and Belongings After 7 7 Abingdon Oxon amp New York NY Routledge p 117 ISBN 9781134076543 Seidler Urban Fears and Global Terrors 2007 p 118 Anthony Andrew 20 December 2007 Wishful thinking and evasion The Guardian Retrieved 29 October 2015 Anthony was mainly responding to Milne Seumas 20 December 2007 Cameron must rein in these toxic neocon attack dogs The Guardian Retrieved 29 October 2015 See Milne s comments about Undercover Mosque in This onslaught risks turning into a racist witch hunt The Guardian 20 September 2007 Retrieved 29 October 2015 Milne Seumas 23 March 2009 Will Israel be brought to book The Guardian March this Saturday for Gaza Paelestine Solidarity Campaign 7 August 2014 Retrieved 11 July 2016 The Fourteen Films video recording of Milne s speech delivered on 9 August 2014 is on their YouTube feed here Seumas Milne National Demonstration for Gaza 09 08 14 Retrieved 14 August 2018 via YouTube Corbyn appoints terror apologist to top advisory post The Times of Israel 21 October 2015 Retrieved 21 October 2015 Welcome to Sochi comrade Milne The Times London 2 November 2015 Retrieved 15 January 2016 subscription required a b Milne Seumas 5 March 2014 The clash in Crimea is the fruit of western expansion The Guardian Retrieved 14 January 2016 Milne Seumas 30 April 2014 It s not Russia that s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war The Guardian Retrieved 15 January 2016 a b Bullough Oliver 23 October 2015 I wanted to believe in Jeremy Corbyn But I can t believe in Seumas Milne New Statesman Retrieved 23 October 2015 Seely Bob 6 May 2018 Labour s press chief Seumas Milne peddled Putin s lies The Sunday Times Retrieved 6 May 2018 subscription required Whittaker Brian 27 October 2015 Spinning against imperialism Jeremy Corbyn Seumas Milne and the Middle East Al bab Archived from the original on 1 May 2022 Retrieved 15 January 2016 Waugh Paul 12 October 2016 Corbyn Spokesman Focus On Russian Bombing In Syria Diverts Attention From American Atrocities Huffington Post Retrieved 15 October 2016 External links edit Seumas Milne Guardian contributor page Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Seumas Milne amp oldid 1190589455, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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