STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIALFalkirk membership inquiryExecutive summary

Allegations have been made that some degree of membership abuse had been occurring in theFalkirk Westminster constituency area. However, there is limited written evidence ofcomplaints.

Nevertheless, the speculation surround the issue made it clear that there was sufficient concernfor the General Secretary to order an inquiry. In addition to initial desk research of the availablepaperwork, arrangements were made for an investigating officer to conduct interviews in theconstituency.

­ Deliberate attempts were made to frustrate these interviews­ There is evidence that members were recruited without their knowledge

­ There is evidence that the join date of members was set to the first receipt of formseven though those forms were incorrectly completed

There is evidence that members were pressured into completing direct debit forms

­ There is evidence that members were persuaded to supply financial details withoutbeing aware they were completing a direct debit mandate

There is evidence that signatures were forged on either application forms or directdebit mandates or other documents

There can be no doubt that members were recruited in an attempt to manipulateparty processes

Whilst it is likely some members were recruited or joined during this period incompliance with current rules and procedures there is sufficient evidence to raiseconcern about the legitimacy of members qualifying to participate in the selectionunder the current freeze date of 19 May 2013

Recommendations

1. The freeze date for the Falkirk Westminster parliamentary selection will be set at 12March 2012

2. Special measures will be applied to the Falkirk Westminster Forum and themembership within the Falkirk Westminster constituency boundary

3. The General Secretary will review internal membership procedures and advise on anychanges which may be needed to ensure that they are not open to abuse

1. Introduction

Falkirk Westminster Constituency is a key retirement seat for Labour, currently held by EricJoyce MP. Joyce resigned from the Labour Party in Spring 2012 following a number of highprofile reports, including criminal charges and conviction, in respect of his behavior.

Falkirk Westminster Constituency is made up of the various sized towns and villages of theFalkirk council area, including Polmont and Larbert. A south eastern arm of theseat curls round Grangemouth. The seat sits to the south of the River Forth. Thenotional Labour majority is in the order of 7,800, but this seat is targeted by the SNP andshould a by­election be called following Joyce's most recent arrest, the contest could behighly marginal.

2. Background

Allegations have been made about membership irregularities in the run up to the Falkirkselection procedure being timetabled.

It I not unusual for complaints to be made about all aspects of the selection procedure, butthese complaints are of particular concern because of the numbers of members involved.

The requirement must be that all eligible members of the constituency are entitled to take partin the selection process. In addition there is a general requirement that no individual orfaction should recruit members in order to seek to manipulate our democratic procedures.There is a line to be drawn between the normal political processes of recruiting memberswho support the aims of the party and the recruitment of large numbers of paper memberswho have no wish to participate except at the behest of others in an attempt to manipulateparty processes, which undermines our internal democracy and is unacceptable to the partyas a whole.

The nature of the complaints made include that individuals have been coerced into signedapplication or direct debit forms, that there ha been a concerted effort to sign papermembers, and that individual applicants have been attempting to pay for members in otherhousehold in contravention of procedures.

All of these allegations may lead to one or more members being declared ineligible. Inaddition it is possible that if membership procedures have been broken as the result ofdeliberate action by one or more individuals that further action may be considered.

3. Desk research

The currently agreed freeze date is 19 May 2013. There are currently 282 eligible members inthe Falkirk Westminster constituency (subject to any arrears being paid).

During the freeze period from 19 November 2012 to 19 May 2013 another 49 members (inadditional to the 282) joined the Labour Party.

In the six months prior to the freeze date 97 members (out of the 282 shown above) joined theconstituency. For comparison in Linlithgow and East Falkirk during the same period 16members were recruited.

The applications focussed on are those for membership within the Falkirk WestminsterConstituency area with a join date between 20 July 2012 and 31 December 2012 ­­ 131 in total.Each membership record has been examined individually.

Of these 131, 13 members appear to have joined individually unprompted by anyone.

A further 6, whilst clearly having been recruited by parties with an interest in the Westminsterselection, appear to be uncontroversial.

The remaining 112 were recruited and forms submitted in seven different batches from atleast two different parties with an interest in the selection.

For at least 14 of these there is evidence of third party payments (paying for a person not inyour household).

Five forms submitted by UNITE show that the member is a member of a union other thanUnite.

30 forms submitted by Unite show no union at all. It can be inferred that these aremembers of Unite. However, this has not been checked in the time allowed and given thatat least four forms submitted by Unite separately were found to be for non­­Unite members thiscannot be assured.

Some of the forms submitted by Unite show no union at all. It can be inferred that these aremembers of Unite. However, this has not been checked in the time allowed and given that atleast four forms submitted by Unite separately were found to be for non­­Unite members thiscannot be assured.

Some of the forms submitted by Unite were disputed by our membership services becauseofthe lack of direct debit mandates. This was due to some confusion over the rules agreed withTULO in accepting union application forms. The point at which these were accepted asmembers has been taken from the point at which their membership application was

received.

It was an agreed requirement that any member joining under the scheme where a unionpaid the first year's subscription had to complete a direct debit mandate in respect of futureyears' subscriptions. 89 applicants were required by the Labour Party to complete a directdebit mandate, 44 have currently done so, 11 have indicated they do not wish to completedirect debit mandates.

There was also some general confusion, partly as a result of this correspondence, about whenan application was 'received' and what the appropriate 'join date' should be.

There is written evidence that at least eight persons did not know what they were signing whenthey were 'recruited'.

There is written evidence that one person believes they were pressured into signing a directdebit mandate.

In making the various adjustments to the joint dates, one member (Mr Fitzsimmons) wasincorrectly coded as joining on 13 November 2012. This should be corrected to 4 December2012.

In addition to looking at the records of the applicants Matthew Jackson (MJ), Head of MemberServices has given the following information:

In mid Nov 2012 possibly 16 Nov, following a longstanding arrangement with the TUs onlypreviously utilised by USDAW an agreement was reached between lain McNicho| and TULOthat the TU paid the first year's membership fees providing the individual joiners personallysigned an application form and provided bank details so future fees could be taken by directdebit.

Prior to this agreement MJ said that he had been receiving batches of applications from TUsincluding Unite and GMB with cheques, cash and in some cases notes from the UniteGeneral Sec that payment would be made by bank transfer from Unite to the Labour Party.Not all these applications were for membership in the Falkirk Forum area. MJ also said thatsome of the batches of applications which overlapped the agreement in respect of TUjoining procedures were processed as the members had joined in good faith under what wereunderstood to be the rules at the time.

At some point there seems to have been a dispute between Unite and the Labour Party as towhich applications had been received and which were in the different batches. Uniteprovided a list to of the applications it believed had been submitted and where theactual application form could not be traced those TU members on the list were joined tothe Party and the scanned list uploaded to their membership record in place of an

application form.

l\/ll advises that on another occasion a batch of approx 40 application forms was received bythe party with a letter from Len McC|uskey stating that Tom Watson said they were OK. TheLabour and Unite General Secretaries agreed that these would be processed.

Ml said that possibly 2 batches of applications from Unite were hand delivered to him in

Newcastle by is a member of CLP and works for the ­­­

l\/ll thinks that when cash was used to pay for batches of applications, those applicationswere enveloped individually or in households with the appropriate amounts enclosed.These may be the batches delivered by

A membership application is usually processed immediately on receipt and the join date isse|f­­evident. Because some batches were not processed immediately when they werereceived they had their join date set as the date the applications were received rather thanthe date they were entered on the system. Due to an internal administration error whichmeant some forms were not stamped on receipt this date was sometimes suggested byUnite. says that of late he has established a protocol whereby Unite will email him firstbefore they submit applications within the agreement and then advises them whichcomply and are acceptable and which are invalid and cannot be processed. Also allmembers recruited under the agreement are tagged on the membership system.

4. InvestigationIn light of the findings of the initial investigation, Jane Shaw, Compliance Officer(investigations) was asked to arrange to meeta sample of those members who had been

recruited in Falkirk and asked by the Labour Party to complete a direct debit mandate in amailing sent on 16 April 2012. A list of 31 individuals was compiled that included:

Those who had written letters about their applications for membership

Those people within a list of members provided by Unite with the DD mandates theydelivered on 16 May, noted as refusing to provide Unite with a completed mandate

Those who appear to have different signatures on their membership application formand the DD mandate delivered for them by Unite.

Those whose application forms stated that they were members of a TU other thanUnite but whose applications had been delivered as part of a batch recruited by oron behalf of Unite

Those who had submitted DD mandates to cover the payment of fees for membersliving in more than one household ie: payment would be by a third party

A questionnaire was designed to use in meetings and members from the list weretelephoned between Thursday 6 June and Saturday 8 June, both inside and outside of office

hours to arrange meetings.

Only the following answered calls:

He said he had attended a meeting arranged by Unite to hearDeclined to meet but Len |\/lcCluskey. At the meeting all chairs had an application formprovided information to join the Labour Party upon them.

during phone callHe had always supported Labour so he completed the form andsent it to the Party himself with a cheque for ?15. He thought itwas the right thing to do.

He then received a letter from Scottish Labour asking him tocomplete a DD mandate in order to take part in the selection. Hesaid that he completed the mandate and returned it in thefreepost envelope but it has just been returned to him as therewas insufficient postage on it.

He would have voted for Karie Murphy as she was the only oneof the prospective candidates for the selection that had attendedwhere he works to speak with the employees

Has had visits from Linda Gow and others already and needs togo to ­where his mother has fallen ill on holiday. Just wantsto put all the Falkirk stuff behind him and not speak to anyoneAlso joined at the same else

time, declined to meet

Moira Fitzsimmons Agreed to meet with her and other family members on Tuesday

Joe Fitzsimmons and 11 June at 6:30pm at their home'also

joined at the same

time.

Lorraine Kane Agreed to meet with her and other family members at her home

Christopher, Michael, on Monday 10 June at 7pmMichelle and TeresaKane also joined at thesame time

Brenda McDermott Agreed to meeting with her and her parents at her parents'Michael McDermott house ­­at 4:30pm on 11 June

(son) Catherine andPeter McDermott(parents) also joined atthe same time

­ Declined to meet

5. Details of inquiriesThe Kane family

Monday 10 June Jane Shaw travelled to Falkirk and together with Scottish Labour OrganiserHannah Lister visited the Kane family as arranged. Lorraine, Michael and Teresa Kane werepresent together and answered questions in front of each other. Each signed thequestionnaires completed for each of them during the meeting by Jane Shaw from theinformation provided.

Signed application forms for each of the five members of the Kane family, each stating thatthe recruiter was Stevie Deans, are uploaded to their respective membership records andUnite delivered completed and signed DD mandates for each member of the family on 15May to Labour's London head office. On 27 March Linda Gow wrote to Brian Roy of ScottishLabour and enclosed a letter from the Kane family asking about the information that theparty holds about them. There are discrepancies in the various signatures that purported tohave been provided by the five members of the Kane family compared in particular with thesignatures that Lorraine, Michael and Teresa used when signing the questionnaires on 10June.

It transpired during the meeting that the three adult children did not live with their parents,Lorraine and Michael Kane, but each have their own homes:

Teresa

­ Michelle Kan?sm

­ Christopher

Lorraine Kane has since resigned from the Labour Party after being contacted by the Timesnewspaper about the spate of recruitment in Falkirk. She is very concerned abouit how thenewspaper got hold of her personal details, particularly her home phone number, whichsaid was in her maiden name, which few people would know to be able to get the numberthrough directory enquiries. She wants to re­­join the labour party and she was advised ofthe number to call to do 50.

From the information provided by the Kane family their recruitment has possible breachedlabour party rules in that:

Members are required to be members at the address that which they reside

Third parties are not allowed to pay another's fees unless the member and third partylive in the same house hold or the member has been recruited under the TULOagreement that allows a TU to pay for the first year of membership for its ownmembers providing that they personally sign the application form and provide a DDmandate for subsequent years

Karie Murphy misrepresented the purpose of the forms that she asked the Kanes tosign.

James Millar

Jane Shaw and Hannah Lister also called at the home

of James Millar who along with Lorraine Kane had written a letter to the party about his andhis family's application for membership. Mr Millar was not at home but a note with Jane'smobile number was left with his wife. Mr Millar called Jane Shaw later in the evening of 10June and whilst he did not accept her invitation to meet he did answer questions during thephone call.

Signed application forms, for James, ­­ Millar, each stating that therecruiter was Stephen Deans, are uploaded to their respective membership records, On 27March Linda Gow wrote to Brian Roy of Scottish Labour and enclosed a letter from theKanes, as stated above and James Millar on behalf of himselfalso asking about the information that the party holds about them and expressing concern

about Unite's recruitment of party members in Falkirk. The Millars did not complete andreturn DD mandates.

From the information provided by James Millar the recruitment of him and his family haspossibly breached labour party rules in that:

Third parties are not allowed to pay another's fees unless the member and thirdparty live within the same household or the member has been recruited under theTULO agreement that allows a TU to pay for the first year of membership for its own

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members providing that they personally sign the application form and provide a DDmandate for subsequent years.

McDermott family

Tuesday 11 June Jane Shaw and Hannah Lister visited ­­ to meet withBrenda McDermott and her parents Catherine and Peter McDermott as previously agreed at4:30pm. The door was answered by Stephen Deans, Chair of Falkirk CLP who said thatBrenda McDermott no longer wished to meet with us (appendix 5).

Signed application forms for Brenda, Michael, Catherine and Peter McDermott, each statingthat the recruiter was Stephen Deans, are uploaded to their respective membershiprecords. Unite delivered completed but unsigned DD mandates for Brenda, Michael andPeter McDermott on 16 May to Labour's London head office. Later on 22 May Jane Shawreceived throught the post at Labour's head office north, signed DD mandates for Brenda,Michael, Catherine and Peter McDermott. There are discrepancies in the signatures thatare purported to have provided by Brenda, Michael and Catherine McDermott ontheir application forms and the DD mandates.

Fitzsimmons family

Jane Shaw and Hannah Lister phoned the Fitzsimmons household three times to confirmthe 6:30pm meeting but failed to get an answer therefore they attended at­as previously agreed. The donor was not answered when theyknocked so Jane Shaw left a note to confirm that they had visited as arranged and giving heroffice phone number if they still wished to assist with the Labour Party enquiries aboutrecent events in Falkirk.

Signed application forms for Moira and ­Fitzsimmons, each stating that the recruiterwas Stephen Deans and showing a receiving date stamp of 19 December 2012 are uploadedto their respective membership records. Joe Fitzsimmons has a signed application form

dated 11 November 2012 with a Unite logo attached uploaded to his record, Although twoof the applications were apparently not received until December each of the membershiprecords for the three Fitzsimmons members shows a join date of 13 November 2012. Unitedelivered two completed DD mandates for Joe and Moira Fitzsimmons (together on oneform) and 2Fitzsimmons on 16 May to Labour's London head office. Both forms havedetails ofJ Fitzsimmons bank account and are signed by him with what appears to be adifferent signature to that provided on his signed application form.

Other inquiries

While in Falkirk, Jane Shaw continued to try to contact members from the list of potentialmembers to arrange more meetings but nobody answered. Jane and Hannah also triedcalling at the homes of two other members that the Labour Party had not got phonenumbers for but also failed to get an answer.

APPENDIX 1Timeline of ativity leading to the complaints

5.

6.

12 March 2012

8June 2012

7 NOV 2012

Nov 2012

19 Dec 2012

19 Dec 2012

Eric Joyce MP resigns from the Labour Party

11 application forms received from people recruited by GregorPoynton with a cheque for ?137. they were posted on 20 July2012.

Applications are not usually accepted from a third partyoutside of an applicant's household or the applicant's BLP or

8 application forms received on 7 Nov 2012. All marked asrecruited by Deans and all paying ?15 local rate. Some formsshow that a multiple of ?15 was paid to cover more than oneapplication probably from within the same household. Allposted to system on day received with a join date of 7 Nov2012

31 application forms printed with Unite logo received, Noreceiving date stamp but the forms themselves are mostlydated 18 Nov 2012. All posted to the system on 22 Feb 2013and apart from Joe Fitzsimmons whose application was givena join date of 13 Nov 2012 the remainder have a join date of4Dec 2012 (see para 14 below). This group of forms were notoriginally accepted on account of not meeting the criteria ofsponsored first year membership. The forms were thereforereturned to Unite. Subsequently agreement was reached thatwe would accept this batch and the join date was thereforebackdated to the of December which was when the formswere originally received by the Labour Party.

Unite send Matthew Jackson a list, stamped as thoughreceived on 19 Dec 2012 of people it has submittedapplications for of which 19 are in the Falkirk Westminsterconstituency area. Unite have paid for the fees by transferringthe money directly to the labour party. Payment is recorded asby cheque on the membership records but posted as freecash. All applicants on this list have their membership

backdated to 30 October 2012 except­­

'whose membership was activated on 19 Dec 2012.

21 application forms received on 19 Dec 2012. All marked asrecruited by Deans and all paying ?15 local rate. Some formsshow that a multiple of ?15 was paid to cover more than oneapplication probably from within the same household. Allposted to system on day 24 Jan 2013. The join date for this

10

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

21 Dec 2012

21 Dec 2012

29 Jan 2013

4 Feb 2013

5 Feb 2013

group was adjusted to 13 Nov 2012 following an exchange ofemails detailed below. No TU is recorded against thesemembers on the system but the application forms show 3 asmembers of USDAW and 2 as members of an unaffiliatedScottish teaching union EIS (see para 14 below)

13 applications posted of which 11 are in the FalkirkWestminster constituency area. No forms are posted to therecords, the fees are posted as cash, ?15 local rate and the joindates are backdated to 30 Oct 2012.

13 applications posted of which 12 are in the FalkirkWestminster constituency area. No forms are posted to therecords, the fees are posted as cash, ?15 local rate and the joindates are backdated to 31 Oct 2012.

Email from Matthew Jackson to Olly Buston ­­ the below is thesame group of forms that I originally received early December.You will remember the time despite Unite's agreement withtom Watson we returned the forms to Unite on account ofthem arriving after we had indicated that we were only willingto accept 'first year free' applications under the agreedguidelines, which included DD details being provided for year2 onwards. Obviously Unite are keen for us to accept thisbatch on account that they did the recruitment work prior to

the agreement and that Tom Watson had given it the goahead, Unite have now returned the forms back to me sayingthat General Secretaries on both sides came to agreement on12th December regarding this particular group and have askedthat they are processed.

Helen Oliver emailed Tom Watson MP's office in response to aquery received about applications submitted by Unite for . Helen responded that theapplications for these people had been received on thestandard application form and that neither party stated theywere members of Unite the Union.

Amy Jackson of Tom Watson's office replies to Helen Oliver.'The members concerned are not Unite members they areActually members of ?15. They were however recruited by aUnite activist as part of a recruitment drive initiated by theCLP. The issue I called about was the date that theirmembership forms were processed. The application formswere part of a batch given to Matthew Jackson on 31.10.12.The forms were given directly to Matthew by 'in­. The date ofjoining the party should reflect this.The members have all had letters welcoming them to theLabour Party and the CLP have made arrangements for DirectDebits to be initiated from October. This means three months

11

12.

13.

14.

5 Feb 2013

5 Feb 2013

5 Feb 2013

additional payments for all those concerned. It is myunderstanding that you have a database lit for all those whojoined on the 31.10.12 and paid in cash.'

Matthew Jackson emails Amy Jackson:

'As you know there has (sic) been a number of groups ofapplications that have gone between us and Unite. I don'tknow if there's some confusion around which applicationswere amongst which group, but I can confirm that the'applications were not amongst those I received from'on 31" October, nor are they on the spread sheetthat has been shared between myself and Unite subsequently.The application forms for both­­ werein fact signed and dated the 4th November by the

applicants. Our records show that both of these applicationsarrived with our Membership Service team on the 19"' ofDecember. As this fell just before our Christmas break, whichwas in turn followed by our peak for membership renewals inJanuary. For those reasons the applications were notcompleted until 24"' of January. Given the circumstances I

am happy to backdate the join date to the 19"' December.'

Email from Tom Watson's office to Matthew Jackson:'Thanks for your response. I will advise Tom what has beenhappening.' has email (sic) me the followinginformation now (please see below). They don't appear to beUnite members but were recruited by Unite activists in theCLP. I am now unsure if­made an error but he hasinformed Unite he passed them to you the week after the 4thof November when working at the Bi Election (sic). Is thispossible Matthew? Not sure how we can settle this one?Kane family 5

Fitzsimmons 2

­3

Total for 21 members. Some of the forms were dated 4November so it was after that they were delivered. I think itwas the following week.'

Email from Matthew Jackson to Tom Watson's office:

have had a look at all the new members referenced belowand have marked the date that each family have signed theirapplication. Given that the most recent of these applicationswas the 11"' of November, the earliest we could have possiblyhave received them would have been the 13"' of November.Clearly there has been a delay in a) getting the applications tothe right place and b) completed the applications. As the

12

applications have obviously been submitted within the rulesand in good faith I will arrange for theirjoin dates to bebackdated to the 13"' of November.

Kane family 5 ­­ 11"' of November

Fitzsimmons 2 ­­ 11"' of November

­ 3 ­­ 11"' of Novemberof Novemberof November

Millar 3 ­­ of NovemberMcDermott 3 ­­ of November'

15. 5 Feb 2013 Email from Matthew Jackson to Helen Oliver telling her tobackdate 22 members ­­ all of the 21 applications mentionedIn paragraph 6 and Joe Fitzsimmons mentioned in paragraph4.

16. 27 March 2013 Letters received by Scottish Labour Party from Linda Gowenclosing two letters ­­ all the members involved recruited byDeans ­­ see para 6 above.

(NB in the report there are photocopies of the actual letters Linda Gow's is typed and theother two are hand­written. What follows are transcripts of each letter)

Letter from Linda Gow to Brian Roy (both addresses included)Dated 27"' March 2013

Dear Brian

Please find enclosed two letters from new Labour Party members from These

members were recruited by Stephen Deans on behalf of Unite Trade Union who paid theirfirst year fees. The smaller letter is from Lorraine Kane on behalf of herself and herfamily who wish to know what information the Labour Party hold on them. They are askingfor this information as they are not trade union members at all and did not fill in any formsor sign any paperwork. In fact if you check with the electoral register they do not even alllive at that address? The second letter is self explanatory. If these requests prove that thesemembers were not joined according to Labour Party rules then I would ask that thememberships of all those recruited by Unite are put on hold until a full investigation of therecruitment is carried out.

I would be grateful if you would notify me on receipt of this letter. I am happy to meet todiscuss this issue further if required.

Yours fraternally

Linda GowMemb no

13

Letter showing address as:

To whom it may concern.

We would like to know of any information the labour party have about us.Yours sincerely

Kane

Kane

Kane

Kane

Hornall

Letter showing address as:

25/3/13

Dear Sir

Myself and two family members have been enrolled by Unite as members of the LabourPartv­

I or my family did not fill in or sign any forms and wish to know what information the Partyholds about my family, as I have concerns about the way Unite in Falkirk are recruiting partymembers.

17. 16 April 2013 All members with a join date between 20 July 2012 and 19Nov 2013 were mailed with a Direct Debit mandate tocomplete for payment of their renewal and subsequent year'smembership fees and a freepost envelope to return thecompleted forms to the Labour Party at Newcastle. Recipientsof the mailing were informed they would only be able topartake in the forthcoming Falkirk selection if they returned acompleted DD mandate by Thursday 16 May 2013.

18. 14 May 2013 Email: Linda Gow to Ian Price:

When Lorraine called she also raised another issue which isworrying her and is my main reason for writing to you bothtoday. She told me that Karie Murphy came to her home lastweek with direct debit mandates for Lorraine and Michael.Lorraine told her that she had received one with a letter fromthe Party and was going to fill it in. Lorraine says that MsMurphy was in her house for 15 minutes even though Lorrainekept refusing she kept insisting she should give her their bank

14

19.

20.

15 May 2013

15 May 2013

details. Ms Murphy insisted it would be fine and that theywere members until December and that the Labour Partywould not take any money out oftheir account. Lorraine saidthat she eventually gave in and gave their details but was

upset about the experience after Ms Murphy left and felt shehad 'been bullied' into giving out her details. She now has noidea if Ms Murphy has submitted these details to the Party onher behalf after press reports at the weekend saying MsMurphy will not be putting herself forward as a candidate inthis area. She asked for my advice on whether she should fillin the mandate sent out by the Party as well or if giving MsMurphy her details would suffice. Could one of you pleasecheck if Lorraine's details have already been submitted orcould you please advise me if she should submit anothermandate?

By this date only one completed printed DD mandate hadbeen returned to the Party's Newcastle office and another 8members had signed up to pay future fees by DD via theParty's website and/or by the telephone.

A member of Unite's London staff called at the Labour Party'sLondon head office with a bundle of 17 completed DDmandates plus two lists of members that they had collectedthe members from. Jane Shaw who took delivery of the formswas required to sign for them.The lists include notes that indicate the operation undertakenby Unite to get the forms completed and returned eg:

Karie collecting Tuesday

Can't find­­

Returned directly to Labour Party

Karie has emailed to check status not on CLP lists

Collected by SD to follow

Check membership not sure about the address

Karie to recall didn't have bank details

Cannot find this house at this address

15

Appendix 2

Falkirk Westminster Constituency ­­ new member questionnaireThere follows a sample of a questionnaire put together by the investigation team

Appendix 3

Meeting on 10 June 2013 with Lorraine, Michael and Teresa Kane at'

Lorraine Kane's responses

Have you been a memberof the labour partybefore?

Who, if anyone asked youto join the Labour Party?

How did you join theLabour Party?

What fee did you pay?

How did you pay yourmembership fee?

During April did youreceive a letter from theLabour Party with a DDmandate form andfreepost envelope?

Did you complete the DDmandate?

Yes, about 40 years ago

I was not aware that I had joined until I received a letter fromKarie Murphy. I understand that my husband, Michael, wasasked by a close relative of his in the pub one night if he andhis family would join the Labour Party. He apparently agreedbut did not then mention the conversation to me or our twodaughters and son. I was not concerned when I learned I was

a Labour member, I had always supported Labour and wouldhave agreed to join if I had been asked.

I don't know as I wasn't aware that I had

I don't know

I have not myself paid a fee to join the Labour Party. A5 I amretired when I learned that I was a member I thought that mymembership would be free of charge.

Yes

No, I was going to complete it but before doing so KarieMurphy called at my home and asked us all to complete formsthat she said were to prove we were real people ie: that wewere not fictitious characters who someone had enrolled asLabour members as had happened in Glasgow previously. Ididn't mind completing the form but I did not want to give hermy bank details when she asked for them and said that Ipreferred to send them myself to the Party. But Kariebadgered me for them until I gave in and added them to theform. When the forms were completed Karie took the formsaway with her.

16

Michael Kane's responses

Have you been a memberof the Labour Partybefore?

How did you pay yourmembership fees?

During April did youreceive a letter from theLabour Party with a DDmandate form andfreepost envelope?

Did you complete the DD

mandate

Teresa Kane's responses

Have you been a memberof the Labour Party before?

How did you pay yourmembership fees?

During April did youreceive a letter from theLabour Party with a DDmandate form andfreepost envelope?

Did you complete the DDmandate?

Lorraine Kane said that since joining she had not taken part inany Labour Party meetings or activities.

Yes

I was asked by a relative (that he would rather not name) if Iand my family would join the labour Party. I said that wewould and nothing more was said. I didn't complete or signany application forms and I made no payments formembership fees. I was on my own when this conversationoccurred and I didn't mention it to my wife and family.

VES

No Karie Murphy visited my home and said that she needed toget us to sign a form to prove that we were real people andnot fictitious people added to the Labour Party membership.She spoke to myself and my wife together and I signed theform she had and she then took it away with her.

Michael Kane said that since joining he had not taken part inany Labour Party meetings or activities.

No

I was unaware that I had joined until I learned that my fatherhad put my name down for membership. I have not made anypayments to anyone for membership fees

yes

Karie Murphy visited me at my home at'­week or so after visiting my parents. When she

called I was sleepy having been working nights and don't

17

recollect much of the conversation except that Karie Murphydid say that she did not need my bank details as she hadalready got my mum's (Lorraine Kane). I cannot rememberwhether or not I signed anything, I did not return any formsmyself to the Labour Party

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Appendix 4Note of phone conversation on 10 June 2013 with James Millar

James Millar said that he was asked by a close friend (who he decided to name) in the pubif he was prepared to join the Labour Party. He said that he was not bullied into joining andwas told by the friend that Unite were sponsoring Karie Murphy for selection as Labour'sparliamentary candidate for Falkirk and they needed votes to get her in. He said that hisoldest daughter was at that time already a member. Although he had always voted LabourMr Millar said that before being asked by his friend he had no thoughts ofjoining the Party.

James Millar said that he did not complete or sign any application forms, just gave his andhis wife and daughter's names to his friend. He said that no fee was mentioned and that hisfriend said that everything would be dealt with by Unite. Mr Miller said that he is a memberof Unison not Unite.

When the publicity about the Party's recruitment in Falkirk started and he learned moreabout Karie Murphy he started to doubt that he would vote for the selection. He thenreceived the mailing from Labour asking him to complete a DD mandate and then he hadtwo visits. Karie Murphy called to ask him to sign something but by then he had decidedthat he didn't like her and he told her he intended to vote for Linda Gow to be selected. Atthis Karie Murphy didn't press for him to sign the form and left. The other visit was from a

man informing him of a meeting of members to consider the proposed all woman short list.

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APPENDIX 5Note of conversation on 11 June 2013 with Stephen Deans

Jane Shaw and Hannah Lister attended at 4:30pm at 1 Glebe Street, Denny as previouslyagreed with Brenda McDermott and her parents, Catherine and Peter McDermott, whosehouse it was. The door was answered by a man who later identified himself as StephenDeans, Chair of Falkirk CLP.

Jane asked for Brenda McDermott and Stephen Deans said that she wasn't there. Janementioned the arrangement she had to meet her at the property and was told that she nolonger wanted to meet with her. Stephen Deans then asked 'are you Jane?' Jane said yesand asked who he was at which he introduced himself. Jane said she was sorry that BrendaMcDermott had decided not to meet with her and Stephen Deans said she had feltpressurized. Jane denied pressuring her and said that was certainly not her intention andshe was sorry if that is how Ms McDermott had felt. Mr Deans then said that she had been'put on the spot' by Jane's call.

Mr Deans said that Jane was meeting with his family and friends and that Catherine andPeter McDermott were his parent­in­­law. Jane said she had not been aware of this andpointed out the different surnames and that the Labour Party membership system did notrecord which members were related. Mr Deans said that Jane had also spoken to LorraineKane, his wife's aunt; and Jim Millar, one of his close friends. Jane assured Mr Deans thatthis has not been intentional that she had been asked to travel to Falkirk and meet with asample of recently recruited members who had been mailed with a DD mandate by theLabour Party. That she had chosen people randomly, and in the case of the McDermottsbeen happy to meet with them as it was an opportunity to meet and talk to more than oneperson during a single visit, so saving time. She said that she had chosen the recruits totarget and while she could have tried to contact all 89 members mailed a DD mandate shehad just tried to meet the people who had written to the Party plus a few others. Mr Deanssaid that we had so far spoken with people in the village in which he and hisfamily and friends lived. Jane assured him it was not her intention to target his friends andrelations and asked if there was anyone else she shouldn't call upon.

Mr Deans mentioned that the party had come to Falkirk to talk to people but had notcontacted him or the CLP secretary first. Jane told him that her role was confined to

meeting members to see how and why they had joined the Labour Party and prior to that toundertake some research of the membership records of the members in question and thatwhen she had information she then just passed it on to her line manager Declan McHugh. Mr

Deans mentioned that an email from lain McNicol had said that the investigation wouldreport by a date in May and asked when it would now report. Jane said she had not seenthat email and couldn't comment.

Mr Deans maintained that all he and others had been trying to achieve by recruiting newmembers was the regeneration of a moribund CLP. He said that Peter McDermott at 81years old was a lifelong Labour supporter and had joined willing, particularly in the light ofMr Deans' involvement with Labour. Jane again apologised if she had caused BrendaMcDermott to feel uncomfortable and she and Hannah left.

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DOCUMENT ENDSThe Guardian has made a number of redactions to the report. Theseinclude the names of Labour Party officials who played minor roles in theaffair, and the names and addresses of some members of the LabourParty in Falkirk.