Latest news with #Militant
The Herald Scotland
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
I think Keir Starmer's ineptitude here takes some beating
Sir Keir Starmer pays for that first challenge through reputational damage. We will all pay for the second challenge through other spending curbs and possible tax hikes. I have covered politics for the odd decade. I have witnessed missteps aplenty by leaders from each and every political party. However, the ineptitude displayed here takes some beating. Read More: Consider the PM's demeanour. There he was at the NATO summit, promising a substantial increase in defence spending. Which, in itself, leaves some Labour MPs disquieted. Asked about the growing insurrection over cuts to disability payments, he dismissed the complaints as 'noises off'. Cue yet more anger from discontented backbenchers, furious that their genuine concerns for the disadvantaged were downplayed in such a fashion. Then, inevitably changing tack, he conceded on Thursday that there would be talks with the dissidents, aimed at achieving a settlement in line with 'Labour values of fairness.' The rebels duly entered those talks. But many were privately asking themselves what happened to those 'Labour values' when Ministers proposed a package of reforms which their own official advisers said would push a quarter of a million people into poverty, including 50,000 children. For pity's sake, what did Sir Keir and his Cabinet think the reaction would be to such a forecast? Meek acquiescence? In viewing this spectacle, I could not help thinking of Neil Kinnock's 1985 conference speech, condemning Militant, when he summoned up 'the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council – hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.' Change the accent, excise the oratory and you have Keir Starmer heading a Labour government – a Labour government – driving people into poverty with cuts in disability support. Sir Keir has now performed a hat-trick of U-turns. On winter fuel payments, on a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs – and on welfare. This is by far the most substantive. Can he come back from this? He can – although there is a much shorter electoral timetable in Scotland. But, still, it makes us revisit basic questions about his leadership. Firstly, last July's big Labour win is not solely or even chiefly down to him. He entered Downing Street because folk were heartily sick of the Tories – and sought a conduit to kick them out. As things stand, Reform seem to be offering an alternative for those who have broadened their disgust – and are utterly sick of established politics, full stop. Secondly, with some exceptions, the team around him have failed to shine. Including the Chancellor. Was there really nobody to suggest gently that the emperor was somewhat short of bodily cover on the benefits issue? Were they, perhaps understandably to some degree, so engrossed in global crisis that they failed to notice – or, rather, sufficiently address – the concerns of their backbenchers over the most distressed and disadvantaged of our citizens? Thirdly, and ironically, the very weakness of the Conservatives adds to Sir Keir's problems. To be blunt, he has nothing to beat. Relatively little is required of him in the Commons or in public discourse. Finally, those Labour values. When you contemplate Sir Keir, do you really summon up principles such as egalitarianism and fairness? Yes, you will know of his upbringing, His mum, the nurse. His father, the toolmaker. He told us often enough. But do values of commonality and collective endeavour shine through from him? I get the concept. He took over from Jeremy Corbyn and felt obliged to stress that Labour had moved from the Left, had changed – and would, consequently, change the country. On assuming office, Rachel Reeves felt the need to assuage the markets with a balanced budget. Hence the stress she placed upon curbing winter fuel payments. For a Labour Chancellor, it was deliberately counter-intuitive. Again, I get it. In due course, they backed down on winter fuel. And the cuts to disability benefits went too far for their party. Way too far. And for the voters. By chance, I chaired a conference on the issue in Glasgow this month. Two things stood out. Deep, genuine apprehension over the benefit cuts. And entrenched distrust over the package of support for getting jobs. Labour know they got this badly wrong. The emphasis on job creation needed to come first. The cuts needed to be moderated. Both will now happen. Sir Keir will insist that reform is still on track. However, this has been a fundamentally damaging episode for the PM. I understand the motivation. The desire to be fiscally cautious, to generate funds for spending in other quarters. But this was the wrong target, introduced in the wrong way. No doubt temporarily, Sir Keir seemed to forget which party he was leading – and in which legislature. He is Prime Minister, primus inter pares, completely dependent upon Commons votes. Not a dismissive, stand-alone President. Those were not 'noises off'. They were concerns voiced by his backbenchers, his supporters, the bulwark of his power. Then there is Scotland. Where former Labour Minister Brian Wilson, writing in The Herald, urged a rethink to avoid 'a deep and lasting split'. Where former MSP Neil Findlay questioned the sanity of Labour MPs – while warning that their chances of re-election would be reduced, not enhanced. Where the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was left stranded. Backing the principle of reform – while urging 'fairness'. In practice, as his MP colleagues made up their minds, his influence appeared minimal. He was duly lampooned by John Swinney at Holyrood – as the SNP cited figures indicating that child poverty is down in Scotland, by contrast with England and Wales. There is a way back for the PM. There is almost always a way back. But this has been deeply, deeply damaging. For Sir Keir Starmer, never glad confident morning again. Brian Taylor is a former political editor for BBC Scotland and a columnist for The Herald. He cherishes his family, the theatre – and Dundee United FC
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Peter Taaffe obituary
In the 1980s, Peter Taaffe, who has died aged 83, was famous in political circles, and Labour party grandees shivered at the sound of his name. As leader since 1964 of the Militant tendency, which, unlike other Trotskyist groups, wanted to work within the Labour party, Taaffe had spent two decades shaping and implementing a policy of 'entryism', in which Militant members were to take over the party from the ground up. In 1983 Militant gained control of Liverpool city council. The new intake of Labour MPs after the June 1983 general election included two Militants, Terry Fields, representing Liverpool Broadgreen, and Dave Nellist, for Coventry South East. A third, Pat Wall in Bradford, was elected in 1997. Militant and the 1984-85 miners' strike dominated the politics of the labour movement – the Labour party and the trade unions – for most of the 1980s. The journalist Michael Crick, who wrote two books about Militant, estimated in 1985 that it had about 7,000 members, 150 full-time workers, a turnover of around a million pounds a year and offices in most major cities. It was a party within a party. Under the Labour leader Michael Foot, Taaffe and his four leading lieutenants were expelled in 1983, after three years of bitter debate in the party and in the courts. After Foot's defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 general election, Foot's successor, Neil Kinnock, began a purge in which dozens of Militant activists all over Britain were expelled. Taaffe was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, the son of a sheet metal worker, and he and his five siblings grew up in poverty. He was a keen footballer and a lifelong Everton supporter. He was recruited to Militant in 1960 by Ted Grant, a veteran Trotskyist, who had been politically active since arriving in Britain from South Africa in 1934, and had worked with, and fallen out with, most of the major figures in British Trotskyism. They had learned sectarianism and doctrinal rigidity from the Communist party, which they loathed. Taaffe became the general secretary of Militant in 1964 and launched the Militant newspaper. By the 80s he had made it easily the most significant Trotskyist group, and he remained general secretary of Militant and its successors until 2020. In the 90s, Militant was prominent in the movement to refuse to pay the poll tax, and in the demonstrations against it, which helped to undermine Thatcher. He was a talented political organiser. His life was politics, and his commitment was total. At one point he was sleeping under the desk in the office, and he only took wages if enough money had been raised. In 1966 he married Linda Driscoll. A primary school teacher and a leftwing activist in the National Union of Teachers (now the National Education Union), she shared his politics. Some former associates say Taaffe was ruthless and intolerant of dissent; that those who crossed him found themselves frozen out. But they add that he taught them rigorous socialist study and a disciplined approach, and his successor, Hannah Sell, said: 'He was not sectarian. We would discuss all issues and he would listen to everyone.' These qualities enabled Taaffe to build Militant into a force that could seriously trouble Foot and Kinnock. By 1980, he was a serious player in Labour party politics, which gave him a platform he used skilfully. 'The idea that just a few Marxists could just parachute into constituency Labour parties and take them over is absurd,' he wrote in the Guardian that year, just as he was making this absurdity happen. In the 90s, Labour was moving not to the left, as Taaffe had hoped, but to the right, with the election of Tony Blair as leader in 1994. Taaffe decided the time had come to abandon entryism. Grant disagreed, and when Taaffe got his way at a special national conference in 1992, Grant left Militant (he claimed to have been expelled, which Taaffe denied) and started a new group called Socialist Appeal. From 1997 to 2020 Taaffe was general secretary of Militant's successor, the Socialist party, and he was to hit the headlines one more time. In 2016, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, and some members of the Socialist party argued that this was the time for the left to make peace with the Labour party and to quietly influence its direction. Taaffe rejected this softly softly approach, instead saying publicly that his old chum Corbyn (they had known each other in Islington before Corbyn was an MP) would lift the ban on Militant. This made it impossible for Corbyn to do any such thing, and Corbyn's deputy Tom Watson moved swiftly to kill the idea. Taaffe called Watson 'Stalinist' – and he knew no worse insult. For many on the left, Taaffe is the bitter sectarian who helped ensure that the last half century has been dominated by Conservative governments. In the Socialist party, they believe he showed the way forward after the collapse of the Soviet Union, correctly predicting that it would lead in the short term to a move to the right. He inspired love and loyalty. Sell said: 'He left us the Socialist party with 2,000 members and members on several trade union executives. That will enable us to advance socialism in the future.' He is survived by Linda, their two daughters, Katie and Nancy, four grandchildren, and a great-grandson. Peter Taaffe, political activist, born 7 April 1942; died 23 April 2025
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Peter Taaffe, driving force behind the Militant Tendency which paralysed Labour in the 1980s
Peter Taaffe, who has died aged 83, was the driving strategist of the Militant Tendency, the Trotskyist group that infiltrated the Labour Party and reduced it to near-paralysis for much of the 1980s. Officially the editor of Militant, Taaffe was the linchpin of the Revolutionary Socialist League as it schemed to take over local parties and Labour's national organs, then resisted attempts to expel its leaders. Militant's biographer Michael Crick wrote in 1986: 'Peter Taaffe probably sees himself as the modern British Lenin, who will emerge at the moment of crisis and lead us to socialism.' At the time Crick rated Militant 'Britain's fifth largest political party'. Taaffe, a Merseysider, co-founded Militant in 1964 with Ted Grant, a veteran Trotskyist of indeterminate age who had arrived from South Africa in the 1930s. The bedraggled-looking Taaffe was a good mixer and conversationalist; Grant, having declared for decades that the collapse of capitalism was nigh, verged on the obsessive. An Evertonian, Taaffe was a keen footballer – but Grant usually beat him at table tennis. By the late 1970s, Militant's activities as a 'party within a party' were alarming Labour headquarters, but the Left-dominated National Executive (NEC) looked the other way. It was not until 1982 – with several Tendency members set to become MPs – that Michael Foot declared Militant a 'pestilential nuisance' and steps were taken to expel its leaders. Taaffe was ready for this, and Militant's five-strong editorial board (including himself) were only expelled after three years of debilitating argument and repeated legal challenges. Militant remained a force in the party – notably taking control of Liverpool council – until it rashly fielded a candidate against Labour in a by-election. Even then, it gained a fresh lease of life as Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party. Taaffe and Grant eventually fell out over strategy – whether to keep infiltrating the Labour Party – and policy, notably Grant's insistence that the October 1987 stock-market crash was the crisis he had long predicted. The bulk of Militant's leadership sided with Taaffe. From 1997 to 2020 Taaffe was general secretary of the Socialist Party, which claims to be Militant's successor. He was also an executive member of the Committee for a Workers' International, which claims sections in more than 45 countries. In 2016, after Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Taaffe and others expelled in the 1980s applied to rejoin the party. When Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson objected, Taaffe called him a 'Stalinist'. Peter James Taaffe was born in Birkenhead in April 1942, one of six children of a sheet-metal worker of Irish origin, 'an intelligent worker-socialist who could mend anything.' His father died when he was small, and Peter grew up in 'atrocious' conditions, bearing throughout his life a scar on his nose after the ceiling fell in while he was asleep. Leaving school, one of his first jobs was in Liverpool's city treasury department. Taaffe joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, then in 1959 the Labour Party, where he 'discovered radical, socialist, Marxist ideas'. He was attracted by a group around the newspaper Socialist Fight, led by Grant, who pressed Trotsky's argument that only in advanced industrial countries could the working class lead a revolution to establish socialism. Taaffe worked with them to foment strikes on Merseyside, notably one by apprentices at English Electric which spread to 20,000 workers. Early in 1964, Grant's group decided to relaunch Socialist Fight as Militant, a monthly 'mass journal of Labour and socialist youth' aimed squarely at the Labour Party Young Socialists. They chose Taaffe as its editor because of his incisive mind and organisational skills. Issue No 1, days before that October's election, carried the headline: 'Drive out the Tories – but Labour must have socialist policies.' The first iteration of Militant's demand for the nationalisation under workers' control of a specific number of companies came in a 1965 article by Taaffe, splashed under the headline: 'Nationalise the 400 Monopolies'. That year Taaffe moved to London, becoming full-time national secretary of the RSL. Money was short, and at times he had to sleep in doorways. After he married, he rented two floors of a large terrace house in Islington. Lynn Walsh, a Sussex University graduate, succeeded him as editor of Militant, with Taaffe writing mainly on international topics. To him – as for Militant – the struggle was worldwide, and sister organisations from Belgium to Sri Lanka were encouraged. Militant purchased headquarters in Bethnal Green in 1970, setting up the Cambridge Heath Press, which also printed Militant Irish Monthly and Militant International Review plus – despite instructions from party HQ – literature for some Labour councils and parties. Gradually Militant's 'entryism' paid off. In 1970 it took control of the Labour Party Young Socialists' national committee. Two years later the NEC gave a seat to the LPYS, giving Grant and Taaffe access to confidential party documents. In 1975 Reg Underhill, Labour's national agent, handed the NEC a 45-page report outlining the extent of Trotskyist infiltration. Militant, he reported, had an organisation with a full-time staff and claimed to control the LPYS at national level. The NEC did not want to know. In 1981 Taaffe codified the Tendency's demands in Militant: What We Stand For: a 35-hour week, a £120-a-week minimum wage, abolition of immigration controls, putting the police under elected local committees, MPs and union officials to receive a worker's wage, massive defence cuts, national strikes to force out the Tories, abolition of the monarchy and the Lords, and nationalisation of 200 major companies under workers' control. By late 1981 the pressure for action against Militant became irresistible. Labour's general secretary Ron Hayward and Underhill's successor David Hughes interviewed Taaffe, Grant and Walsh, who denied that Militant's annual 'readers' meeting' was a formal conference. In June 1982 Hayward and Hughes proposed a 'register of affiliated organisations' for which Militant would have to qualify. Hayward then retired; his successor Jim Mortimer was an ex-Maoist with no time for Trotskyists. That September, 2,600 Militant supporters staged a show of strength at Wembley under the slogan 'Fight the Tories, not the Socialists'. Labour's 1982 conference voted 3-1 for action against Militant, and the Right captured the NEC, which recommended expulsion of the editorial board: Taaffe, Grant, Walsh, Clare Doyle and Keith Dickinson. Taaffe retorted: 'We do not accept summary execution or expulsion. We shall fight it.' The five went to court, forcing Labour into a legal minefield. That December the NEC declared Militant ineligible for affiliation to the party. The five appeared and made brief statements, but for legal reasons the NEC could not question them. Only in February 1983 did it vote for expulsions, and it took two years more for them to be confirmed. No action was taken against any candidates, and to Taaffe's relief two Militant supporters – Dave Nellist and Terry Fields – won seats at the 1983 election. 1983 also saw Militant take over Liverpool council, with Derek Hatton its deputy leader. Taaffe oversaw a campaign to 'strengthen the position of the [Liverpool] labour movement and of Marxism in the eyes of the broad mass of the working class' – aimed at getting the council's workforce into a position where it would stage a general strike. Militant – by then selling 20,000 copies – celebrated its 20th birthday in 1984 with a rally at Wembley Conference Centre addressed by Taaffe and Tony Benn. The next year Militant hired the Royal Albert Hall for what The Daily Telegraph dubbed 'the last night of the Trots'. Taaffe slipped into Labour's 1984 conference using press credentials, using 'runners' to instruct delegates on the floor. That winter the Islington South party issued him and Grant with membership cards. After Liverpool council set a budget bringing matters to a head, Taaffe and Grant realised tactical mistakes were being made – particularly the declaring of 31,000 redundancies to force the government to cave in or take over. This prompted Neil Kinnock at Labour's 1985 conference to condemn 'the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council – hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers'. Taaffe was influential in formulating Militant's position on the poll tax, urging Labour councils to refuse to collect it. With the Community Charge levied first in Scotland, he assessed the prospects first with Scottish members of Militant. A conference in Glasgow in April 1988 opted for mass non-payment, building 'a Scottish-wide network of local anti-poll tax unions and regional federations'. Thousands failed or refused to pay, there were riots against the tax in London in May 1990, and its unpopularity was said to be a factor in the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher that November. With Labour unable to reap the political benefit, Militant claimed the credit. Taaffe wrote later that 'the experience of mass struggles outside the Labour Party, above all in the poll tax, were to convince the majority of Militant's supporters that the old tactic of concentrating most of its forces in the Labour Party had been overtaken by events.' Only in 1991, after Labour disciplined 62 party members for campaigning against its candidate in the Liverpool Walton by-election, did matters came to a head. Even then, just 150 Militant supporters had been expelled. Taaffe and a majority on Militant's executive voted to abandon infiltration of what had become a 'thoroughly bourgeois' Labour Party and form a separate party, initially based in Scotland, as Scottish Militant Labour – against the wishes of Grant, who insisted entrism had to continue. The collapse of the Soviet Union put Britain's Trotskyists on the spot. Taaffe and the majority believed the restoration of capitalism in Russia was possible, but Grant declared: 'Any illusions of Gorbachev changing anything fundamental will be shattered by the attitude of the Moscow bureaucracy to this crisis.' There were also differences of style. Taaffe accused Grant of 'never being prepared to enter into a dialogue' and claiming a right of veto. He scorned Grant's faction as 'political dinosaurs operating with outmoded formulas ... a dogmatic, black and white, undialectical approach towards political phenomena.' Early in 1992 Taaffe announced a 'parting of the ways' in an extended Militant editorial. Militant expelled Grant and the 'minority', who reconstituted themselves as Socialist Appeal. South of the Border, Taaffe and Nellist launched Militant Labour in 1993. Rebranded the Socialist Party in 1997 with Taaffe as general secretary, it fielded 27 candidates at that year's election, making no impact. It went on to campaign that the trade unions should break with Labour and found a new working-class party. Today it fields candidates under the Tusc banner. Taaffe retained control of the RSL's internationalist arm. It started a website commenting on the developing world situation and how to win the working class to Marxism. He wrote numerous books and pamphlets, among them Liverpool – A City That Dared to Fight, with Tony Mulhearn (1988), The Masses Arise: The Great French Revolution, 1789-1815 (1989), The Rise of Militant (1995), The History of the CWI (1997), Post-September 11: Can US Imperialism Be Challenged? (2002), Afghanistan, Islam and the Revolutionary Left (2002), Empire Defeated: Vietnam War – The Lessons for Today (2003), A Socialist World Is Possible (2005), 1926 General Strike – Workers Taste Power (2006) and Socialism and Left Unity (2008). Peter Taaffe is survived by his wife Linda and two daughters. One, Nancy Taaffe, fought Walthamstow for Tusc at the 2005, 2010 and 2015 elections. Peter Taaffe, born April 1942, died April 23 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge tells Derek Hatton not to chew in court during bribery hearing
The former leader of the Trotskyist group Militant was told by a judge not to chew in court during a bribery hearing. Derek Hatton, who was deputy leader of Liverpool city council in the 1980s, was charged with bribery after a police investigation into the awarding of commercial and business contracts from Liverpool city council between 2010 and 2020. The 77-year-old was also a well-known figure of Militant, a Left-wing group that infiltrated Labour from the 1960s through to the late 1980s. Mr Hatton, of Aigburth, Liverpool, denied one count of bribery and one count of counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office at Preston magistrates' court. Before he confirmed his name, age and address, District Judge Wendy Lloyd asked Mr Hatton not to chew in court. Former mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, 67, also appeared in court accused of involvement in council corruption. On Friday, he indicated not guilty pleas to charges of bribery, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. On the misconduct charge, he is said to have sent and/or arranged to have sent 'threatening letters' to himself. The ex-social worker, of Knotty Ash in Liverpool, was elected mayor of the city from the time the role was created in 2012 until 2021. Previously in a statement posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, he said: 'I am innocent of charges and will fight to clear my name.' His son David Anderson, 37, of Wavertree, faces a charge with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, which he denies. Hatton's wife, Sonjia Hatton, 49, of Aigburth, indicated a not guilty plea to one count of misconduct in a public office by providing and seeking confidential council information over matters of commercial and business use to Mr Hatton's contacts and to his business dealings. Andrew Barr, formerly the council's assistant director of highways and planning, 51, of Ainsdale, Merseyside, is charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and also faced a charge of bribery for which he indicated a not guilty plea. Adam McClean, 54, of Woolton, also entered the dock on a charge of conspiracy to bribery, to which he entered no plea. Other defendants appeared at court remotely via video link. The council's former head of regeneration Nick Kavanagh, 56, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool, indicated not guilty pleas to two counts of bribery. Phillipa Cook, 49, of the same address, also indicated not guilty pleas to two counts of bribery. Alexander Croft, 30, of Aughton, Lancashire, indicated a not guilty plea to one count of bribery. Julian Flanagan, 53, of Knowsley; Paul Flanagan, 71, of Knowsley; and James Shalliker, 38, of Downholland, Lancashire, are all charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and entered no pleas. The Flanagan brothers founded construction business the Flanagan Group. All 12 defendants were granted unconditional bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at Preston Crown Court on April 25. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Judge tells Derek Hatton not to chew in court during bribery hearing
The former leader of the Trotskyist group Militant was told by a judge not to chew in court during a bribery hearing. Derek Hatton, who was deputy leader of Liverpool city council in the 1980s, was charged with bribery after a police investigation into the awarding of commercial and business contracts from Liverpool city council between 2010 and 2020. The 77-year-old was also a well-known figure of Militant, a Left-wing group that infiltrated Labour from the 1960s through to the late 1980s. Mr Hatton, of Aigburth, Liverpool, denied one count of bribery and one count of counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office at Preston magistrates' court. Before he confirmed his name, age and address, District Judge Wendy Lloyd asked Mr Hatton not to chew in court. Former mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, 67, also appeared in court accused of involvement in council corruption. On Friday, he indicated not guilty pleas to charges of bribery, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. On the misconduct charge, he is said to have sent and/or arranged to have sent 'threatening letters' to himself. 'Innocent of all charges' The ex-social worker, of Knotty Ash in Liverpool, was elected mayor of the city from the time the role was created in 2012 until 2021. Previously in a statement posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, he said: 'I am innocent of charges and will fight to clear my name.' His son David Anderson, 37, of Wavertree, faces a charge with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, which he denies. Hatton's wife, Sonjia Hatton, 49, of Aigburth, indicated a not guilty plea to one count of misconduct in a public office by providing and seeking confidential council information over matters of commercial and business use to Mr Hatton's contacts and to his business dealings. Andrew Barr, formerly the council's assistant director of highways and planning, 51, of Ainsdale, Merseyside, is charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and also faced a charge of bribery for which he indicated a not guilty plea. Adam McClean, 54, of Woolton, also entered the dock on a charge of conspiracy to bribery, to which he entered no plea. Appeared via video link Other defendants appeared at court remotely via video link. The council's former head of regeneration Nick Kavanagh, 56, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool, indicated not guilty pleas to two counts of bribery. Phillipa Cook, 49, of the same address, also indicated not guilty pleas to two counts of bribery. Alexander Croft, 30, of Aughton, Lancashire, indicated a not guilty plea to one count of bribery. Julian Flanagan, 53, of Knowsley; Paul Flanagan, 71, of Knowsley; and James Shalliker, 38, of Downholland, Lancashire, are all charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and entered no pleas. The Flanagan brothers founded construction business the Flanagan Group. All 12 defendants were granted unconditional bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at Preston Crown Court on April 25.
