The director of the Labour Party’s London region Hazel Flynn is to stand down from her post in the near future, On London understands.
The reason for her departure is not yet clear, and the London region has declined to confirm the development, saying it has a policy of not commenting on internal matters.
Flynn took up the post towards the end of 2018. Her appointment was hailed at the time by admirers of the now former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, including the alt-Left website Skwawkbox, which described her as “an eminently-qualified organiser” who had signed a July 2016 statement of support for Corbyn published by Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners.
Other strands of opinion within the party have welcomed her forthcoming departure, with activist website The Red Roar greeting “another Corbyn loyalist out the door”. Commenting on Twitter, former Labour MP Tony McNulty described it as “very good news” but warned that “there is still plenty to do to re-professionalise the party” and get rid of “poisonous factional partisans”.
Labour’s London region has not been immune from the sometimes vicious faction-fighting at more local levels in the capital and elsewhere in the country following Corbyn’s elevation to party leader in 2015.
In March 2019, shortly after Flynn took up her post, all but one of the elected positions on the London region’s board were secured by supporters of Corbyn and Momentum, the organisation formed to support him.
Then news about Flynn, which was being shared by Labour members in London over the weekend, has broken on the day Labour nationally is to choose a new general secretary.
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