Part 3: An Al Jazeera investigation highlighted the unlawful use by party officials of data stolen from “Inside Croydon”, the local Blog. The Party is Corrupt to the Core

The Al Jazeera Labour files programmes show the party is corrupt to the core

5 October, 2022: An Al Jazeera investigation highlighted the unlawful use by Labour party officials of data stolen from “Inside Croydon”, the local blog.

“Inside Croydon” recovered other documents including a chain of email correspondence between the Croydon Councillor, Jerry Fitzpatrick a retired barrister and Alex Barros-Curtis – Director of Legal Affairs and Labour HQ, indicating that knowledge of the illegal hack attack was sourced to the headquarters of the Labour Party.

David Evans, the party’s General Secretary, and Labour HQ’s lawyers had chosen to ignore the incident that should have been notified to the police.

Before his retiral Councillor Fitzpatrick had been the local Labour group chief whip. In early 2021, he inherited from his predecessor, “Thirsty” Clive Fraser, a file of emails and documents that were being used selectively to persecute three fellow councillors who had blown the whistle on the dysfunctional council that had gone bankrupt in 2020.

The Al Jazeera programme makers had also displayed an extract from Fitzpatrick’s correspondence to Labour HQ written after he had had a chance to assimilate the information that Fraser had hoarded and which the Labour official – a close ally of discredited ex-Council leader Tony Newman and Blairite MP Steve Reed – had for some reason failed to hand over to the police. Other documents produced later by “Inside Croydon” showed that Fitzpatrick had indeed written to Labour HQ on a number of occasions seeking guidance. The correspondence was acknowledged by both Evans and Alex Barros-Curtis, Labour’s executive director of legal affairs.

About Alex Barros-Curtis – Director of Legal Affairs

A shadowy operator he secretly set up the companies that ran the Smith and Starmer campaigns and claimed to be a trusted adviser to Smith and the campaign’s chair and vice-chair. His contribution to the Owen Smith leadership campaign commenced with the ill advised “Chicken Coup” which sought to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, the democratically elected Labour leader, prompting the local membership to re-elect Corbyn with more than 61per cent of the vote.

Prior to taking up his post at Labour HQ, Curtis was employed for four months in a senior position in Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign. His political affiliations are well known but in the case of stolen data the recently retired barrister is no stranger to the law. His duty required him to report the incident to the police.

“Croydon Council Labour Group – disciplinary issues – legal advice sought – legal confidentiality applies”.

In March, 2021, Barros-Curtis’s was the recipient of the first in a series of emails from Councillor Fitzpatrick who wrote: “I am chief whip of the Croydon Labour group. I am a retired barrister, having practised for 20 years at the family bar. I am writing to seek legal advice.”

Noting he had not succeeded Fraser until 17 March, he wrote: “On 10 March 2021, I embarked on a disciplinary investigation, writing to three Group members who allegedly passed (and continue to pass) confidential matters relating to Group business to Steven Downes, the editor of, ‘Inside Croydon, the editor of the blog and the three councillors are aware that their emails were hacked and given to Clive Fraser.”

Fitzpatrick also attached a copy of an email, (hacked from “Inside Croydon”) that he had sent to Hamida Ali, the leader of the Croydon Labour group at the time. Ali had not responded. In the email he had written: “In the past I have reported how Fraser repeatedly failed in his public and legal duties to report crimes to the proper authorities. On this occasion, his actions and abuse of my documents open you all to accusations of criminal conduct. The documents appear to have been obtained in breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Data Protection Act 2018. You appear to be guilty of an offence under these Acts, either as a principal or an accessory. I have reported this matter to the police and to the Information Commissioner. If you should decide to do the right thing and have all the documents handed in to the police and provide evidence in a statement, you might wish to note that the Metropolitan Police’s crime reference number is xxxxxxxxx.” ‘What he provided does not even begin to dispose of my concerns’

In his initial email to Barros-Curtis’s office, Fitzpatrick confirmed that Fraser had previously sought advice from Labour’s London regional office. The London office had provided him with a step-by-step guide on how to share hacked data. Fitzpatrick wrote: “This [is] no criticism of [the named London region official] but what he provided to Fraser does not even begin to dispose of my concerns. The information he has given does not answer the legal questions which need to be considered. I am not acting with judicial powers either criminal or civil… I am not assuming that someone conducting an investigation within the Labour Party has the same power as a judge to review illegally obtained evidence. But case law does suggest that there is a public interest in the right of a journalist to protect confidential sources and the right of an elected representative to put into the public domain matters in which the public may have a legitimate interest. unfortunately, Croydon has received criticism from auditors and a government team in respect of opaque decision-making processes. These decisions have had disastrous financial consequences for the borough… This makes it politically more difficult for those in the leadership of the Croydon Council Labour group to say that those who acted to put information in the public domain are wrong-doers. Should I deliver up to the police the evidence in the party’s possession (and which it continues to receive) which has been obtained illegally?”

He also raised the possibility that any disciplinary taken against the officials using the hacked data, might prejudice any future police criminal inquiries and sought reassurance from Labour chiefs on telling points: would he be indemnified by the party for pursuing the disciplinary cases using the hacked data, and will the party meet all reasonable legal costs?

On 25 March 2021, Barros-Curtis’s department forwarded Fitzpatrick’s email to the party’s “Data Protection! department.

On 11 April 2021, with no response to his initial email, Fitzpatrick sent a reminder.

On 19 April, Fitzpatrick wrote directly to Evans “seeking to expedite a response.” He later wrote: “David kindly responded… committing to ask [Barros-Curtis] “to see where we are and what we might do.” Clearly, the General Secretary of the Labour Party had knowledge of the case, but did nothing to stop stolen data being used to purge Labour councillors.

Evans’s “history” in Croydon, his past relationship with Alison Butler, Croydon Labour’s deputy leader until October 2020, his backing of Tony Newman’s council, and the £200,000-plus that his company, The Campaign Company, received from the council following Labour’s 2014 Town Hall election victory, has been well-documented elsewhere.

Yet by May 3 2021, Evans had still not managed to summon up a reply for Fitzpatrick.

19 April 2021: Fitzpatrick wrote to Barros-Curtis again, updating that since his email to Evans on April 19, “I have become aware that someone has hacked into the email accounts of at least two members of our group”. Blind copies of emails were being whizzed off to Fraser and Ali.

Fitzpatrick had additional questions. Did Fraser and Ali have “a legal obligation to inform the councillors whose account has been hacked”? And “Do Cllr Ali and Cllr Fraser have an obligation to inform the police that they are receiving information which appears to have been illegally obtained?”

There’s nothing further in the Labour files from that email chain. It seems that David Evans never did find out “what we might do”, or get back to Fitzpatrick to assure him that, if he and Fraser were to be sued for handling stolen data, the Labour Party would pay their legal costs.

No one from the Labour Party in Croydon, nor current group leader Stuart King – has ever handed over the stolen data files nor made a statement to the police about how they received them.

Later in 2021, Fitzpatrick stood down as Croydon Labour group chief whip, officially on “health grounds”. He did not seek re-election to the council in May 2022.

Clive Fraser was de-selected as a candidate for the 2022 local elections by Labour Party members in his home ward, South Norwood but incredibly managed to get selected to stand for the party in the May 2022 elections in Addiscombe West– the third different ward he had sought election at in three successive council elections. The current leadership of the Labour group at Croydon Town Hall have appointed Fraser to the council’s ethics committee…