A POET who believes perjurer Tommy Sheridan was the victim of a conspiracy has been hired by Scottish Labour as one of the party’s new community organisers.
Jim Monaghan, who was the spokesman for the Defend Tommy Sheridan Campaign, will be paid around £30,000 a year to help build a “sustainable coalition” for “social change”.
However, a senior party source blasted the move, saying: “This is an absolutely staggering decision that has stunned the party. Jim Monaghan is a wild conspiracy theorist who has defended convicted perjurer Tommy Sheridan. Organisers are among the most vital party staff members, in charge of local campaigning operations and responsible for speaking directly to voters. This is like the SNP putting the cybernats in charge of door knocking. It’s utterly bewildering.”
Labour advertised for seven organiser posts in February, three of which were to be based north of the border.
The job advert stated that successful applicants should have the ability to work with a “variety of stakeholders” and Monaghan landed one of the jobs. However, he has had strong ties to Sheridan, who is considered to be a toxic figure on the left.
The former Glasgow MSP, who used to lead the Scottish Socialist Party, won a £200,000 defamation case against the now-defunct News of the World in 2006 amid claims he was an adulterer and swinger.
Conflicting evidence led to a police investigation and Sheridan was charged with perjury, after which a lengthy criminal trial took place in 2010. Monaghan was a defence witness in the trial.
A jury found Sheridan guilty of perjury, part of which explicitly related to a trip Sheridan and others made to a sex club in Manchester.
BBC footage on the day of Sheridan’s sentencing showed Monaghan clapping the former MSP as he walked to court. He had also previously carried out paid work for Sheridan’s then solicitor.
Monaghan was also a volunteer on the campaign to “defend” the politician and planned a book - A Parcel o' Rogues: The Tommy Sheridan Conspiracy - which he later abandoned.
He also acted as “national press and media spokesperson” for Solidarity - the party Sheridan helped form after quitting the SSP - before joining Labour in 2010.
Monaghan wrote at the time: “Obviously, there is a long and hard battle within Labour and it isn’t one that will even take place, never mind be decided, in the context of the current leadership election. I am confident that, for at least the next few years, it is best for me and for my community that I work within the Labour party.”
In December, the Sunday Herald revealed that Monaghan was one of the warm up acts at a Labour event attended by UK and Scottish leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard. He read poetry on the night.
Asked last year if he still believed Sheridan was the victim of a conspiracy, Monaghan said: “Yes, absolutely.”
Monaghan’s Facebook page stated that he started a “new job” as a community organiser on June 18.
In 2016, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) - the official body that considers potential miscarriages of justice - declined to refer Sheridan's case to the High Court.
Sheridan pursued a judicial review of SCCRC decision, but it emerged last week that this latest legal bid had failed.
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "We don't comment on staff."
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