Owen Jones's brutal nickname revealed as even his own colleagues turn on him

By Grace Piercy, News Reporter

Owen Jones announced he was leaving the Labour Party last week (Image: PA)

Owen Jones’ brutal nickname has been revealed as even his own colleagues seem to have turned on him.

The journalist announced last week in his Guardian column that he had cancelled his Labour Party membership after 20 years.

Jones said: “Under every Labour leader in my 21 years of adult life, I’ve plumped for the party’s candidates at local, national and European level, and campaigned for them to boot.

“Reaching (the decision) has been a gradual, painful process of realising the party won’t even do the bare minimum to improve people’s lives, or to tackle the crises that have led Britain to catastrophe; and that it will, in fact, wage war on anyone who wants to do either– making anyone with politics to the left of Peter Mandelson feel like a pariah on borrowed time.”

He said that Keir Starmer backing away from promises of nationalisation and higher taxation on the rich as well as his support of Israel to cut off energy and water to civilians in Gaza were also part of his decision.

Owen Jones has the brutal nickname of 'Squealer' (Image: PA)

Jones’ leaving the party was spoken about in the Evening Standard, which brought up the brutal nickname given to him by his colleagues.

Written in the Standard was: “The fallout continues after left-wing columnist Owen Jones quit Labour last week (he says he cannot support Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership).

“The move has drawn groans from detractors, including Guardian colleagues, some of whom dredged up an old nickname for him from the Jeremy Corbyn years: “Squealer”.

“It’s a reference to the propagandising pig in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. While the playground insult may have had currency when Jones was supporting Corbyn, it doesn’t make much sense now Jones has jumped ship. They need to get creative.”

Squealer is a character in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The pig is the second-in-command and propagandist to Napolean, another pig who becomes the tyrannical dictator of the farm and is the novel’s antagonist.

Jones posted the paragraph on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: “Just posting this from the Evening Standard.”

He has been mocked for leaving the party with Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant saying that Jones tearing up his membership card was "almost as shocking" as when Sir Elton John revealed he was gay.

Speaking on BBC Politics Live, the Rhondda MP said: “I was absolutely shocked. You could have blown me over with a feather when Owen Jones left the Labour Party. It was almost as shocking as when Elton John announced that he was gay.”