Labour party activist Stuart Madewell last night made the following cryptic comment on this blog:
Ted,
…The real story you should be following is why Rushnara objected to Lutfur and what more is involved in that. If your half the journalist you claim to be you’ll follow that story and find a surprising answer.
Clue: who’s working on EdM campaign?
From Christine Shawcroft’s revealing account of yesterday’s meeting of the Labour NEC, we already know that Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali had raised serious concerns to Harriet Harman about the selection of Lutfur Rahman as candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor. There were worries that she and Jim Fitzpatrick were vulnerable to a Lutfur-inspired purge by the borough’s two constituency parties.
Rushanara had defeated Lutfur to be Labour’s choice as parliamentary candidate back in 2007 and it was generally known in Tower Hamlets that he had not taken it well. Apparently, he failed to publicly back her in May and some in her camp believed he even worked against her.
Her camp included Marcus Roberts, who was her campaign manager. He is now one of the senior organisers of Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign – his Field Director, no less.
I suspect that the Madewell theory goes something like this:
– both Rushanara and Roberts lobbied Ed M to do something. (Rushanara is friendly with Ed, but opted for brother David in the current contest.)
– NEC member and Mr Harriet Harman Jack Dromey is a prominent Ed M supporter. Shawcroft’s account reveals Dromey was pro-Abbas.
– Ed Miliband had to keep his hands clean….he could hardly be espousing the great democracy of the Labour party in his own contest, while at the same time helping to void an election and impose a candidate elsewhere.
There is of course another Miliband connection….Jim Fitzpatrick. He’s one of the leading organisers of David’s campaign and tipped to become Shadow Chief Whip if he wins. Jim’s concerns about Lutfur and his supporters are well known.
Trial by Jeory 
Well I never! What next?
Who’s going to write the book? Will there be a film and who will play Lutfur?
Seriously – whoever supposed that this whole debacle was not being played out at different levels within different spheres of interest at local, regional and national level?
However it strikes me that the only real loser in all of this might be the Labour Party.
IMO the most telling comment in Christine Shawcroft’s account is the one made by Harriet Harman
“The Party is more important than any individual, and the reputation of the Party is the most important. There will be a row, but better a row now than later on.”
Any individual who uses the Labour Party for their own agenda – as opposed to that of the party – always seem to come a cropper in the end.
It also really does seem at times as if everybody in Tower Hamlets has forgotten about Militant Tendency and why Labour gets so concerned about the infiltration of the Party by ANY group of individuals with a distinct agenda.
Also, individuals who bounce from party to party hardly make a convincing case to be taken seriously by the Labour Party at any level – or the constituents of Tower Hamlets
Oh behave.
Why would Stuart Madewell know anything about anything? He is one of the very few people in all of this that one could truly say that there is no one – but no one – on this earth whose life is made any happier by Stuart’s presence in it. Harsh, but true.
Please don’t take Stuart Madewell’s conspiracy theories seriously.
of course Lutfur refused to endorse Rushanara.
Lots of Rushanara’s critics in the local party have been hugely impressed by her robust dealing with Lutfur – contrasted with the lame and fearful response of Fitzpatrick, who won’t be expecting a warm welcome on his return from holiday from…..anyone at all really/
Lutfur will be expelled from the Labour Party tomorrow and many Labour Party members will truly rejoice.
[…] previously backed Rahman instead. But for now I’ll leave Ted Jeory to provide some of the intimate local history and sign off with one thought. The more homework I do about the Tower Hamlets political scene, the […]
David Miliband did a photocall with Lutfur before he’d even won.