Trial by Jeory

At about 8pm tonight, I was sent a text from one of Lutfur Rahman’s aides exclaiming that two Labour councillors had “pledged their support for working with” the new mayor. A short while later “dominic1485” in a comment on this blog translated that as “TWO LABOUR DEFECTIONS”.

Dave Hill then correctly reported the situation here.

It’s all based on a press release issued by Labour’s Shahed Ali (ex-Respect) and new boy Kabir Ahmed. They were among five Labour councillors who voted against a group motion last week which demanded non-co-operation with Lutfur.

I’ve pasted the full text of that press release here, but allow me to make a couple of comments. This is all about saving their electoral skins. Which is, I guess, what democracy is all about. I’ve spoken at length to Shahed about this. He will refuse any cabinet position offered to him. He says he is loyal to Labour, but he says he also has a duty to his constituents in Whitechapel, which is a strong Lutfur area. What if they demand a zebra crossing, say, in Bigland Street? Shahed says he’d need to have some kind of relationship to Lutfur to deliver that – otherwise in four years time, it will be Shahed who pays the price at the ballot box.

The pair of them are worried that Labour could be outflanked by Lutfur’s crew if the party is not careful. They worry that a media-fuelled community backlash could even wipe Labour out.

My other reading of the political tea leaves (from speaking to several councillors over the last week or so) is that there is a growing move to oust group leader Helal Abbas. He is seen by these plotters as the face of Labour failure and they want a fresh start. (Following the selection of Abdul Alim in Spitalfields, the party’s election agent Graham Taylor is also a target for a coup.) The problem these wannabe rebels have is the successor. Sirajul Islam? Good, but too staid,not enough charisma, they say. Abdal Ullah? Too brash, not enough “substance”, one said to me. Josh Peck? Maybe, but he’s too tainted by the Abbas affair, another said.

There are 32 councillors in the Labour group, but there’s not an awful lot to choose from.

Here’s the unedited Shahed/Kabir memo:

Two more Labour Councillors to support Independent Mayor

Two Labour Councillors today pledged their support for working with Independent Mayor Rahman.  Kabir Ahmed and Shahed Ali cited Labour’s refusal to work with the Mayor as primary reasons for breaking the Labour Group Whip. “Rahman was elected with a clear mandate, therefore, we need to respect that and work together for the good of the community.  Instead of bringing Tower Hamlets together, the current leadership is exercising personal rivalries because there is no difference in the manifesto.”

Cllr. Kabir Ahmed said that since Abbas was defeated by Rahman, the atmosphere among Tower Hamlets Councillors had become “poisonous’: The leadership are trying to run a party within a party.  Legitimate debate is being stifled and anyone who doesn’t do exactly what they’re told is branded as a ‘Luthfurite’.  Even Phil Woolas seems to have got a fair hearing before being suspended and Labour MP’s can support him without being threatened with expulsion or notions of self-expulsion.”

Cllr. Shahed Ali cited the Labour group decision not to work with the Mayor as a turning point: “We had our group meeting immediately after the election at Westminster.  Many felt that an emergency motion seeking non-cooperation with the Mayor was premature.  Pressure was put on us to vote against working with Mayor Rahman.  However, I firmly believe residents elected us as councillors to run their council, not just merely to oppose any opportunity to deliver its needs.”

Cllr. Kabir Ahmed added: “Six months ago, Labour was riding high in Tower Hamlets, we returned two MPs and forty one Councillors, but the current leadership threw that away.  They are blinded by ego politics and personal ambitions within the Labour party.  I’ve been a Labour member for many years and I am loyal to the party’s ideals, but if it’s a choice between the egos of Labour group leadership and the people who elected me, the voters win every time.”

“The two Independent Mayors of Hartlepool and Middlesboro work hand in hand with a huge majority of Labour councillors in their respective cabinets.  Equally, the pool of experience and talent within Labour group should not be wasted.  Tower Hamlets Labour party has to admit to the mistakes and ill-judgements it has made throughout this mayoral selection process and must re-double its efforts if it is to regain the trust and support it requires to avoid further electoral casualties.” said Cllr. Shahed Ali.

Lutfur Rahman, newly elected Independent Mayor of Tower Hamlets welcomed the support, but also appealed for unity: “I’m proud to welcome the support of councillors to my administration and look forward to working with them for the good of the whole community.  But I also reiterate my call to the Labour Party and other opposition Groups to end this madness and work with me.  The coalition has imposed cuts that threaten to tear the heart out of our community; I’ll be working to make sure that doesn’t happen.  I want all parties to join with me to help one of the most deprived communities in the UK prosper”.

Cllr. Kabir Ahmed                           Cllr. Shahed Ali                                10/11/2010

 

This piece from Labour Uncut has been reported widely elsewhere, but I thought my dear and knowledgeable readers would like the chance to air their views here.

My only observation is that if Ed Miliband is indeed inclined to readmit Lutfur Rahman, then I’m sure he’d expect to see him out campaigning for Labour’s candidate in Spitalfields over the next month…

Here’s the piece:

Livingstone to push for Lutfur Rahman’s readmission to Labour

Labour disciplinary problems come not in single spies, but in battalions. As Woolasgate rages, Uncut understands that the NEC meeting on 30 November will see Ken Livingstone stage an audacious bid to get Lutfur Rahman reinstated to the party.

According to Labour officials, Ken has already discussed the issue directly with Ed Miliband, talks which a Livingstone insider described as “positive”.

Rahman, who defeated official Labour candidate Helal Abbas in last month’s election to become directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, has asked Livingstone to broker his return to the Labour fold.

Sources close to Tower Hamlets Labour party confirmed that discussions have taken place between Rahman and Livingstone about his bid for re-inclusion, and that Rahman had decided to delay appointing a full cabinet in the borough until his status in the party had been confirmed. In contrast to the Livingstone camp, they believe that Ed Miliband will not endorse a return for Rahman, and that Livingstone does not enjoy sufficient NEC support to secure his readmission otherwise.

The decision to push for Rahman’s inclusion will create serious tensions within the local party. Local MP Jim Fitzpatrick has made his own submission to the NEC calling for disciplinary action against Ken’s public show of support for Rahman during the campaign.

Sources close to Ed Miliband have indicated that such action is unlikely.

 

Why can’t things ever be simple with the Tower Hamlets Labour party?

Abdul Alim’s selection as Labour’s candidate for Spitalfields and Banglatown on Saturday has caused chaos within the party’s ranks. As I reported here, Mosabbir Ali, the boss of the party’s ward branch, complained that there had been a stitch up. But even as he was drafting his letter, Labour’s selection panel was considering another slight hiccup.

For they had just been informed that the man they plucked out of thin air had, rather disturbingly, a criminal conviction. (Anyone who captured the moment on camera, do please send me the photo.) So they summoned him back for another interview and demanded the details.

It turns out that way back when – I’m told about 20 years or so ago – he was involved in a fight with some “BNP thugs” in Brick Lane. As a result of that incident, he was jailed and spent time inside a Youth Offenders Institute for violent disorder. I’m told that he was sentenced to six months and he served all of it.

Because the conviction is spent (he is now 38 and he says he was 18 at the time), he told the panel that he didn’t think he needed to disclose it. One Labour official told me that because the violence was “against BNP/National Front” thugs he shouldn’t have been ashamed of it. I would have thought that that – and any provocation at the time – would have been a matter for the judge.

Here’s the press statement Labour has just put out:

Tower Hamlets Labour Party today confirmed their candidate for the Spitalfields & Banglatown by-election as Abdul Alim. Abdul was selected from a panel of exemplary applicants – including a number of former Labour councillors – and will now go on to contest the by-election for Labour.

The selection was made following consultation with activists from the ward and a thorough application and interview process.

Abdul Alim has lived in Tower Hamlets since 1976 and grew up in Spitalfields, where his father was a local businessman for many years, during which time he attended Stepney Green School. Having previously worked as a Civil Servant, he is now runs a successful in business in Spitalfields.

Said Alim: “I am proud of the East End, and of the progress we have made here.  We have had to overcome many challenges.  In the past, people went about this neighborhood in fear.  In 1990, my friends and I were attacked by BNP racists.  We defended ourselves, and we were arrested and prosecuted.  But in the last 20 years our community has changed so much and grown stronger. Now, our families can walk in their community without fear. Labour is the party of unity in the East End, the party that brings people together to solve problems. I am delighted to have been selected as the Labour Party Candidate for the Spitalfields & Banglatown by-election. Local residents need a councillor to fight back against the unfair cuts of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government and who will effectively hold the new ‘Independent’ Mayor to account. I promise I will do my best for the people of Spitalfields & Banglatown.”

He has a high profile in the local community through his past involvement in groups such as the Weavers Community Trust & the Progressive Youth Organisation.

Chair of Tower Hamlets Labour Party, Graham Taylor said: “Alim is a strong candidate and is absolutely committed to serving the whole of Spitalfields & Banglatown. He will be a valuable addition to our existing team of Labour councillors as we face the dual challenge of coping with the ConDem Government cuts and the heavy burden of scrutinising the ‘independent’ Mayor.”

After I spoke to Alim last night, he sent me the following text:

Twenty years ago I thought I had to fight physically to protect the people in the Eastend who were threatened by racisits. Since then I’ve got a family, run a business and lerned to love this community that I was brought up in. I still have to fight for it, but viloence is never the answer. Now we have a political battle to fight against Tory and Lib Dem cuts – to our schools, our hospitals and our housing. That’s why I’m a Labour candidate. That’s why I’ll be a Labour councillor. I’m going to fight these coalition cuts and I ask you to join me in this fight, so that together we can unite the Eastend.

No doubt, journalist in the area will be poring over the newspaper archives for more details of this incident and asking Alim more questions about it.

The local Labour party sure knows how to create its own fight, doesn’t it…

Labour’s NEC must be close to the point of declaring UDI against the local party in Tower Hamlets. Within hours of Abdul Alim being picked to fight Spitalfields and Banglatown on Saturday, a letter of complaint was being drafted accusing senior local figures of a stitch-up.

This letter from Mosabbir Ali, the chairman of Labour’s Spitalfields and Banglatown ward branch, was sent yesterday to the party’s regional boss, Ken Clark, with a copy to the NEC and Ed Miliband. A copy has also ended up in my inbox.

He complains that no one from his ward branch was consulted about the selection, yet then accuses one of his ward councillors, Labour’s group leader Helal Abbas, of orchestrating the “imposition” of Abdul Alim. Like many others, he says he knows very little about Alim, but supposes that he comes from the same village in Bangladesh as Abbas – and says that’s why he was chosen.

In places the letter is a piece of comedy. “There are electorally unhelpful rumours that the candidate is a waiter,” Ali warns. How egalitarian, comrade! (Maybe he should examine John Prescott’s CV). But in the main, the complaint either adds to the lingering impression of a long running farce in this borough, or it is part of a rather cunning plan to test Lutfur: pick a poor candidate and dare Lutfur to back him.

Here’s the letter in full:

URGENT 07/11/2010

TO: KEN CLARK, LONDON LABOUR PARTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Dear Mr Ken Clark,

RE: OFFICIAL COMPLAINT AGAINST LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE SELECTION OF SPITALFIELDS AND BANGLATOWN BY-ELECTION

As the chair of the Spitalfields and Banglatown branch of Tower Hamlets Labour Party, I am writing to make an official complaint on behalf of ALL LOCAL WARD PARTY MEMBERS to raise our objection to the selection process that was used to determine the candidate for the by-election scheduled for December 16, following the election of Lutfur Rahman as the executive mayor of Tower Hamlets.

Local party members are outraged and completely unfamiliar with this ‘imposed’ candidate, Abdul Alim, whom we have nothing against personally but who has very little connection or knowledge of local politics in this ward let alone the ability to win in this complex ward without their support.

Graham Taylor, the chair of the borough party and interview panel failed to consult local party members on who would make a good candidate amongst those on the approved panel who had nominated themselves. We believe that the candidate was chosen because he is from the same village as the Labour group Councillor Helal Abbas (who has led the party into Opposition after sixteen years in power).

We are aware that several candidates who had nominated their CVs were not even invited to the interview on Saturday. Neither were local members even aware of this so-called interview. This is a failure on the part of borough party officers responsible such as Chris Weavers and others sitting on the interview panel. Many of those ‘approved candidates’ that applied including the ones who were invited to the interview possess far better experience and skills than the current candidate, who has never been seen campaigning for the party in Spitalfields and Banglatown.

There are electorally unhelpful rumours that the candidate is a waiter and possibly a business partner of Mr Muquim Ahmed, Chair of the local Conservative Party in Bethnal Green and Bow. This news will most definitely reach the press and cause embarrassment to the Labour Party. Word was already out that he would be the candidate before even the so-called ‘selection’. Surely, there must be more qualified candidates on your approved panel suited to do the job of a councillor in our rather deprived but multi-ethnic ward?!

There is still a bit of time left before the submission deadline of candidate nomination to the council. We urge the London Regional Labour Party to cancel the current selection altogether and put forward to all the branch members the names of candidates who nominated themselves so that we can, as paid members, select the best candidate whom we believe will win this important council seat against any heavyweight Opposition candidate from George Galloway’s Respect Party.

Failure on your part to review the incumbent candidate’s suitability and replace him with one who is strong will reflect negatively on the party’s reputation locally and possibly regionally, ahead of important mayoral and general elections. We are extremely disappointed by the manner in which local ward party members have been ignored. That is why we believe that you should allow the selection of a candidate who has broad support from most ward party members.

For your information, this letter has been copied to the chair of the London Labour Party, all the members of the NEC and Ed Miliband.

We, the Spitalfields and Banglatown ward party members, would like to meet ALL the approved candidates and select the best one we believe can defeat the Opposition candidate. Please note seriously that we will take further action if we lose this election due to your negligence as Director of the London Labour Party.

I look forward to hearing from you immediately regarding this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Mosabbir Ali

Chair, Spitalfields and Banglatown Labour Party

Mobile: xxxxx

Email:

Mosabbir Ali

CC: Ed Miliband, Graham Taylor,  LEN DUVALL

 

George Galloway has flown so many kites over the years that I’m sure he grew up not up in Dundee but in Afghanistan. In his column in today’s Daily Record, here, he hints that he will stand for the Scottish Parliament next May.

In the time I’ve known him, he’s “considered”: running for Tower Hamlets council, as a councillor and as mayor; standing against Jack Straw in Blackburn; running alongside his friend Tommy Sheridan in 2007; running for London Mayor in 2008; and just last week hinting that after the disgrace of his former researcher Phil Woolas he would stand in the forthcoming Oldham East and Saddleworth by election.

None of those materialised, of course, but as he’s fervently anti-nationalist, I can see him quite fancying taking on the SNP’s Alec Salmond. His aides reckon he’d need around 10,000 votes from Glasgow to make the Parliament’s top-up list.

At least it would give him a job and an excuse to avoid Iain Duncan Smith’s ‘work-shy detectors’.

The Evening Standard’s Ross Lydall reports here that Tower Hamlets council has started judicial review proceedings against Lord Coe and his team at LOCOG for their decision to re-route the Olympic marathon away from the borough in 2012.

The council’s “pre-action” letter can be viewed here. Chief executive Kevan Collins and legal head Isabella Freeman claim that the council has already invested “considerable money” into the concept of “High Street 2012”.

High Street 2012 is in fact the filthy main road that runs from Aldgate to Stratford, along Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road and Bow Road. When it was first coined a few years ago, the council announced they were going to rename the roads the Olympic Boulevard, something that not only triggered much mirth but also the ire of Jacques Rogge and his colleagues. The word “Olympic”, you see , is a fiercely protected copyright.

I’m not exactly sure what the council has spent money on, but I’ve not seen any evidence of those roads being spruced up. Did some cash go on consultants, I wonder? I’ll ask.

However, given that the Games organisers had sucked out so much PR value from telling everyone how great they were for staging the marathon through the deprived East End, the council is absolutely right to challenge them.

Seb Coe’s decision, and particularly the reasons for it – that there were logistical problems associated with people running through Tower Hamlets (listen, Seb, that’s what we all do here!) – was a disgrace.

I’ve had some experience of Isabella Freeman: Seb Coe might well lose this one.

Nothing really happened while I was away last week did it?

Oh, just the small matter of Lutfur Rahman being formally appointed mayor, then complaining his former Labour colleagues were playing politics by cutting his pay packet from £75,000 a year to a mere £65,000. Playing politics? Shurely shome mishtake. Lutfur himself would never ever do any such thing, would he…

But what’s this? In June, a month after he was ousted as council leader by Helal Abbas and well before the shambles of the Labour selection process, he proposed a formal motion to his fellow councillors at the town hall. For ease of reading, I’m copying his letter and motion again here:

Dear colleague

As you will have seen from the agenda for Monday’s Labour Group meeting, I am bringing a motion introducing term limits on any Labour directly-elected Mayor and reducing the Special Responsibility Allowance for that post and other Cabinet positions.

This motion is itself fairly self-explanatory, but i will explain my reasoning in a little more detail on Monday.  I would obviously welcome your support for this motion, so please don’t hesitate to let me know if you any queries before then.

Yours

Lutfur

Motion – Directly-Elected Mayor

Proposed:            Cllr Lutfur Rahman

Seconded:            Cllr Marc Francis

This Labour Group notes:

• The referendum result in support of a Directly-Elected Mayor and the election for this position will be held on 21^st October;
• That in other local authorities the introduction of an Executive Mayor in place of the Council Leader has resulted in an increase in the Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for that position;
• That, as well as an Executive Mayor, Newham has 16 Cabinet Members and Mayoral Advisers, each in receipt of an SRA;
• That some directly-elected Mayors are now beginning their third consecutive Term of Office;
• The new Conservative / Lib Dem Coalition Government is expected to require around £10 million in “in-year” cuts from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, as well as significant additional savings thereafter.

This Labour Group believes:

• That it is important for the Labour Party and its elected representatives to take on the burden of any necessary savings before considering imposing cuts in frontline services;
• A Mayor, Deputy Mayor and eight Cabinet members is a sufficient Executive body for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets;
• George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had it right in establishing the convention of a two-term limit for the President of the United States, now enshrined in law by the 22^nd Amendment.

This Labour Group therefore resolves:

• To peg the SRA of the Directly-Elected Mayor for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to the Council Leader less 5 per cent;
• To peg the SRA for the Deputy Mayor for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to the Deputy Leader less 5 per cent;
• To peg the SRA for Cabinet Members for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to Cabinet Members less 5 per cent;
• To require that the Mayor appoint no more than one Deputy Mayor and eight Cabinet Members to serve on the Executive;
• That no Labour Mayor should seek a 3^rd Term of Office.

Yes, that’s right, he was telling his colleagues that the newly elected Mayor should be paid 5 per cent less than the allowance for the then leader of the council, Helal Abbas, ie about £30,000. This was, of course, all in the interests of setting an example and saving taxpayers a bit of money – and nothing to do with playing politics to make himself look good – of course. I suspect that the rest of his colleagues who voted to reject the motion now regret they did so.

But cost-cutting is indeed now the name of the game. Following the Government’s comprehensive spending review, Tower Hamlets council is having to find tens of millions of pounds of savings. Lutfur himself recognises this. His mantra during the election campaign was that he would fight those cuts with all his heart.

Er, so what do you think his first edict was as newly elected Mayor? To order a brand new iPhone 4. Apparently his existing tax-funded Blackberry wasn’t good enough. According to a town hall mole, when Lutfur was told he would have to wait a week for his new Apple gadget, he threw his toys out of the pram and told council chief executive Kevan Collins to secure him one within 24 hours. Council officials were then ordered to leg it over to the Apple store in Covent Garden and shell out more than £500 of our money.

Not to be outdone, Deputy Mayor Ohid Ahmed also cried out for one. So that’s £1,000 (one council tax bill) of dodgy spending they’ve already racked up. Wonder if there’ll be any more….

PS…I’d typed up this post yesterday morning and was waiting for the council’s press office to confirm the iPhone orders before publishing. Almost 24 hours later, I’ve just received the response. “We aren’t going to be issuing any information about phones for members,” a spokeswoman said. Now, this is interesting. A few years ago, the council sent me a list of councillors who had been issued laptops and Blackberrys. So I wonder who’s ordered the change of policy? Silly people: as of January 1, the council will have to comply with Eric Pickles’s transparency edict and publish online all items of expenditure of more than £500. Seems like the iPhone 4 issue is the first sign of mild panic by Lutfur & co in the face of media scrutiny.

A number of councillors and former councillors were sent the following email this morning:

Dear Sir,

It is unacceptable that the Labour and Tory party are refusing to work with the new democratic elected mayor of Tower Hamlet!

Either they accept the Democratic Process and listen to wishes of of the voters and work with new Mayor or All the Labour and Tory Councillors should resign and let the people of Tower Hamlets decide whether they want these Traitors who refuse to accept the democratic process and will of the people,  be elected again!

Dara Miah
A Concerned Citizen!

Dear old Dara seems to think Lutfur should be the Great Dictator. But his email does raise a couple of interesting points. As I reported in this post, Lutfur’s business backer Shiraj Haque has been trying to persuade opposition councillors to accept roles within the new administration. The sole Lib Dem councillor Stephanie Eaton has indicated she will decline a cabinet position and tomorrow night, Tory members will decide whether to take up an offer made to Peter Golds. Quite what that offer is, not even Peter seems sure. However, I understand that it too will be rejected. It does appear very likely that the “people of Tower Hamlets” will be governed by one of the weakest line-ups in the borough’s history.

The second point raised by our Concerned Citizen is not only how the “will of the people” at the forthcoming by-election in Spitalfields and Banglatown. As yet, the required two letters from residents of that ward requesting a by-election have not arrived at the town hall. If they’re received this week, the election will be on December 9, otherwise it will be December 16. As for the candidates, none of the parties have decided who will stand. As it is Lutfur’s former ward (he had to stand down as councillor once he was elected mayor), he will have a major influence over who wins.

So does he try to ingratiate himself with his former party and back the Labour candidate, who will take the party whip and oppose him, or support the person to be put up by Respect (they’re meeting tomorrow night to decide if they will run and if so, who), or, even more intriguingly, does he encourage an “independent” to stand?

What do you think he should do?

Remember Shiraj Haque? You know, the millionaire Brick Lane “curry king” and Lutfur-backer who professes to be socially progressive, yet whose commitment to the welfare of Tower Hamlets’s neediest residents is limited to his own living arrangements: he rents a large family home from a housing association. Everyone said he was the power behind Lutfur’s throne; well, either he’s been believing his own propaganda a little too much, or he actually is.

For I understand that he’s been summoning some of Tower Hamlets’ most senior councillors for private audiences at his Clifton restaurant in Brick Lane. At those hearings, I’m told that he’s been trying to dish out cabinet jobs on behalf of Lutfur. Lib Dem councillor Stephanie Eaton has been offered one and her husband, Labour councillor David Edgar, has also been asked (via a third party) if he would be interested. He’s also planning to sound out Tory group leader Peter Golds.

The word “deluded” was used by one whose names he mentioned.

It could well be that he’s just playing games by seeing what words of his leak out to the likes of me, but here’s another taster of his apparent views….that Lutfur’s main ambition is to become an MP and that he will target Rushanara Ali either as an independent, or from within Labour if he’s allowed back into the fold, or even by standing for another party.

Lutfur as a Tory MP….?