Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Labour Party Selection Fraud in St Ann's
After it was discovered at the St Ann's Labour Party selection candidate selection meeting that there were people present and voting who should not have been, I came home from the pub (where I'd heard about it) and wrote this article. It has subsequently been edited by site admins to remove the names of people who were embarrassed or in the final case where a journalist said it was potentially libellous. Well here I will attempt to summarise what we have subsequently found out and hopefully take people's attention away from my original appalling rant.
Back in May (The Ward AGM):
- The St Ann's Ward AGM was convened on Thursday the 23rd of May instead of the usual first Wednesday of June by the then Ward Secretary, Barbara Blake.
- Protests were made by members about this but they were rebuffed by the Ward Chairman.
- At this meeting The current Ward Secretary resigned and there was bloc voting to decide the new Ward Secretary.
- A person in the bloc opposing John Blake turned up late and was prevented from voting despite there being nothing about this in the Labour Party rules.
- John Blake was elected Ward Secretary by one vote.
The Selection Meeting:
- The meeting was run by The Secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party , and Steve Hart from Hornsey & Wood Green.
- A candidate who arrived early noticed the five members arrive with Ali Gul Ozbek, sensed that something was up and mentioned it to Barbara Blake. When the other candidate seemed unhelpful they mentioned it to Steve Hart. Then the candidate went looking for the five people but was barred from entering the room (3o minutes before the selection) by the Ward Secretary.
- By the time one member I have spoken to arrived, the five members were seated at the back of the room. Four men and one woman (who works in Ali Ozbek's Pharmacy).
- A blonde woman turned up before anyone had started speaking but was barred from entering the room by the Ward Secretary, despite remonstrating with him.
- Barbara Blake won in the first round (to select a female candidate) against Zena Brabazon and Emine Ibrahim by two votes. It was 11/1/14. Everybody voted.
- It is alleged that one candidate knew the questions in advance and had prepared answers.
- At the appropriate point in the meeting the secretary asked if everyone was OK with the others in the room and everybody laughed.
- There were various factions voting together in the room; the five new members, Charles Adje's family, Zena and David's people and the Ward Secretary's people.
- In the final round Ali Ozbek and Peter Morton were selected, beating Zena by one vote.
- Ali is a local chemist and businessman on Green Lanes who seemed very passionate about what should be done with St Ann's and spoke eloquently about the need to reduce business rates. He is also a property developer.
- At the time Peter worked as head of press for the Labour Party.
- Barbara is a trade union official and ex Ward Secretary.
After the Selection Meeting
- A fellow councillor calls David to commiserate with him.
- David Browne and Zena Brabazon did some investigation using the St Ann's Labour Party membership list and the electoral roll.
- They discovered that nineteen new members signed up that year did not actually live in St Ann's and that they had either given Green Lanes business addresses when they signed up or claimed addresses in the ward.
- Not one of these new members, many of whom were recruited on the 8th of July gave an address in the ward at which they are eligible to vote, which is required by party rules.
- Five of these members were "eligible" to vote because they signed up before the cut off date of the 30th of April, however they should have been barred from voting because they do not actually live in the ward.
- Zena and David wrote to their local Labour Party officials who sent their evidence on to the London Labour Party.
- Nobody can tell me for sure where Ali Ozbek lives but he claims an address in Finsbury Park Avenue.
- Ali Ozbek has donated money to the Labour Party.
- According to a twitter exchange with a Labour councillor in another ward, the membership list should have been gone through before the meeting by the person running it to make sure this kind of thing did not happen, it was certainly done in their ward.
- When one of the five members who voted was called at his home his partner informed the caller that he had been in Turkey for a while and was not due back yet.
- In Harringay several new Labour Party members were registered using Green Lanes business addresses but not before the cut off date.
- Barbara Blake has told local traders that it is OK to register as a member in the Labour Party from a business address (it is definitely not) and the Tottenham Membership Secretary has expressed a similar view in a meeting, only to be corrected.
The "Corruption in Haringey Labour" article.
- After I wrote the original article, in which I also made some allegations against Claire Kober, the only phone call to site admins was to remove the Secretary of the St Ann's Labour party's name from the discussion.
- There was a lot of comment on the original thread and as of Saturday the 12th of October it appears to have been viewed more than 7000 times, although I dispute that as a useful metric (I think the actual figure is much lower).
- After some badgering it was picked up by an overworked Stephen Moore at the Tottenham Journal, here.
Trying to get a re-run
- I have pushed the councillor who commiserated David on his loss on Twitter to join calls asking for a re-run of the election but they have resolutely refused, to the point where it's all a bit weird and "la la la, I can't hear you".
- As it stands the London Labour Party have agreed that the five people were not eligible to vote but they say that this was not picked up before or during the meeting so the result stands. Their investigation consisted of speaking to the Ward Secretary and Steve Hart. Steve Hart lied because someone did speak to him before the meeting.
- The London Labour Party have the attendance list and will not release it, presumably because it shows that people were not identified correctly and that at least two of the five were imposters.
- Appeals to the NEC have all been rebuffed, even with the full acknowledgement of what went on.
The Labour doorstep in Harringay
- The St Ann's Labour Party have a great deal of trouble getting members to help them out with canvassing. A photograph has been tweeted showing more than 20 people out in Harringay Ward above the same session in St Ann's, with just two.
- When David Lammy, after a lot of badgering apparently, stepped out in St Ann's for the Labour doorstep he was met by a picket of local men calling on him not to support the St Ann's fraudsters. As I understand it he will not be going out with them again.
The Police are involved
- On Monday the 10th of February Haringey MPS made a visit to me on behalf of the secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party and his partner.
- It was alleged that I had called him filth on Twitter (which I have not, that was someone else) and that I said "I know I'm hassling you but...". I was served with a Notice of Harassment Letter which will now appear in extended CRB checks.
*An individual has asked that their name be replaced with their function in this post on the grounds that they are not seeking public office. This has been done.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour, st ann's labour, stanns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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For the record: the @JohnDavidBlake twitter account - which seemed to have vanished - is now back.
That's simply so the facts are now accurate. Not in the slightest, a suggestion that anyone might want to spend time reading it.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The line I have from the Labour Party is that Ali, Barbara and Peter are the official candidates and that everyone in the Labour Party should get behind them. As far as they are concerned it is now an issue about party discipline and not our local democracy.
From a conversation I had recently I can only presume that I am being warned off and that for them this is very much an internal Labour matter.
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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Yours not to reason why. Yours but to do and die...
Cynical Labour!
Tina?
Is there no alternative. People must not sit on their hands. Militate for change. These apparatchiks are doing a lot of damage!
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John, I very much doubt you're being "warned-off". I'd see it as - in effect - a compliment on your successful efforts to investigate and uncover this.
Here are my guesses about what's happening. Some members of the two Haringey Labour Parties realise that turning a blind eye to rule-breaking and vote-rigging has disgusted people both outside and within the Labour Party. Many of them are playing the game of don't-ask-don't-know. A few may suspect it will cost votes - especially in wards which have narrow Labour majorities. Also in LibDem held wards where Labour activists had seen a real chance of winning seats because of the low LibDem support nationally. That may no longer be the case.
Any call to get behind the three "official" St Ann's ward candidates is asking people to pretend that everything is now okay. Accepting the fiction that a full and thorough investigation has taken place when it hasn't. That Party loyalty counts far more than decency, morality and observing the Party's own rules.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor from 1998. My partner Zena Brabazon is one of the deselected St Ann's councillors. The other is David Browne.)
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When they're tweeting in St Ann's about the #labourdoorstep they use the #stanns hashtag too. So if you click on that hashtag it throws up all my tweets and theirs as a beautiful "la la la, I can't hear you".
I have two volunteers to stand as anti-corruption candidates in St Ann's. I need one more. I actually asked Nilgun Canver but she politely declined.
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The #labourdoorstep hashtag is one way the Labour Party tries to create a mini version of what Cass Sunstein described as online "echo chambers" or "information cocoons", which constantly confirm or reinforce the views of a group's members.
Because the Party canvassers trudge round, pressing doorbells, marshalled by someone with a clipboard and the Electoral Register. Frequently there's no answer. And if there is, political canvassers are only slightly more welcome than double-glazing salespeople. So the hashtag helps the party troupers feel they are part of both a local and a UK wide team. And of course, they are.
Which is one reason the doorbell ringers namecheck one another.
On @labourdoorstep with @Beyondsé @MickJigger & @NiccolòMachiavelli. - Braved storms, torrential rain & not quite freshly roasted coffee.
There's a small problem if your ward "members" don't actually live in the ward. But Skype to the rescue.
#LabourSkypeCall with #stanns members from Dartmoor. Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Tom Cobley
Another convention is for tweets to be relentlessly positive.
Sun rose this morning due to LibDem campaign pressure. Voters deeply grateful. Set too early this evening despite protests. #ShamefulCouncil
Labour's positive doorstep tweets may be due to calling on homes where, in the past, people said they support Labour. So Labour bellringers tend to meet the like-minded. I'll believe they are a balanced and accurate record when someone tweets.
Met former Lab voter disgusted by @stanns selection. Convinced me all Labour candidates must speak out against rule-breaking & vote-rigging.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor since 1998. My partner Zena Brabazon is one of the deselected St Ann's councillors. The other is David Browne.)
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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Well Alan, I was going to vote Labour in the local elections, but I am shocked by what I have read here.
No way will they get my vote now
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Don't stop there! Go out and SHOW people WHY Labour does not deserve our vote in Haringey. They have been in charge of Haringey borough for decades and continuously blame 'deprivation' for the woes in Tottenham, as if that deprivation is some intrinsic trait that certain residents have interiorised. They don't see that the people in charge (themselves) have a great role to play in creating a vision and steering it to realisation.
how else do you explain the extreme mediocrity with which services are delivered in Tottenham!
Then, when they do come up with plans, they are a sell-out to big developers, repeat the same disastrous formulae of past decades since these will displace the 'problem people' and destroy the very communities vou'd think that the party of the Left would be sensitive to.
They are worse than the Tories because the Tories talk about their cynical agenda loudly and clearly. Labour talks the talk but then enacts the Tory agenda. Cynical! Vote them out!
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The Labour party needs a rebranding to 'The Mob'.
The name is perfectly aligned to their behavior.
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Mr McMullen-I have something very interesting for you but cannot put it out here so please send me an e mail address where I can contact you. My email address is keefy@draze.com. You will not be disappointed. See you there.
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On BBC Radio today the Leader of the Labour Party spoke about the vote-rigging allegations. Click the link on this page to listen to the full interview. Here are some excerpts.
"At the heart of this is an understanding that if the message the Labour Party gives out is that if you get selected you can assume the support of the electorate, that is absolutely the wrong message. And what my focus has to be in the next period is to rebuild people's trust in the Labour Party. That we will have representatives properly selected and properly put forward who will then go and campaign and fight for the issues that people are concerned about".
"We need to be clear about how people recruit members. That's why we have got somebody whose job is to ensure that the rules of the party are enforced in this process. That's why the [ local ] party is in Special Measures."
"All my political life I have stood up those who want to abuse the systems within the Labour Party. And I said, 'that's not the way we do business'. Because when you do business that way you destroy the trust of people in Scotland.
As you've guessed, the Labour Leader interviewed was Johann Lamont.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor since 1998. My partner Zena Brabazon is one of the deselected St Ann's councillors. The other is David Browne.)
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