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 Nick G-T on
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How can we win from this? You're suggesting we attempt to extract as many 'promises' out of Labour by sitting on the fence? We'd still have to vote for them, wouldn't we? And it would hardly offer much in the way of counter promises from the Lib Dems considering they have little hope of gaining control of the council.
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Permalink Reply by Cllr Emina Ibrahim on
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Hi Ant
I am aware that you spoke to Gina about this issue yesterday. I understand that Gina was assuring you that there was no issues with the Harringay selection and reiterating that with regards to St Ann's an investigation did take place and that the advice from the NEC was that the selection stands. It's really important for us to speak to local residents and I do hope that we will get the opportunity to speak with you again.
Emine Ibrahim
The Labour Party Candidate for 2014 Local Elections
(Harringay Ward)
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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Hi Emine,
Please come to Lothair Road South after 6pm when the vast majority of residents are back from work.
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Hi
We do a mixture of times and often in the evening like you say after 6pm. We will get round to all of you soon and we do regular sessions at weekends as there are residents who do not like being called on on the evening.
Hope to meet you soon.
Emine Ibrahim
The Labour Party Candidate for 2014 Local Elections
(Harringay Ward)
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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Emina, whilst you say that it is important for you to talk to local residents, I am less clear whether the party you represent is prepared to listen. The mass of evidence on this posting seems to clearly indicate to me that the selection process was decidedly dodgy to say the least. That an investigation did not apparently highlight these irregularities, and that the NEC advised to let the selection stand, seems to me to give a clear message that the Labour party both at local and national level is prepared to condone such skulduggery. Why should I or anyone else in Haringey trust the Labour party to run the council if they operate in such a cavalier manner in their own organisation?
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Silence.........
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Hi Mike
I think you raise really important questions about why I am standing as a Labour Candidate.There are many reasons not least because I believe in a genuinely inclusive Labour Party which stands up for working people and reflects the communities it seeks to represent. This debate has brought to the fore exactly why Labour is different from other parties. Our rule book completely puts at the forefront local ordinary party members and empowers us to take control of who represents our party in public office and the democratic structures of the organisation. I myself campaign within my the party for these rules to go even further in empowering members. We are one of the biggest mass membership organisations in the UK and in fact in Haringey. Many of you will have ordinary members on your street who do not seek office but participate in canvassing or simply local ward meetings and selections. Other parties do not select in this way and in fact it would be quite normal for a member in say Muswell Hill to be involved in the decision of a candidate for Noel Park. In the Labour Party we believe that local wards should make that decision. However what I would say is because we are a mass membership organisation we have enough members for each ward to have meaningful selections. We do have many formal processes internally which members can utilise when questions arise.
There are many reasons why I am Labour and anything I say here is by no means exhaustive and I am not going to turn your question in to the opportunity political grandstand but I will be posting something on HoL about myself and why you should vote Labour
I do hope this addresses some concerns you raise.
Emine Ibrahim
The Labour Party Candidate for the 2014 Local Elections
(Harringay Ward)
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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Hi Emina
I live Harringay ward and do usually vote Labour, but I have to say this is fairly grim stuff. The allegations being made here most certainly DO concern me. If I vote for you, I am effectively voting to keep a Labour group in power. The same group appear to be (to put it kindly) turning a blind eye to fraud and abuse of a democratic process. This seems to me to be a fundamental problem.
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Unfortunately, because the Labour Party have clearly disregarded their own rule book, (see #2 in John's posting of the NEC report), the guilt extends to the Labour Party of any ward, the party whom you stand for.
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Gia Adamou? Who she?
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My 'n' key is playing up. I think you called this person 'Gina', no?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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This is the NEC report. It is obviously private and confidential. You may draw your own conclusions:
On the 25th September, the Compliance Unit were referred a complaint regarding the selection for Local Government candidates in St Ann’s ward, Haringey.
The complaint raised two areas that potentially warranted investigation:
1. Whether the selection was run properly with all voting members eligible to vote.
2. Whether there are members registered in the ward at business addresses who in fact live elsewhere.
The timetable for the selection was agreed on 30th April 2013, and thus the freeze date was set at this date meaning only members with at least sixmonths of membership at this date could take part in the selection. The shortlisting for the ward was held on 4th September, and the selection meeting in question was on 15th September.
There was an independent LCF observer at the selection, Steve Hart. Mr Hart is an experienced member and has taken part in many selection processes. On receiving the complaint, the Regional Office interviewed Mr Hart in the firstinstance. In order to confirm the facts, they also interviewed the branch secretary, John Blake, who was present at the meeting and party to the complaint.
Both interviewees confirmed that, at the meeting on 15th September, every member was registered and matched to the membership list withthe freeze date of the 30th April. All voting members were on the freeze date list. The regional office obtained the attendance list of the meeting to corroborate this evidence.
Both interviewees confirmed that the meeting was run according to the model agenda. An opportunity was given for members to challenge the eligibility of anyone taking part. No members were challenged, which is not disputed by the complainant. In subsequent correspondence, the complainant suggests that a member taking part in another selection in the same building raised a concern about ineligible members joining the meeting. This was verified with Steve Hart, who confirmed that this is correct: the member approached him to say that somepeople may try to enter the building without passes. He confirms that no ineligible members were present.
Based on these investigations, the Compliance Unit ruled that the selection was properly and fairly run.
The complainant states that after the selection, which she lost, she investigated the membership of a number of members present at the meeting. She found that they were registered at business addresses in the ward, rather than home addresses. This will be subject to investigation by the Regional Office, who will ensure that all members in the ward are resident there.
The complainant argues that her investigation invalidates the selection process. However, they were members on the freeze date for the ward at the time of the selection, and their membership was not challenged either during the meeting or in the weeks prior to the meeting. There was ample opportunity to investigate the members prior to the meeting. Members (including those complained of) were canvassed by the candidates and no issues were raised.
The Compliance Unit therefore found that:
1. The selection should not be overturned, as it was run properly and fairly.
2. The Regional Office should ensure that local members are properly registered at their home address rather than business address for Labour Party membership, but this does not invalidate the selection.
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