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 John McMullan on
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It's not just that he owns a pharmacy, he owns other things around Harringay too. And I for one doubt very much that he lives at the address he has given the Labour Party (which is more likely one of his rental properties).
The race card was one they've had ready to play from the original selection meetings and have just forgotten to put back in the pack now that it's inappropriate.
You get censored so much because you're rude and play the man, not the ball.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Google is your friend, unless there is more than one pharmacist with that name in N4.
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Actually HoL is the politest online forum I know of so I'd prefer the bodyline was kept out, so would most people. You asked a question, you got an answer. How else could I have put it? I really do wish you'd taken up the opportunity to come and meet me at the HoL drinks last month.
As you've obviously missed the original article which was liberally smattered with links to the main characters I will tell you that "the man" in question is Ali Gul Ozbek and he owns Medchem pharmacy. They have a website.
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Apparently the Labour Party's National Executive Committee is investigating and it has all the evidence but unlike the London Regional Labour Party, did not orchestrate this crap in the first place so perhaps we'll see some action there. At a meeting last night to ratify all the candidates in Haringey it was decided that one of the people who stood unsuccessfully in St Ann's DID say something during the meeting to an official so there's no standing on their ridiculous rule now. The candidates in St Ann's have not been ratified.
If we do get a rerun, and it's still an "if" however, it will be time to turn around and look closely at the people who covered their ears and told us we were racists.
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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John, well done for this. Fantastic work. I write as long time Labour voter and former member. I have felt for some time that there is something rotten in the local party. I think you have done well to expose something of it.
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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I am not a Labour member although I am a member of the French PS and as such am a member of the PSE.
I see u say that there is something rotten in the LOCAL party. They have been in charge of this borough for over 70 years and that may explain why it is so dysfunctional, inefficient, poor at delivering basic urban services - and pls don't quote the usual deprivation stats as the reason. We had periods of boom when resources were available to achieve improvement!
The local MP for Tottenham is not much better. In fact he is quite mediocre. He certainly has no vision and he has the gall to aspire to become our mayor!
But if you think national Labour has solutions you should think again. We are all due to get some comeuppance because these parties (UK Labour, French PS, and others) are not dealing with the real future challenges but only governing by opinion poll and in self-interest.
It is time for a paradigm shift! Chickens will and are starting to come home to roost...think Lampedusa, balooning debt and exploding energy bills, for example.
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I think the local MP is one of the few sane and normal ones. Look I am pointing the finger at the London Labour Party. There is one person who has definitely broken rules as a means to an end and the rest of them have a fair idea that they did it but of course have plausible deniability. At least a couple of people have made attempts to protect this person, unfortunately shining the light on them very brightly in the process.
Now your assertion that Haringey is broken because they've been here too long and that the left are stuffed is exactly WHY this has been done. Too much attention being paid to the Daily Mail. Left wing and "uncooperative" councillors that the local party members select are being replaced with right wing candidates and in some cases just people who won't say no to the Dear Leader. It has not just happened in St Ann's. They tried to do it in Noel Park too. The difference is that in St Ann's they had to cheat and not just by stacking the meeting with people not entitled to vote.
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News in is that the decision to go with the current candidates has been upheld. Nobody has spoken to the original complainant at the meeting. I am not surprised.
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You know what the Labour Party's National Executive Committee are going to do to fix this? They're going to allow the people not registered at the address that they lived at to retrospectively correct their addresses, but the result will still stand. They must think we are morons.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Let me make sure I understand this - the current rules are that you could vote in the selection process if you were a) a registered member b) living in the ward, and c) signed up from a certain date?
And they are saying that anyone who had not signed up with their residential address will be allowed to retrospectively correct this to their residential address - but it won't matter whether it is in the ward or not? So we could end up with people living outside the ward choosing who stands in St Ann's?
Is that correct? If so .. Wow! Local democracy at work everyone. And we wonder why people are cynical about political parties.
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That is exactly right Alison. I am starting to suspect that they are so sensitive over this because of Peter Moreton, Labour's Head of Press. I've tweeted him asking how he'll feel running against three anti-corruption candidates, no response. I've also asked the Tottenham Tories and Mark Pack (lib dems) if they'll consider not running in St Ann's.
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