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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I have been asked to delete this as the Chairman is upset (presumably he's not upset about anything else on here). I think I'll just add a clarification: I could be wrong and am in no position to accuse him of lying about how he voted.
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In fact I am being a total cad and am completely wrong. The Chairman of the St Anne's Labour Party is as straight as a die and honest.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Wow, this quote as a favourite on Mr Blake's blog post: ' “If I believed the development of socialism meant the absolute crushing of liberty, then I should plump for liberty because the advance of human development depends entirely on the right to think, to speak, and to use reason, and allow what I call the upsurge to come from the bottom to reach the top.” – Ernest Bevin'
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Permalink Reply by Dave on
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OMG John T, that info seals the scandal right there! They're all in on the push to get the old candidates out; singing from the same hymn sheet as it were. Hmm.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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I don't quite understand what you're saying here John - can you clarify the first sentence in this post?
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You mean this: "In fact the Secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party prevented a candidate looking for the five extra voters from entering the room where they were hiding twenty minutes before the meeting was due to start after they had lodged a challenge with Steve Hart downstairs"?
A candidate for selection raised the issue of ringins (i.e. a fellow candidate packing the meeting with supporters) because they saw them all arrive in one car. This candidate lost them after complaining to Steve Hart but went looking for them before the meeting had started. It was at this point that John Blake (Ward Secretary) very loudly prevented this candidate going in to the room to accuse the ringins.
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Ah I see. I read that sentence a few times and couldn't make sense of it. But I see I was just bamboozled by the absurdity of the whole thing.
Sorry if you've said this elsewhere, but who was this candidate who tried to complain about this? Or is that not public knowledge?
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Believe it or not the candidate who tried to complain must remain anonymous for two reasons. One of them being that they are genuinely worried about having their endorsement for the ward that they were selected for revoked if they are found to be leaking information. I have not gotten anything first hand from them, just from other Labour Party members. This is crazy when you think that they could do that to Ali Gul Ozbek for what he has done... but they won't.
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Peter Morton just tweeted that he was off to talk to some journalism students about journalism and Westminster and asked what he should tell them. Of course I had a bit of a field day with that, he was obviously not head of Social Media for the Labour Party.
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I've been shocked to learn what I've just been reading. What a total mess. It's so foolish of the Labour party not to rerun the St Ann's election - not least because if the recent result is the genuine view of the local party, it would surely be confirmed if repeated. It's also clear from experience that the facts about what's happened will eventually emerge, and it looks like they will inevitably be compromising and embarrassing to the Labour leadership, so that's another self interested reason for them to insist on a rerun. Without a rerun it is not going to encourage long standing Labour voters in our ward to vote for these new candidates.
I wonder what the NEC response will be.
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----- Original Message ----- From: John Blake (Secretary, St Ann's Labour)
To: Zena Brabazon ; David Browne
Cc: John Taylor
Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2013 10:15 PM
Subject: Fwd: Canvassing and November Branch Meeting Notice
Dear David and Zena,
Below is the notice for November's branch meeting in St Ann's. As you know, by long-standing convention, the sitting Labour councillors are invited to branch meetings to answer questions from the branch. However, I wanted to notify you that November's meeting will be a chance to meet the candidates for the 2014 election and the Q and A time will be given over to the candidates. There is the opportunity to provide written reports if you wish, and I would be grateful if they were with me in enough time to print out copies for the meeting.
If you have any further questions or comments about this, please do let me know via this email.
Yours,
John
----- Original Message ----- From: Zena
To: John Blake
cc: St Ann's Labour Party branch members
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2013 6:45 PM
Subject: Canvassing and November Branch Meeting Notice
Dear John
Thank you for the email.
Your view that it is a 'convention' that councillors are invited to branch meetings to answer questions from ward members is bizarre. As the elected ward councillors for St. Ann's for the last 3.5 years we expect to be held accountable to the ward for our ward work, and for wider involvement in Council activities, policy making and service delivery. Attending the ward meeting and being available to answer questions from ward members, and also informing them of current and likely issues on the horizon is central to the role and respectful of the ward. It is written into the councillors' job description we received when we became councillors. This is no convention or a choice, it's basic democratic accountability which members and the party should demand and expect.
We are the elected councillors until May 2014 and as such will be representing ward members and everyone else in the ward. We have attended the ward meetings as and when they have been organised, always answered questions, informed members of current issues and provided written reports.
We also note you did not include us in your original email. As a longstanding member of the Labour Party you know as well as we do that Labour Party meetings are organised for Wednesday evenings and diairies are planned accordingly. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are council meeting nights, a matter of which you are also, no doubt, entirely aware.
Regards
Zena Brabazon and David Browne
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I hope people can see what is going on here. John Blake's strategy is to make sure that too much is done so that they can't change the candidates. Taking them out on the #laboursoorstep, having meetings with them as defacto councillors etc. It is why this issue is so urgent and why I wish the people chasing it would stop mucking about and get on with it.
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