Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Voter fraud discovered in St Ann's, technicalities mean the result stands.
After the recent St Ann's ward Labour party selection meeting we lost our three standing councillors. Nilgun Canver stood down, and Zena Brabazon and David Browne were deselected. In 2009 this was the site of the rather startling deselection of the illustrious Brian Haley. Considering the quorum at the Harringay Labour party meeting to select three candidates in 2010, St Ann's have an active and diligent Labour Party.
Or do they?
The three candidates selected this year in St Ann's were Barbara Blake, Peter Morton (Head of Press at the Labour Party), and a local shopkeeper.
It was remarkable in 2009 when Brian Haley was deselected but what happened here was unprecedented. All three councillors in a safe Labour ward were replaced. It now transpires that the election to select these candidates was not as straight as it should have been. Nineteen people who were both outside the ward and had joined the Labour party after the cut-off date at the end of April had joined on one day in July. Just imagine if St Ann's councillors had to be mindful of Harringay traffic concerns to be selected? Would those bollards exist? Why was this allowed to happen?
The meeting was stacked with Haringey Labour members, not necessarily from St Ann's (26 in total) but loyal to Councillor Kober and perhaps other factions. Five people from outside of the ward voted in the election, this is all it took to swing it and come May next year your vote will be nearly worthless because this is a very safe Labour ward.
There are two things that bother me about this. The obvious and wilfully ignored corruption in the candidate selection - these people WILL be elected, just because they are the Labour candidates - these meetings are important, and the apparent barring from standing of a local Labour activist, Seema Chandwani.
To be allowed to stand in a selection meeting in Haringey you must go before a panel to be judged on your suitability as a candidate. In Haringey the panel was chaired by Luke Akehurst. Apparently he thought that Ms Chandwani would bring the Labour Party into disrepute, presumably because she embarrassed them over youth services in the borough (and I bet he was one of the people clapping loudly when Ed Milliband talked about lowering the voting age this week). Luke denied us the opportunity to vote for Seema as a councillor. As a keen follower of local politics I think this was quite nasty, I would have dropped leaflets and knocked on doors for Seema, and I'm not even a member. I wonder what he made of Charles Adje whom I see he allowed to stand for selection?
The second thing that bothers me is that rules in place to protect us from vested interests taking over our representation as residents were completely ignored in this selection process. As I've said, just imagine if a bunch of angry Harringay citizens could join the Labour party and go over and deselect anyone in St Ann's who supported the gating of the Gardens? I have looked into this myself and I know it's completely against the rules. Labour central office were alerted to this but were too busy planning their conference this week to care about it. The GRA are in shock.
Labour in Haringey do not deserve our votes because they are careless with the selection process.
Next week, on Monday the 30th, the selection meetings come to Harringay and I urge all Labour Party members to attend the meeting and vote for the best candidates, not to mention keep an eye on the voting. As much criticism as I level at the local Labour Party, at the end of the day it is up to members to take an active part in the selection process.
(Edited by site admin following legal advice)
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I wonder if Peter Morton, as Head of Press at the Labour Party ( which I would assume to be a pretty high-power job ) will have much time to devote to his duties as a Councillor ? Just asking, as John McM would say
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I think that's unfair. I'm sure the Labour Party will not allow him to let down his electorate because of an arduous workload. No doubt he will recieve a lot of support and be a good councillor.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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Good councillors speak out against wrongdoing and stand up to bullies and cheats.
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That's a little unfair too. Barbara and Peter presumeably had no idea that there were voter irregularities at the time that they were elected and are probably mortified and keen to have this situation resolved. After all, they will be on the doorstep over the next few months and want to concentrate on issues important to voters, not their legitimacy as Labour Party candidates.
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A couple of days ago the Tottenham Journal offered to run this story (finally!). I was asked for my phone number on Twitter by Stephen at the Journal but have heard nothing since. This morning I saw a tweet from Karen Alexander mentioning that David Lammy and Claire Kober were smiling from the home page of the the Journal and hoping that the fact that it had not run this story was not due to a conflict of interest. I presume that this is embarrasing for Claire (although it was definitely not my intention to embarrass her) and that she would like to leverage her close relationship with the Journal to keep it out of there. Or at least get the home page changed in the mean time.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Waterhouse on
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Neither David Lammy or Claire Kober are famous for missing photo oppurtunities. In St Anns Ward we waited for Mr Lammy to come and visit us during his walk with government officials after the Tottenham disturbances; he terminated his walk just short of Tottenham Cross where the final members of the press were, leaving us standing in Tottenham High Road near Tesco like stood up brides. Claire Kober has yet to do a walk around St Anns Ward which is overdue because of recent events. She needs to meet the public and assure them that their communities are still a priority and that councillors and herself will work towards a stable and more communicative forum for all. So far no photo opportunity so no Claire Kober. I bet that situation changes near the European and general elections over the next year or so because there will then be photo oppurtunities.
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Stephen is on the case! I'm am quite sadly autistic London Labour Party so don't expect me to drop this. I've also tried to pressure a couple of people who shall remain nameless to ask Ali to withdraw for the good of the party he adores so much he joined. That went down like a cup of cold sick.
Anyone who noticed my twitter exchange with Joe Goldberg (and Alan Stanton) at the weekend should take from it the fact that he actually engaged with us when nobody else would, at least not publicly. Yes he was extremely evasive but he kept at it.
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Permalink Reply by Geoff Amabilino on
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I am appalled by what has gone down in St Ann's, and by the attitude of (apparently) most of the local Labour Party. I cannot see that any of the candidates have a mandate. Perhaps they could agree to collectively withdraw so that a re-run is forced.
Voting irregularities aside, it seems a mockery of the process of choosing local representatives that in two consecutive St Ann's selections, councillors who have worked hard for their residents have been tossed aside. Doesn't seem to me that the Haringey Labour Party cares much for the people they are supposed to represent - but then that's nothing new, is it?
Keep at it John!
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The Tottenham Journal have printed it on their website.
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They didn't post a link to us so I didn't post a link to them. Go figure.
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