Ilford South

[stb12]

Ilford South

[John Chanin]

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[doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️]

From the Guardian

Wed 3 Apr 2024 06.00 CEST
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A former shadow minister who was deselected as an MP by local Labour members has submitted a complaint to the party alleging “vote rigging” in the contest.

Sam Tarry, a former senior trade union official who helped organise Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, lost the chance to contest his Ilford South constituency after he was deselected more than a year ago.


Amid a bitter row, members voted by 499 votes to 361 to select the leader of Redbridge council, Jas Athwal, at a hustings after every local Labour branch in the constituency voted to trigger the full reselection proceedings.

Tarry claims his unsuccessful attempt to be reselected was harmed by Labour’s online Anonyvoter voting system, which has been the focus of controversy in other constituencies.

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However, he has now submitted a complaint which states that, during door-to-door campaigning, his campaign team found numerous individuals who were not living at the addresses that they were registered to on the Labour party membership system.

“While some level of ‘churn’ may be expected with people moving homes, the numbers of people on the membership list not resident at the addresses we had been given was concerning,” the complaint states.

Tarry’s campaign team then carried out an exercise where they compared the membership records with the electoral register. He says they identified a significant number of members not listed on the electoral register at the addresses on a membership list provided to him.

At a later stage, Tarry says he became aware that some of the properties were rentals owned by Redbridge councillors. Some of the members identified during this process had apparently applied for postal or electronic votes, as they appeared on the postal voters list provided to him.


“This raised serious concerns about these members’ eligibility to vote in the ongoing selection,” Tarry said in the complaint. He reported the concerns to the regional director of the London region Labour party, copying in Labour’s general secretary, David Evans.

“I am not aware of any action that was taken to ensure these members’ eligibility or to stop them from voting,” he adds in the complaint.

Tarry’s complaint to Labour alleges that Athwal was one of the Labour councillors who owned a property where Labour members were listed as living, and who had indicated they would vote for Athwal.

When they canvassed the address, Tarry’s team says they were told by tenants that the members listed had moved out but that someone else collected their post.

The MP is considering taking legal action to obtain Anonyvoter records and may yet seek an injunction to block Athwal from being the official Ilford South candidate.

Athwal said: “I completely refute the allegations, they are untrue and baseless. Ilford South members have made their choice and it must be respected.”

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party has full confidence in the integrity of the Ilford South selection process. We always investigate concerns that are raised in relation to candidate selections and we reject the allegations that have been made.”

[John Chanin]

Tarry should drop it. Getting your mates to sign up and support you is perfectly normal, and not against any rules so long as they sign up and pay themselves, and live in the constituency.

Tarry is well connected, loyal, and should seek another constituency. There are 2, maybe 3, nearby, where he would have a good chance (West Ham - Lyn Brown has opted for Stratford - Islington North, and Hackney North). Moving him to Islington North would avoid a whole load of grief, but no doubt the factionalists at Labour HQ will prefer the grief.

[andrea]

Apr 3, 2024 7:32:28 GMT John Chanin said:

Tarry should drop it. Getting your mates to sign up and support you is perfectly normal, and not against any rules so long as they sign up and pay themselves, and live in the constituency.

Tarry is well connected, loyal, and should seek another constituency. There are 2, maybe 3, nearby, where he would have a good chance (West Ham - Lyn Brown has opted for Stratford - Islington North, and Hackney North). Moving him to Islington North would avoid a whole load of grief, but no doubt the factionalists at Labour HQ will prefer the grief.

He has been silent for some time. Now that the GE is approaching, he is making noises again. I guess it may be a way to try and get Labour HQ allowing him in some other seats in exchange to shut up. Not sure it is a winning strategy.

Half of the Hackney world is apparently already going for Hackney North. In Islington North he could be a compromise candidate.

[stb12]

Yes, it seems like the selection issue here was fairly unique because of what happened with the last one in 2019, rather than being about purging Tarry as such

[timrollpickering]

Apr 3, 2024 7:32:28 GMT John Chanin said:

Moving him to Islington North would avoid a whole load of grief,

It may avoid grief in Ilford but given the likely line-up would it really avoid grief in Islington?

[stb12]

Apr 3, 2024 8:34:49 GMT timrollpickering said:

Apr 3, 2024 7:32:28 GMT John Chanin said:

Moving him to Islington North would avoid a whole load of grief,

It may avoid grief in Ilford but given the likely line-up would it really avoid grief in Islington?

I think the idea is that Tarry would be ideologically acceptable to Corbyn and decrease the chance of him standing as an independent

[matureleft]

Apr 3, 2024 8:45:08 GMT stb12 said:

Apr 3, 2024 8:34:49 GMT timrollpickering said:

It may avoid grief in Ilford but given the likely line-up would it really avoid grief in Islington?

I think the idea is that Tarry would be ideologically acceptable to Corbyn and decrease the chance of him standing as an independent

Presumably possible, but I don't know what is in Corbyn's mind.

However I just wonder if some of the crowd in party HQ aren't somewhat relishing Corbyn standing? It would provide a steady reminder to the electorate of the distance travelled since 2019.

Certainly not my favoured option as I can readily see the collateral electoral damage from such a plan, but some of these are narrow intra-party fighters with limited experience of the world outside that fetid space (and yes, they have their equivalents on the other side of the Labour spectrum although many have departed). 

[East Anglian Lefty]

Given how comprehensively Tarry got beaten in the deselection fight, it's fair to say that he was very bad at forging alliances locally. In that context, if he goes for West Ham he runs the risk of being deselected by a local candidate before the 2029 election even if he is imposed.

[Pete Whitehead]

Notional results since 1945. The 2019 result is the 'official' (Thrasher & Rallings) notional - the others are my own work

	Con	Lab	Lib	Com
1945	33.2%	52.6%	14.2%
1950	47.2%	43.9%	7.7%	1.2%
1951	51.9%	46.5%	1.6%
1955	53.2%	44.8%	2.0%
1959	50.3%	37.5%	12.2%
1964	41.8%	39.3%	18.7%	0.3%
1966	42.1%	47.7%	9.9%	0.2%

	Con	Lab	Lib/LD	NF/BNP
1970	47.5%	42.9%	8.1%
1974	37.9%	42.9%	18.9%
1974	38.7%	45.6%	15.3%
1979	47.3%	41.9%	8.4%	1.7%
1983	46.4%	32.5%	20.4%	0.6%
1987	49.7%	35.0%	15.3%
1992	46.0%	42.9%	10.8%

	Con	Lab	LD	Ref/UKIP/ BXP	NF/BNP	Grn	IGC
1997	28.8%	59.2%	6.4%	2.4%	1.3%
2001	25.8%	59.1%	11.4%	2.9%	0.6%
2005	27.1%	48.8%	19.3%	2.2%	1.1%
2010	27.1%	49.8%	16.1%	2.4%	0.8%	2.2%
2015	24.4%	63.4%	1.9%	7.5%		2.7%
2017	21.3%	75.1%	1.2%	1.3%		0.9%
2019	21.2%	65.2%	3.3%	2.2%		1.3%	6.7%

[hempie]

SOPN:
www.redbridge.gov.uk/media/12286/sopn-nop-and-situation-of-polling-stations-ilford-south.pdf

8 Candidates:
CON
LAB
LIB DEM
GEEN
REFORM UK
WORKRS PARTY - FOR BRITAIN,FOR GAZA
TUSC
INDEPENDENT

[Devil Wincarnate]

novaramedia.com/2024/10/24/jas-athwal-was-cleared-of-sexual-assault-or-was-he/

A hitjob on Jas Athwal from an unfriendly source, but this was an amusing anecdote for various reasons:

At a 2022 fundraiser Athwal hosted in his garden for the party’s local election campaign, he ran a raffle. The first prize was tea with him. Gomez won and opted for the second prize, a barbecue set.