Assistant chief executive and alleged Labour press flak Douglas Trainer
An intriguing and disturbing FOI request to Newham Council (links added):
The newly promoted Mayoral advisor Cllr Patrick Murphy was the Newham Labour Party procedures secretary to the recent Mayoral trigger ballot. When he has been contacted by journalists interested in the allegations made about this process he has told them to contact the Newham Council Assistant Chief Executive, Douglas Trainer for comment.
Mr Trainer is paid by Newham Residents £111,000 per year and is in a politically restricted post.
- Please confirm that Mr Trainer has contacted or discussed the Labour Party Mayoral trigger ballot (and anything associated with it) with any journalist.
- If so the names of these journalists; when; where; how and what he said to these journalists and why he has acted as a spokesperson for the Labour Party.
- I understand that there are tape recordings of these conversations.
- Please list the social events that Mr Trainer has attended with member of Newham Labour Party including at Labour Party conferences.
If the allegation here is true, it is extraordinary. Why on earth would Cllr Murphy think it appropriate to refer press enquiries about an internal Labour election to the assistant chief executive of the council?
And why would Mr Trainer agree to respond to them? He is explicitly forbidden from “acting on behalf of the party … in dealing with non-party members.”
This is no doubt a consequence of Labour’s total grip on power in the borough. Senior officers and councillors alike have come to believe that the council and the party are one and the same.
Note: I linked to the LB of Havering guidance on politically restricted posts because no equivalent page appears to exist on Newham’s website. Which is in itself telling.
forestgatedotnet 
Another donkey employed by Wales. He is really making an ass of the Labour Party.
What Wales scared 😨 of in an open selection, probably his own shadow. He clearly lost the trigger ballot rather than this twat face his members he riggs the whole process with the blessing of the Labour Party, so much for democracy all Wales does is stick one finger up at party members and sez f**k you.
Is this the same Doug trainer who’d turn up at the newham recorder hustings and take notes?
A new slew of Labour councillors is needed to get rid of this filth.