East Ham gets the go-ahead

14 Jun

SyedTaqiShah1 2019 Jun 06

East Ham chair Tahir Mirza and secretary Syed Taqi Shah with Peterborough candidate Lisa Forbes

After several years in the doldrums East Ham CLP finally got itself back on its feet earlier this year. Branch AGMs were held, general committee (GC) delegates elected and a CLP meeting elected a new slate of officers in February.

Since when nothing much has happened. There hasn’t been a GC meeting and members have been left wondering what’s going on.

But there is good news – the investigation by London regional office to ensure all the elected GC delegates were legitimate has been completed. It was delayed for several months by staff being deployed to the local elections, the European elections and then the Peterborough by-election, but an approved list of delegates has now been sent to the East Ham secretary. So the CLP can get on and hold meetings.

The first will be a special trigger ballot meeting on City and East London Assembly member Unmesh Desai next Thursday (20 June).

East Ham’s trigger meeting is the last in City and East. So far Unmesh Desai has won five and lost one, in West Ham. This means he has already passed the threshold to be automatically re-selected as the Labour candidate in 2020. 

The ‘regular’ GC will follow on, including an election for party conference delegates. Nominations have to be submitted by 5pm on the day and, given that most branches won’t meet before the GC, it’s hard to see how they can put forward valid nominations.

No doubt London region will be keeping an eye on things.

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European election results 2019

30 May

Britain and the EU 992x561

The returning officer has released the full results for Newham from last week’s European election:

Party

Votes

Percent

Labour

33,379

51%

Liberal Democrats

9,192

14%

The Brexit Party

7,730

12%

Green Party

5,353

8.2%

Conservative

3,756

5.7%

Change UK

2,234

3.4%

UKIP

1,336

2.0%

UK European Union Party

917

1.4%

Animal Welfare Party

640

1.0%

Women’s Equality Party

572

0.9%

Others (independents)

312

0.5%

Total votes

65,421

100%

Compared to the previous European election in 2014, Labour lost 7 points of vote share and the Conservatives lost 11 points. UKIP also lost share, down over 6%, though their previous vote was bettered by Farage’s new Brexit vehicle.

The big gainers were the Liberal Democrats, up 12% and the Green Party up 3.6%.

Turnout was down 3%, from 39% to 36%.

 

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New trains today!

23 May

By Fsheng666 - Own work

Picture by Fsheng666

After much speculation during the week and one false start, yesterday afternoon Transport for London (TfL) confirmed that the first two Class 710 trains would enter passenger service today (23 May 2019) on the Barking – Gospel Oak route.

This follows a successful test of a software drop (version 33!) at Network Rail’s Asfordby test centre two weeks ago and further successful testing of a tweaked version (version 33.1?) on units at Bombardier’s Willesden depot last week. 

The three ‘borrowed’ 4-car Class 378 trains will continue to operate the temporary half hourly timetable with the new units operating in some of the paths cancelled in mid March when the last of the two-car diesel trains disappeared to the West Midlands.

Once the Class 710s at Willesden have all received the updated software, and demonstrated sufficient reliability, additional trains will be put into public service, finally restoring the proper 4-trains-an-hour service. The three ‘borrowed’ Class 378s will then return to 5-car formation on the Euston – Watford Junction service, allowing that to move to a 15-minute service from its current irregular three trains per hour ‘Interim timetable’.

So far around a third of the drivers have been trained on the new Class 710s, those trained before the latest software drop will have to have a further day training before being ‘passed out’ to drive the units.

Secretary of the Barking – Gospel Oak Rail User Group (BGORUG), Glenn Wallis, said,

“Passengers have waited 14 months for this belated entry into public service of the Class 710 and endured a deteriorating service in the meantime. It is to be hoped that all the software issues have been finally resolved and that the units prove reliable in service so that the full 15-minute interval timetable can be restored as soon as possible.”

“BGORUG looks forward to an early meeting with TfL to discuss the month’s free travel to be provided by Bombardier as compensation to regular travellers for the inconvenience they have suffered.”

The free month is expected to be in September.

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May Day, the workers day

1 May


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Euro Elections – the Newham connection

24 Apr

Elections to the European parliament will held on 23 May and voters will have the chance to select representatives who will sit in Brussels and Strasbourg for – all being well – the next five years.

Across the main parties there are six candidates with strong Newham connections.

Cllr Rohit Dasgupta (Canning Town South) is on Labour’s list for South East England. He has been a Newham councillor since May 2018 and contested the East Hampshire seat in the 2017 general election. Dr Dasgupta is secretary of Newham Fabians.

Cllr James Beckles (Custom House) is a Labour candidate in London. He has been a Newham councillor since 2014 and is currently cabinet member for Crime and Community Safety. Cllr Beckles sits on the Progress Strategy Board and is vice chair of Newham Co-operative Party.

Rachel Collinson, who is standing for the Green Party in London, was her party’s candidate in West Ham in the 2015 general election and the GLA candidate for City & East in 2016. She stood in Stratford and New Town in the 2018 local elections. She is the Green Party Business, Innovation and Skills national spokesperson.

For the Conservatives, Attic Rahman is a former chair of East Ham Conservatives. He stood in Royal Docks in the May 2018 local elections and Little Ilford in 2014.

UKIP leader Gerard Batten lives in Forest Gate. He has represented London in the European parliament since 2004. Previously he sought election to Newham council in 2002 in Forest Gate North and in 1993 Park ward, where he won just 75 votes for the Anti Federalist League.

Also standing for UKIP, in the north west of England, is former Newham councillor (2002 – 2010) Alan Craig. Craig was the leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance before defecting to his current party. He was the CPA candidate for mayor of Newham in 2002, 2006 and 2010; he stood for mayor of London for the Christian Alliance in 2008. He is UKIP’s national spokesperson for Families & Children.

UPDATE BONUS CONNECTION!

Thanks to @E7_nowandthen on Twitter for pointing out that Change UK/The Independent Group candidate Carole Tongue represented the old London East European constituency from 1984 to 1999, and this included the Newham North East parliamentary constituency (now mostly East Ham). Ms Tongue was the deputy leader of the Labour Group in the European Parliament.

The full list of party candidates for the London constituency (8 MEP seats):

Labour:

  • Claude Moraes*
  • Seb Dance*
  • Katy Clark
  • Laura Parker
  • Murad Qureshi
  • Taranjit Chana
  • James Beckles
  • Sanchia Alasia

Conservative:

  • Syed Kamall*
  • Dr Charles Tannock*
  • Joy Morrissey
  • Timothy Barnes
  • Scott Pattenden
  • Attic Rahman
  • Kirsty Finlayson
  • Luke Parker

Liberal Democrats:

  • Irina Von Wiese
  • Dinesh Dhamija
  • Luisa Porritt
  • Jonathan Fryer
  • Hussain Khan
  • Helen Cross
  • Graham Colley
  • Rabina Khan

Green Party:

  • Scott Ainslie
  • Gulnar Hasnain
  • Shahrar Ali
  • Rachel Collinson
  • Eleanor Margolies
  • Remco van der Stoep
  • Kirsten de Keyser
  • Peter Underwood

Change UK (The Independent Group):

  • Gavin Esler
  • Jan Vincent-Rostowski
  • Carole Tongue
  • Annabel Mullin
  • Karen Newman
  • Nora Mulready
  • Jessica Simor
  • (plus one TBC)

UKIP:

  • Gerard Batten*
  • Richard Braine
  • Peter Muswell
  • Freddy Vachha
  • Peter McIlvenna
  • Robert Stephenson
  • John Poynton
  • Ronie Johnson

Animal Welfare Party:

  • Vanessa Hudson
  • Jane Smith
  • Sam Morland
  • Ranjan Joshi
  • Mina Da Rui
  • Jon Homan
  • Simon Gouldman

The Brexit Party:

  • Ben Habib
  • Lance Forman
  • Graham Shore
  • Alka Sehgal Cuthbert
  • Jimi Ogunnusi
  • Simon Marcus
  • Mehrtash A’zami
  • Aileen Quinton

UK European Union Party:

  • Pierre Kirk
  • Richard Stevens
  • Saleyha Ahsan
  • Anna Novikova
  • Angela Antetomaso
  • Richard Boardman

Women’s Equality Party:

  • Catherine Mayer
  • Bea Gare
  • Nanci Hogan
  • Aliyah Dunbar-Hussain
  • Hannah Barham-Brown
  • Alison Marshall
  • Olivia Patton-Vincenti
  • Leyla Mohan

Independents (not a party list – each candidate is standing on their own)

  • Daze Aghaji
  • Roger Hallam
  • Alan Kirkby
  • Kofi Klu
  • Zoe Lafferty
  • Claudia Mcdowell
  • Andrew Medhurst
  • Henry Muss
  • Mike Shad
  • Ian Sowden
  • Andrea Venzon

* sitting MEP seeking re-election

Correction (25/04/2019): the original version of this post said James Beckles is the secretary of Newham Co-operative Party. That post is held by Cllr Neil Wilson.

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Home!

13 Apr


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Spotted in IDS’s Chingford constituency…

13 Apr


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West Ham Labour cancels meeting

1 Apr

Wenborne and Hedley

The CWU Postal Engineering Branch delegate to West Ham CLP (left, obvs.) in his other job.

West Ham Labour party cancelled its monthly general committee (GC) meeting last week, after rival motions were proposed on the matter of antisemitism in the party. One affirms “our solidarity with the Jewish community and the Jewish Labour Movement as antisemitism in the UK continues to rise and is found within our own party.” Another confirms the CLP’s “implacable hostility to all forms of racism, anti-semitism and Islamophobia, and its determination to fight them in all their manifestations.”

But a third, proposed by the Postal Engineering Branch of the Communications Workers Union, “refutes the allegation that Labour is antisemitic” and

rejects the current atmosphere of hysteria, denunciation and rush-to-judgement over antisemitism that is now being stoked by certain existing and ex-Labour MPs and amplified by the mainstream media…

…too often, accusations of anti-semitism are blown out of all proportion; use distorted comments or quotations taken out of context; or are levelled against those who are making justified criticism of the unjust treatment of Palestinians by the current Israeli government.

The motion continues: “This relentless focus on antisemitism is diverting the public’s attention… and side-lining other forms of racism such as Islamophobia and other prejudices against immigrants.” It alleges that allegations of bullying in the party are “a cynical tactic by those Labour MPs who have become unpopular with their local members because they are unwilling to democratically represent them.”

This all follows an ill-tempered episode during the February GC meeting when the guest speaker Dr Bob Gill, who had been invited to speak on the NHS, made a comment in which he suggested that allegations of antisemitism within the Labour Party were ‘fake’ and ‘a distraction.’ Formal complaints have been made about the conduct of certain delegates following those remarks. Arguments continued at the Executive Committee two weeks later.

Local party officers took advice from London region before deciding to cancel the meeting, telling delegates “if we simply debate these we are in danger of repeating the events of February, rather than moving forward in a more positive manner.”

The CWU postal engineering branch delegate to West Ham GC is also the chair of Newham Momentum. Last September, the group hosted a meeting with Chris Williamson MP, as part of the latter’s Deselection (sorry, ‘Democracy’) Roadshow. Williamson was later suspended from the Labour Party over remarks he made about, er, antisemitism.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Labour Party in West Ham. I am not a member of the General Committee.

Hat-Tip to Jewish News for their original coverage of this story

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I won the raffle!

7 Mar


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East Ham United

3 Mar

East Ham CLP AGM

When I blogged a couple of weeks ago about East Ham CLP’s AGM I suggested rival factions, specifically Newham Momentum and those still loyal to the former mayor, would be “putting together slates and cooking up deals to ensure that the ‘wrong people’ don’t wind up in charge.”

This clearly hit a nerve and Newham Momentum responded on their own blog, claiming this was just “rumours and misinformation spread by local Blairites.” The secretary of Newham Momentum added

“Ours is a broad and democratic Party. Newham Momentum is always willing to work with those comrades who genuinely respect this proud democratic tradition and are willing to work with us to combat cuts in local services whilst campaigning for the election of a radical, socialist Labour Government under Jeremy.”

So what actually happened?

Pretty much exactly what I predicted. Very few of the main officer positions were contested. Once Tahir Mirza had secured the chair on behalf of Newham Momentum, other candidates started to drop out, leaving right-wingers Lakmini Shah and Mariam Dawood to pick up the posts of vice chair (campaigns) and treasurer, while Momentum’s Syed Taqi Shah became secretary.

The full slate of elected officers

Chair: Tahir Mirza
Secretary: Syed Taqi Shah
Treasurer: Cllr Mariam Dawood
Vice Chair Campaigns: Cllr Lakmini Shah
Vice Chair Membership: Cllr Moniba Khan
Women’s Officer: Sophia Naqvi
Youth: Azka Rasool
LGBT Officer: Victoria Mitchell
BAME Officer: Cllr Sugathan Thekkepura & Asad Shan (Job Share)
TULO: Cllr Pushpa Makwana
Political Education: Tariq Hussain

After the meeting the new chair tweeted

I am very thankful for East Ham CLP to elect me as a Chair and all of us very determined to take @jeremycorbyn vision forward, every single officer elected is true socialist

And West Ham CLP membership secretary Mehmood Mirza chipped in, saying

@jeremycorbyn supporters win landslide @easthamlabour CLP after almost 2 1/2 years of special measures, thanks to all the delegates who supported the left candidates, congratulations to @TahirMirza01 Chair CLP & @SyedTaqiShah1 to be secretary,@moniba27 Vice Chair Membership.

One view is that this is “a diverse officer team consisting of pro-Corbyn Left and other local activists.” A more realistic assessment is that it’s a stitch-up that is politically unsustainable. After years of mismanagement under Sir Robin and his crew, East Ham members deserve better.

The AGM also selected delegates for the London regional conference Tahir Mirza, Victoria Mitchell and Cllrs Ayesha Chowdhury and Sasha Das Gupta.

After the meeting formally closed there were three guest speakers. MP Stephen Timms and London Assembly member Unmesh Desai spoke unchallenged, but Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz was rudely interrupted twice by the chair in an attempt to cut her her short. She ploughed straight past him. Which may be a metaphor for the next couple of years in Newham Labour politics.

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