Sharma complaint ‘playing for time’ and ‘completely unfounded’, say local members – and MP told SKWAWKBOX after votes that they were ‘democratic’
Last night the SKWAWKBOX reported the annulment of two huge majorities in favour of ‘triggering‘ Ealing Southall MP Virendra Sharma – and the cancellation of a third branch meeting that was expected to seal the result – by Labour’s London regional office.
The supposed reason for the action was a complaint by Sharma and his supporters of ineligible members participating in the vote – a complaint that local members say is completely unfounded.
When the SKWAWKBOX spoke to Sharma – who suffered a huge vote of no confidence by members earlier this year – after the first two results on Monday, he did not mention any ineligible voters or complain either about any rule breaches or the way in which the meetings were conducted:
Yeah, I mean this is the democratic system. There are five more [branches] left, let me see how they turn out. I’m disappointed, I won’t say that I’m not disappointed, but that is the democratic process.
London region stated that Labour’s regional director and the local National Executive Committee (NEC) representative had decided to scrap the entire process and start again under regional office supervision.
However, members of the NEC have told the SKWAWKBOX that they had nothing to do with the decision – they were not consulted and have not discussed the Ealing Southall trigger.
Ealing Southall members told the SKWAWKBOX that they believe Sharma is ‘playing for time’ in the hope that the calling of a general election will save him. The SKWAWKBOX could not reach Mr Sharma for comment.
SKWAWKBOX view:
There is huge anger in Ealing about the decision to cancel their democratic choice on the basis of what they say – and what Sharma’s own words to the SKWAWKBOX seem to indicate – is a spurious and unfounded complaint.
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We know from the Panorama documentary that the JLM has a very strong influence on how the Party conducts it’s ‘investigations’ (witch hunts) How many members of the JLM or their supporters are esconced in regional offices?
That’s a very good question.
Another good question would be how many Blairites are esconced in the regional offices.
Too many would be my guess.
Yes, Blair and the JLM both support Zionism and neither support Corbyn.
We have a very serious problem in the Labour Party which is not being dealt with effectively if at all by the management. The JLM which has a very strong influence in the Party is 100% anti-Corbyn and Mike Katz their chair has said they will not support any MP who supports Jeremy Corbyn. “If you’re backing the leadership and the way they have handled antisemitism — then you are absolutely not going to get our support.”
These people are fifth columnists who are only in the Party to protect the racist State of Israel and gained their power when Blair was leader. They have exploited it ever since, to the detriment of anti-Zionist Jewish members who have been hounded out of the Party.
The JLM are Zionists who shield their hatred of Jeremy Corbyn behind the noble religion of Judaism so they can fire the accusation of anti-Semitism against anyone such as Chris Williamson who dares to criticise the way that Israel persecutes the Palestinians.
Apologies for being somewhat off-topic, but, linking to Jack’s comment – for those that are interested, I’ve come across a telling report that isn’t about obvious horrors in Palestine, but rather the long-term degradation of the land that is caused by Israeli settlements :
https://electronicintifada.net/content/settlers-sully-idyllic-wadi-qana/28166
It’s a testament to the need for constant reiteration of the horrendous nature of the Israeli occupation beyond just the obvious physical repression; its about the murder of a landscape, as well as its rightful inhabitants.
It picks up on a theme tellingly explored in Raja Shehadeh’s book ‘Palestinian Walks’.
Thanks for that RH. At the moment, the Israelis are ripping up Palestinian olive trees which have thrived for thousands of years, giving the Palestinians an income. They are replacing them with non-native spruce trees. Their excuse is they are planting green forests, when if fact, the real reason is to mask the sites of the hundreds of Palestinian villages they’ve destroyed.
They even have the cheek to ask foreign donors to contribute to the planting of these outrages and then name them in ‘honour’ of the donors i.e. the ‘German’ forest or the ‘whatever’ forest. Zionists have no intention of living along side the Palestinians their goal is to obliterate them and their memory. They are ruthless and they are inside the Labour Party to politically destroy Corbyn and anyone else who gets in their way.
I’m not sure how widely it is known, but to be a member of the JLM you do not have to be either Jewish or a Labour party member.
So how is it that this group are allowed not only to be affiliated to the Labour party, but to dictate to the party on how it should conduct itself in regard to antisemitism? A fifth column hiding in plain sight, but the NEC and the leadership appear not to have noticed.
There is another group the Jewish Voice for Labour, who have been described as the “wrong sort of Jews”. Unlike the JLM, to join this group you have to be Jewish and a Labour member, although you can affiliate to them as a supporter.
Jack -& Nemtona : Agree with you both.
I think the wider degradation of Palestine is not widely understood. Another mention :
The Pluto-published book ‘Bad News for Labour’ is now available (the one where Waterstones was intimidated into not doing the launch).
It’s a source that every Labour spokesperson on ‘antisemitism’ should have read and absorbed in terms of the facts.
Re JVL and affiliation: I got it from somewhere that it’s a 2 year wait before a group like this can be affiliated to the LP, so if they wanted to be, I think, by now, they could be. Meanwhile there’s nothing to stop a CLP becoming affiliate members of JVL – such a move can prove an interesting test of the water…
As an addendum to a previous comment : did the branches have proper procedures in place controlling entry on the door – i.e a proper check of cards against the membership list?
If it did, any dispute should be quickly resolved by checking and transparent oversight by a regional representative, particularly if the majorities were as overwhelming as reported. If such a check wasn’t in place, then the fault lies with the Branch.
That said, I can’t see any credible reason for cancelling the whole process. That does smell.
I smell a massive rat…And I won’t be surpised to smell many more in future.
https://external-preview.redd.it/S8Uz_EsEolWswG8mCzZLN2mRAvivUhOur4Gc_RmFJIg.jpg?auto=webp&s=f49111f023b886cd3af59468418360cadfbddc6f
What happened to talk of NEC refusing to endorse certain candidates
J
Without doubt Sharma hopes to escape by the calling of a GE; the trigger process apparently takes 12 weeks and now that’s cancelled. Sharma is accused by Members of a wide range of offences ranging from laziness to racism (in relation to Muslims and young whites); closeness to property developers as well as voting for Heathrow expansion. His arrogance and sense of entitlement is well illustrated by this event. In a seat where Labour are unlikely to ever lose he cruises along like so many MP’s in safe seats, happy to be automatically reselected and then rely on the loyalty of Members to swallow their reservations and fight to get him returned. It can go on for decades. It is the weakest part of the political system, allowing ineffective and self serving politicians to get returned time after time. As for the Labour ‘machine’ that managed to leave these issues behind in 2017, they are now repeating the trick. Ever felt you’ve been had?
Can the NEC help by fast tracking the whole process into less then 3 weeks ????
The whole Trigger Reselection process has been a ‘dog’s breakfast’ from when it was introduced by the NEC. It should be scrapped altogether. Mandatory Reselection should be re-introduced, it would solve all of the problems, and would be a straight forward process.
I’m afraid that mandatory reselection wouldn’t “solve all of the problems”.
Exactly the same thing could happen as in this trigger ballot.
That’s not a reason to abandon the whole idea!
The trigger allows an additional layer of complexity which prevents members considering alternative candidates. It needlessly gives added job security to sitting MPs. The coup against Corbyn (really, a coup against Labour Party members’ right to choose the leader) shows that these MPs are very much in need of some job insecurity. They need to fear the members. The trigger should go.
I agree. One of the worst aspects of our system is the MP sitting on a big majority who relies on automatic re-selection and the Party machine to see them through for yet another 5 years. They become corrupted by the system and end up only interested in corporate affairs (where the dosh is) and keeping sweet with the Party hierarchy so as to reap the rewards of decades of servility – a knighthood or a peerage maybe. Most professional people in the work place undergo annual Appraisals to judge and if necessary correct failings. MP’s should be appraised every time they stand by allowing contenders to put their case and for Members to vote – after all that might mean an Appraisal once every 5 years which is better than Annually . It’s not hard to see how and why the ‘machine’ moves to protect these Demi-God representatives and the easiest way is to engineer some local scandal and in this case put off any decision until it’s too late and the election is called. In Ealing Southall Sharma is very strongly opposed for mis-steps especially over the last few months and this attempted stitch up is so blatant that the Party should put its foot down. Will they? If Sharma ends up as the sole Labour candidate in November a lot of Labour voters will be forced to look elsewhere; he’ll still get in of course! which is why the system urgently needs fixing. It was obvious back in 2015 when Corbyn became Leader that candidates would be under scrutiny but the Machine consulted and consulted until it was too late, the 2017 election was called. Now it’s the 2019 election ‘catching out’ the Party so that’s 4 years of consulting and still the Old Regime have control of the levers of power. Look how this anonymous Regional Committee ( Who they?) within hours of landslide defeats declares the results “null and void”. At the same time they cancel another election that was to take place tonight. No reasons are given and certainly no evidence of malpractice is offered nor any indication as to who these people are or how come they have the power to declare elections null and void without explaining why!
You will note that I have always advocated automatic reselection.
My point is that the process is still open to manipulation, and to the simple fact that the actual members of a branch might actually support an MP that others see as ripe for deselection.
It’s no good automatically crying ‘Foul!’ when your wishes are contradicted by events. The Labour Party is home to quite a wide range of opinion.
When the conduct of a vote is questioned the administering body should be immediately investigated – but at the same time the vote must be re-run under a higher supervisory body, itself and its process open to scrutiny by all concerned.
To cancel the original result out of hand only piles corruption on corruption.
Do you not think the reason why these are being challenged is because Labour might need every vote they can get if Johnson puts a deal to a vote? Any triggered MP about to lose is going to vote for the tories. Clearly the chance of a deal acceptable to the EU is very slim but we don’t know all the details.
Would a Johnson deal being rejected by Parliament make a snap GE more or less likely?
Far from certain – could go either way.
Would it increase our chances of winning a snap GE if it did happen? Maybe, maybe not.
Does preventing triggers going ahead give Labour’s right wingers more or less chance to cling on to their seats in hopes of a snap GE and five more years?
More, obviously.
David one thing that is certain,parliament will never be viewed the same again after the Torys make a mockery of democracy and make use of every trick a country that has no written constitution allows them. Whatever happens in the short term The Johnson regime will go down in history as the Party that started the beginning of the end for the Establishment and rule by privilege and elitism..Johnson might also take a bow for starting the final chapter in the move for a United Ireland and an independent Scotland…..and England and Wales?