Left-wing Labour MP Apsana Begum has been cleared by a court of housing fraud. The Poplar and Limehouse MP had been accused – without merit, the court has decided – of three counts of dishonestly failing to disclose information relating to a council housing application.
Begum’s supporters have maintained all along that the charges should never have been brought.
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BRAVO!!! Apsana Begum!!! BRAVO!!!
A TRUE COMRADE OF THE PEOPLE!!!
Yet ANOTHER marvellous TRUE Labour NEW star has just been cleared in COURT of ALL allegations brought against her by Tower Hamlets Borough!
She collapsed in court after the just verdict. These accusations do inflict almost intense distress. But a failure to fight unjust claims, even for understandable reasons, encourages more cruel and vexations claims.
All decent people are relieved and glad that you ***Aspana Begum*** has been judged innocent in court of ALL charges against you. Rest, refresh yourself, and return to your excellent purpose, restored and STRONGER.
🎉🌟🌹🎉🌟🌹🎉🌟🌹
Exactly! I firmly believe many Comrades who did not deviate from Jeremy Corbyn’s Campaigns/Manifestos and took the Antisemitism Allegations, Attacking Remainers and Leavers and all the rest of the shit flung at us for 4y 3m solid, are suffering with various degrees of PTSD! To be tainted by lies and delusions constantly day in day out takes it’s toll!
How the Fuck Jeremy Corbyn took it, far worse than any of us and he carried on forward like a hot knife through butter, not deviating, not quivering! I’m sure he collapsed in Laura’s arms many a night. Hopefully once all Socialists break free from the goo Neoliberalism smeared us with, we will see his greatness celebrated in the Socialist MSM!
We are only the few and the silent because the Corrupt Conniving Neoliberal Filthy, Nasty, Bastards own, infest or occupy everything, absolutely everything!
Good to hear
Every small victory is a great joy. And this is not a small one.
Now I wonder who made these allegations.
goldbach Tower Hamlets Borough made the allegations.
You may see my post several hours ago reporting this uplifting news.
🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊
I posted Aspana Begum’s excellent news earlier and made a plea that we compile a list of successes / wins / victories to encourage the “Left”.
There were many extraordinary victories including in the peculiar City of London while Jeremy was Opposition Leader. The City i believe has ALWAWS been dominated by Tories. During Jeremy’s tenure as leader, that changed dramatically. Yet neither he nor his supposed allies even mentioned those phenomenal victories to the general public, never mind repeat them as often as URGENTLY NEEDED even here on Skwawkbox.org. We have ZERO excuse to fail to do so while whining about the MSM.
All decent people who want meaningful change, will celebrate every win every victory of TRUE Labour colleagues eg Marc Wadsworth, Jo Bird, i believe Chris Williamson, Jacqui Walker and now ASPANA BEGUM🎊🌟🎊🌟🎊🌟
PLEASE help compile a list of our successes to keep at the forefront of our consciousness and the general public. This may help to erase myths that we must suffer in silence as if we are helpless. Bad news often deflates and often breeds more bad news. On the other hand ‘nothing succeeds like success’.
NOTHING succeeds like success. Ignore the campaigners for defeatism, helplessness and doom. DONT be hoodwinked by them.
🔵❌🎉🔵❌🎉🔵❌🎉
Yes. My query was as to whether it was the Borough Council (i.e. the councillors) who made the allegation or the officers through the Chief Executive.
goldbach – It was her ex husbands brother in law..
2019
The court was told that allegations of housing fraud against Ms. Begum were first made by her ex-husband’s brother-in-law in 2019 and this led to the prosecution.
https://www.eastendenquirer.org/2021/07/fraud-trial-of-poplar-and-limehouse-labour-mp-apsana-begum-begins/
SteveH: Her ex-husband’s brother-in-law? Given the source, why should anyone ever have considered the allegations credible at all? Your own description of the matter strongly suggests the whole thing was a relative of a divorced man taking revenge on the man’s ex-wife for daring to leave him.
kenburch – I suggest you follow the link and read the full article.
Did the accuser disclose his relationship, and regardless of the source the council would still have a duty to prosecute if they believed that they had the evidence to do so.
SteveH: not if no real evidence was presented, and we know by her aquittal that no real evidence COULD have been presented. BTW, will you agree that Keir needs to acknowledge and celebrate Apsana Begum’s aquittal and admit that it was wrong for Labour right-wingers to be waiting outside the courtroom to gloat about a conviction and demand that a right-winger be nominated to replace her- a right-winger who obviously couldn’t be capable of caring about the constituency or fighting for the people who live there?
I read the article- nothing in in justifies the insistence on going forward with the prosecution. Nothing at all.
kenburch – Really?
The things that don’t seem to have been in dispute is that despite her having an obligation to do so she didn’t inform the council of her various changes in circumstances and that her housing application account continued to be used make bids for properties after her circumstances had changed.
The things that appear to be in dispute are how many bedrooms her parents house has and who continued to make applications for housing after she moved in with Mr Haque and even that doesn’t appear to have been a categorical denial that it was her..
Ms Begum’s defence lawyer Helen Law said her bids for council housing could have been made not by her but by her partner
A Tower Hamlets Council anti-fraud specialist Lino Messouri, confirmed that Ms Begum’s application for social housing stated that her family home had three bedrooms. Records showed that applications made by her aunt in 2009 and her mother in 2013 stated that the home had four bedrooms.
He also agreed that an application in Ms Begum name continued to make bids after she moved out to live with Mr Haque on May 21, 2013, until March the following year.
There may have been other evidence that unquestionably proved her innocence but I haven’t seen it, have you.
Sour grapes? Perhaps the Jury didn’t like the smell coming from smug small time politicians too eager to get a radical scalp?
Paul – I suspect that the gist of what you say may well be true but as it was her ex husband’s brother in law who brought this to the councils attention I suspect the vendetta (if there was one) was more personal than political.
But you can’t be saying that the brother in law decided on prosecuting!?
Paul – You are right, I did’t day that.
Ooops –
I did’t day thatI didn’t say that.Time to crowd fund and get Fawkes and the rest. For advice go to the brain boxes at JVL.
One rule for them and anther rule for Joe Public
Tower Hamlets have an history of interesting politics, mayor’s, harassment, threats etc. Worth researching.
I feel that this young woman has been through hell and back..I am extremely pleased,but this Mp has influence and backing.Think of the poor sods that have nothing and rely on the council.I sat on the Housing committee and at times found that the council a newly created Labour \lib dems coalition still employed some of the nastiest officers around who were vindictive and had their favourite victims.whom they made life difficult especially if they were on social security payments.I actually detested being on the Housing committee were I thought I might do something but it seemed a constant battle against the same old ideas and people .Now the lady will have to face the sneers from Torys and a few of her Labour colleagues who masssge the allowances on a daily basis.
She’s blown her chances of ever being minister for children.
Very good news!
Jess Phillips was probably the first to congratulate her, wasn’t she?
Illustrates how nasty and deep the factionalism is within the Labour party that you just know a sizeable number in the PLP and NEC will have been disappointed by this outcome.
A new unashamedly socialist party is needed. The unions would come over if it were to gain electoral traction.
What’s stopping you?
The Prosecution must have been relying on a British Jury to convict a Radical Muslim Labour MP despite their very weak or non existent case. “Give it a go, you never know!”. This country often stinks.
The whole thing is sinister. There are many strange doings at that council. Where are the journos for heavens sake.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2021-07-30/craig-murrays-jailing-is-the-latest-move-in-the-battle-to-snuff-out-independent-journalism/
Murray’s imprisonment for eight months by Lady Dorrian, Scotland’s second most senior judge, is of course based entirely on a keen reading of Scottish law rather than evidence of the Scottish and London political establishments seeking revenge on the former diplomat. And the UK supreme court’s refusal on Thursday to hear Murray’s appeal despite many glaring legal anomalies in the case, thereby paving his path to jail, is equally rooted in a strict application of the law, and not influenced in any way by political considerations.
You mean the Queen is ordering it and the Scottish Government has promised to always say “Yes Ma’am”?
You should follow the link and read the full article.
Who drove this prosecution ? We need to know. Clearly a politically motivated character assassination.
It looks to be personal rather than political.
2019
The court was told that allegations of housing fraud against Ms. Begum were first made by her ex-husband’s brother-in-law in 2019 and this led to the prosecution.
https://www.eastendenquirer.org/2021/07/fraud-trial-of-poplar-and-limehouse-labour-mp-apsana-begum-begins/
I only read about the verdict and did not follow the details. What understand is that she was on the waiting list based on incorrect information, but never got offered any social housing? Do I understand this right?
If the case, how on earth has this made it to trial????
Local Authorities are prosecuting authorities in their own right. They can prosecute without the CPS.
Private Prosecutions should be banned. The law is bluntly abused by organisations like the Post Office as hundreds of Post Masters know. It allows them to investigate, decide on Prosecution and bring their own case, a cosy In House route to injustice. The Police lost that power decades ago as did Customs and Excise after abuses became so blatant Juries declined to convict. One of the worst offenders has been the RSPCA but no doubt Local Government is just as bad if not worse as this case shows because they might well have a political axe to grind.
Paul – I agree with you.
I’ll bet keith was pleased, else he’d have had another by-election to demonstrate how ‘popular’ he is.
All’s he has to do now is find her guilty of antisemitism, or not liking him, or something.
“There may have been other evidence that unquestionably proved her innocence but I haven’t seen it, have you.”
There is no “may have been” question here. By logical and rational deduction there most certainly was such evidence otherwise the jury would have come back with a guilty verdict.
Two questions arise.
Firstly, why frame the matter in that way? Is it sloppy thinking or wishful thinking?
Secondly, the question arises of why no one has seen that level of detailed evidence for the defence publicised in the Corporate media in the same way the level of detail for the prosecution was gleefully publicised.
Publicised in the same ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ manner as this ‘may have been’ comment.
A practice which is not limited to this case. The same is consistently happening in other cases, such as the Alex Salmond case, Craig Murray, Mark Hirst, and others such as Miller, Forstater et al who challenge official narratives and throw the spotlight on the double standards, hypocrisy and gerrymandering.
Ditto at other levels where due process is undermined, particularly within the Kafkaesque procedures which pass for due process in the Labour Party. Procedures which would make Machiavelli blush.
To the extent that one has to dig around for the relevant information to obtain a balanced and reasonable view of what has actually occurred rather than the narrative being sold by the Corporate state and the useful idiots and wormtongues who amplify that one sided narrative in various ways on its behalf – tugging their forelocks and doffing their caps like good little Uriah Heeps.
It would be far more productive to spend ones time finding out that information rather than amplifying the Corporate State narrative.