Damning statement from departing executive group condemns decision to use claims of jailed, racist paedophile against Muslim councillor to block parliamentary candidacy
The entire elected executive of Copeland constituency Labour party (CLP) has resigned in disgust at the Stalinism, rigging and racism of the Starmer regime after Starmer’s party blocked a popular local Muslim councillor from standing for selection to represent Labour in the Cumbrian seat at the next general election.
The group released a withering statement condemning the party’s behaviour – and noting that the regime has even stooped so low as to use the claims of a racist convicted paedophile to shore up its decision to exclude Cllr Joe Ghayouba from the CLP’s longlist of potential candidates, denying them the chance to select the person they want to represent them, despite Starmer’s long-broken leadership election promise that the party under him would allow members to decide:
Please read our below statement from the EC
Resignation statement on behalf of Copeland Labour Party Executive Committee & Copeland Parliamentary Selection Committee
In 2020, after he became Labour Party Leader, Sir Keir Starmer said that local Labour members should be able to select their candidates, and that “the party should be at the forefront of championing diversity.”
What we’ve seen, in reality, is the opposite. Local members in Copeland have been denied a vote and a voice by the National Executive Committee. Members in Copeland have been denied a fair selection process, and will not get to choose their own candidate.
The national party has blocked our long-serving Copeland Constituency Labour Party secretary, Cllr Joe Ghayouba, from the long-list of candidates.
Joe is not only a popular local councillor. As secretary he led us to a landslide Cumberland election victory in the 2022 local elections. Joe is a Muslim of Egyptian descent. He fits firmly into the “BAME” group as defined by the Labour Party, for whom rules state there must be at least one representative on any Prospective Parliamentary Candidate long-list. Considering that just a few days ago it was reported by Channel 4 News that Black Labour MPs fear speaking out on issues of race within the party, we should be doing all we can to support members and candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, rather than blocking them when they stand.
We are particularly disturbed as a CLP Executive Committee to learn that “evidence” brought up at Joe’s due diligence interview centred on a photograph taken by a criminal former Labour councillor. This former councillor, who is currently in prison for child sex offences, waged a racist campaign against Joe and his young family, which was subject to a police investigation. It is beyond comprehension that Labour’s national executive gave credence to such “evidence” in an internal Labour Party selection.
As a result, and in the face of this shameless disregard for democracy and the rights oflocal members, we feel we cannot give legitimacy to an illegitimate process by continuing to serve on the Copeland Labour Party Parliamentary Selection Committee, and are also resigning with immediate effect from our roles as members of the Executive Committee of Copeland Labour Party.
In Solidarity,
Cllr Jean Murray, Executive Committee Chair, Selection Panel member,
Cllr Linda Jones-Bulman, Executive Committee Vice Chair, Selection Panel member and Former Copeland Mayoral Candidate,
Cllr Nicholas Graham, Membership Secretary, Executive Committee and Selection Panel member
Margaret Lamb, Executive Committee Treasurer, Selection Panel member,
Cllr Mike Hawkins, Executive Committee Member and Selection Panel Procedures Secretary,
Flo Hanlon, Woman’s Officer, Executive Committee member,
Karl Connor, Executive Committee and Selection Panel member,
Cllr Graham Minshaw, Executive Committee and Selection Panel member,
Cllr Tony Lywood, Executive Committee member and 2019 Copeland Parliamentary Candidate, Cllr Robert White, Communications Officer, Executive Committee and Selection Panel member, Stan Sanczuk, Executive Committee member.
Locals have observed that Ghayouba’s support for Palestinian human rights will make him unpalatable to the apartheid-supporting Starmer.
The Copeland resignation is the latest in a string of mass resignations by elected CLP officers over the Starmeroids’ contempt for democracy, along with seemingly-continuous interference in selections across the country – even to ensure the selection of right-wing candidates with serious and deeply troubling accusations against them.
Starmer himself has been accused of covering up abuse of domestic violence victims by a right-wing party staffer and only last week an MP’s senior staffer resigned rather than being pushed, after separate investigations found he had sexually assaulted a party intern; a Labour MP’s report of sexual assault by a front-bench MP was ignored by the party and Starmer is known to be sheltering at least two alleged sex pests in his Shadow Cabinet.
Starmer’s shredding of his promise to empower local members to select their own candidates is just one example of him breaking every promise he made to con the membership into voting him in as leader – a level of dishonesty that many are saying makes even Boris Johnson look trustworthy by comparison. He and his regime have also stooped to sewer-like depths in their selection and local election campaigning.
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