Tower Hamlets Labour party yesterday expelled five councillors for “actively campaigning” for Gulam Robbani in his successful Spitalfields and Banglatown by-election in April. Robbani was the preferred “independent” selection of Mayor Lutfur Rahman.
The five expelled – Shahed Ali, Abdul Asad, Rofique Ahmed, Kabir Ahmed and Shafiqul Haque – were already in the party’s departure lounge after they had decided to break the Labour whip and serve in Lutfur’s cabinet.
Labour’s press release on the expulsion is copied below and the East London Advertiser reported the story here.
The “actively campaigning” line relies at least partly on the leaflet put out by Robbani, which contains the endorsement of the Infamous Five.
The leaflet is here:
Pretty clear.
Shahed Ali has now asked me to publish his defence. I’ve known Shahed for a fair few years and I have real regard for him, both as a person and as a councillor. But he has sadly cheapened his argument and his status by playing the race card.
He also argues that if he is to be kicked out for breaking party rules, why hasn’t Lord Sugar also been expelled for urging people not to vote for Ken Livingstone earlier this year? Ditto Telegraph journalist/Labour blogger Dan Hodges.
Shahed, who never came across to me as a religious type, also says he was kicked out for being a Muslim. When I questioned him about all this, he stuck to his line by saying Labour is “institutionally racist”.
Of course, this is a line we’ve heard time and time again in Tower Hamlets. Before the Great Split, Labour and Respect councillors regularly used to accuse the Tories of racism because they had no Bengali councillors.
Lately, it has been Lutfur and his crew who say they are martyrs of an anti-Muslim plot.
I suspect it’s a deliberate strategy. And a pretty dangerous one at that.
[You’ll also see that Shahed says he couldn’t have been “actively” campaigning for Robbani because he was in Bangladesh at the time (just as he was when he commented on this post during Lutfur’s election campaign here), but when I asked whether he had ever complained, he declined to say.]
Here is Shahed’s defence:
As far as I am aware, I have been written to by the compliance officer of the London Regional Labour party, advising me that my membership has been terminated for the following reason:
Clause 2.1.4.B of the Labour party rules states: “A member of the party who joins and/ or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the party, or supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate, or publicly declares their intent to stand against a Labour candidate, shall automatically be ineligible to be or remain a party member, subject to the provisions of part 6.1.2 of the disciplinary rules.”
The letter then continues to state:“You are, therefore, no longer a member of the Labour Party and have been removed from the national membership system.”
This clearly clarifies to me that the above clause of the party rules have been applied in order to, therefore, terminate my membership. However, I am struggling to apply the same clause in two recent examples as follows. Labour peer Lord Alan Sugar, aka The Apprentice, appeared in the Guardian on 19 April, where it was reported:
Sugar tweeted: “I don’t care if Ed Miliband is backing Livingstone. I seriously suggest NO-ONE votes for Livingstone in the Mayoral elections.” He also wrote: “Livingstone must NOT get in on 3rd May.”
It is obvious that the race for the 2012 London Mayoralty was simply between Labour and the Tories. I therefore doubt Lord Sugar’s appeal to voters could have been anything other than instigating a vote for Boris? This is the link to the entire article.Furthermore, Labour party member and Telegraph journalist, Dan Hodges, pledged his vote and support for the Tories against the Labour candidate, Ken Livingstone in his article on 30 April. This is the link to the entire article.
Tower Hamlets Labour group leader, Cllr. Joshua Peck, according to the article in the East London Advertiser stated as follows:
“I am very pleased the party has now expelled the councillors, who have clearly broken the rules in campaigning for other candidates. This should be seen as a real signal that we are serious about applying the rules. The five expelled councillors have consistently voted and campaigned against the Labour Party. Whilst it is sad that it has had to come to this, these five councillors made their choice and now have to deal with the consequences”, councillor Peck added.”My question to Cllr Peck is simple. If he truly stands by his statement of this move being a “real signal about them seriously applying the rules”, does he believe that the same rules should also apply to the above two examples I have cited, or is there any reason why Clause 2.1.4.B of the Labour party rules should apply any different to them as opposed to myself?
I further note that according to the East London Advertiser, Jim Fitzpatrick MP said:
“The rules are the rules, and colleagues know that if they break those rules, there’s a possibility of sanctions, so the expulsion is fair and reasonable.” Mr Fitzpatrick also went on to reject the allegations of racism, describing them as “stupid nonsense.”
This is not the first time the Labour party has been accused of discrimination on the grounds of Race, and sadly the way things are going, it will not be the last.
It is depressingly becoming obvious to me that rules are not rules when one can either purchase them for 400K, or be excluded from the rulebook if one happens to be non-Black or non-Asian. I guess that if one also happens to be a Muslim, kicking them out of the party with no due process, unfairly, also works well with the right-wing media, hence far-right sentiment?
This is not ‘stupid nonsense’ Mr. Fitzpatrick, the rules have not been applied equally. I welcome you to educate me as to what makes my case punishable (based upon accusation) when clearly, others have not also been expelled for non-compliance of the same clause? This is simply discrimination on the grounds of race and religion.
Finally, I would like to end by adding that I also challenge one single soul in Tower Hamlets Labour party, in particular, members of Spitalfields and Banglatown ward to produce a shred of evidence that I was campaigning for any person opposing the Labour Party candidate? I was abroad in Bangladesh for five weeks during this period so unless I have an identical twin, unknown to me, it questions my interpretation of the words ‘actively campaigning.’
Councillor Shahed Ali
Here is Shahed’s response to my questions about his statement (I had asked him whether he was glad Robabni had beaten Labour’s Ala Uddin in Spitalfields, whether he had complained about the leaflet and whether he really wished to play the race card):
I have known both Robbani and Ala for decades. This has been mainly through the Labour party and through my time as a council employee. My relationship with Ala was also a very social one and we have shared intense hours together campaigning and supporting various party candidates for various selection battles. Those were the days when it all came down to the membership of party members making decisions.
Therefore I would have equally been glad for, and dissapointed at both outcomes because I know they would both make brilliant councillors with Labour values. However upon this occassion, Robbani will be part of Mayor Rahman’s administration therefore, in a position to deliver for his constituents and ultimately, that is what his electorate in S&BT will want more than simply a councillor not being able to deliver for his ward due to the restraints that would have been imposed upon him by a fraction of Labour group councillors who are simply opposing Labour manufesto policies for the sake of opposition rather than merit.
I have not seen this leaflet which also had my name on it. I was actually out of the country from 22 March to 29 April. However, I have seen Labour councillors being far more sly in the role they (didn’t) play during the Lutfur VS Abbas saga which in my opinion is a far more stronger indicator of moral values. As you know yourself Ted, I was probably the most publicly vocal face in opposition to Lutfur at the time both through live TV debates, my own written contributions in various blogs and local newspapers. This upset many people which is the reason why many current Labour councillors choose instead to stay ‘hush’ throughout.
I am not playing the race card Ted. I strongly can find no other reason why the rulebook is applied inconsistently other than the unfortunate world of institutional rascism. Let me ask you: if rules are rules, then the clause given to me for my expulsion should also apply to the likes of Lord Sugar and Dan Hodges.
Lord Sugar as you say may have had other reason not to vote for Ken but that should not exclude him or anyone from the rulebook if it is to be used as a tool to take such decisions. If individuals get to pick and choose whom to apply the rulebook upon instead of allowing it to dictate decisions, then I am afraid we live in a world where those individuals taking such decisions will at times discriminate on grounds of both race and religion. That is why in order to avoid such, the rulebook should be applied equally and consistently to all regardless.
I have never been the type to simply obey what others instruct upon me simply to be in their goodbooks. Sadly this position does not escalate one up upon the political career ladder. But that is me, and I would not change that nor envy many of my Labour councillor colleagues who do just that, choose to not challenge in group for sake of being punished by being given no positions in group and its wider circles, also known as a caucus.
I hope that the Labour party seriously works towards eliminating reason for people to feel discriminated against on the grounds of race and religion. I will continue working hard to deliver whats best for my community, rather than to pander to whats best for furthering my political career at the expense of my constituents.
And for the record, here is the Labour press release:
Press release – For immediate release
Labour expel five Tower Hamlets councillors
The Labour Party has written to five Tower Hamlets councillors informing them of their immediate expulsion from the party. The councillors, Kabir Ahmed, Rofique Ahmed, Councillor Shahed Ali, Councillor Abdul Asad and Shafiqul Haque were all found to have violated numerous Labour Party rules by actively campaigning against the Labour Party candidate during the recent Spitalfields by-election. The five councillors were also reprimanded for their continued membership in the independent Mayor’s cabinet.
Responding to the expulsions Labour Group Leader Cllr Joshua Peck said:
“The five expelled councillors have consistently voted and campaigned against the Labour Party. Whilst it is sad that it has had to come to this, these five councillors made their choice and now have to deal with the consequences.
I hope that this decision will draw a line under the problems of the past and allow us to focus on the important job of holding the independent Mayor to account and battling the Coalition’s cuts regime.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The five councillors were found to have actively campaigned for independent candidate Gulam Robbani who stood in opposition to the Labour Party candidate.
- Labour Party rules state that “A member of the party who joins and/or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the party, or supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate, or publicly declares their intent to stand against a labour candidate, shall automatically be ineligible.
I think racism is too strong a word to describe events here. I do sympathise with Shahed when he talks about institutional racism, that’s a much better fit for what we see in Tower Hamlets sometimes. Many of our Cllrs are selected not because they can contribute very much once elected but because they have good community links and can win elections. Once elected a large proportion of our Cllrs are happy/expected to fade into the background and let the ‘professional’ elite take over. Shaded and the other expelled Cllrs to their credit are not the sorts of people to rollover and be sidelined which is half their problem.
The points he makes about consistency are fair ones which the Labour Party won’t explain. There are many examples of non Bengali activists in Tower Hamlets actively campaigning against Ken Livingstone on social media and openly saying they would not vote for him and asking fellow members to vote for Siobhan Benita or Jenny Jones, nothing has happened and nothing will happen to those people I know at least two senior Cllrs who said they were voting for Benita. It’s a mistake to say that’s due to race it’s due to politics.
There has been a desire to ‘clean’ up Tower Hamlets politics for sometime that’s all this is. Marc Francis is a fantastic Cllr they want to get of him too, he breaks the whip on almost an annual basis and he gets away with it in my opinion because he does a ridiculous amount of work. Irrespective of his views nobody can say he doesn’t work hard but many of these independence make the fatal error of breaking the whip not toeing the line and not doing any work. Shahed hasn’t lodged a single timesheet since December 2011. Ted you say you rate him what’s that based on? He has an abysmal record on casework and holding surgeries. I don’t think people should go on a Cllrs performance in the council chamber alone because many of them do nothing beyond that.
http://sps2ksrv.towerhamlets.gov.uk/meetYourCouncillor/Timesheets.aspx?MemberID=53
Anybody can produce a leaflet and stick Cllrs names on it that doesn’t mean they agreed for their images and names to be used as an endorsement. So it’s not really fair that Shahed has been treated in this way. I doubt London Region even paid him the courtesy of asking him whether he gave permission for his name and image to be used which they would have done to Cllrs who hadn’t blotted their copybook. Additionally, I think London Region ought to cite instances and evidence of where Shahed has broken the rules it’s not good enough to cite a rule with no evidence or examples. None of this has anything to do with ethnicity or religion it’s about one faction picking off another one. It’s that simple and if opportunities like this come up you can hardly blame them for taking it.
Also Shahed’s declaration of members interests hasn’t been changed since 2007, and still lists him as part of the RESPECT coalition
I actually think it’s quite good that the borough’s being run by Asian East Enders from working class backgrounds. Asian East Enders from working class backgrounds make up a sizable proportion of the local population.
On the other hand, Labour are telling us that the borough should be run by white middle-class thirty-somethings who came from elsewhere, went to Queen Mary and all work as public affairs executives. What proportion of the local population does that very niche demographic make up?
I think the racism came because Ken Livingston breached the party rules to but no one dare to say any think.
****** scumbags every single one of them. I dont just mean the 5 councillors here i mean the entire body of council representation we have in this borough, labour, conservative, libdem, independent etc
Not one of them has really stood up for the people of this borough, or done anything of any real significance. We have legacies of debt placed upon us by the private sector, in the form of our once beloved Royal London Hospital, which is now a characterless stress inducing maze of blank tunnels and corridors. We have a worthless ideas stores, the closure of essential housing offices, private property developers tearing our once great character apart, tescos on every street corner. Almost every community centre is now almost either a functioning mosque or has been ripped away from community hands and handed to the housing associations, who then refuse to let the community freely have community events there.
We have the banks on our doorstep, who are directly responsible for the state of the world we are in now, who have all been bailed out time and again, but still wont lend to small businesses. Who have now been shown to be complicit and active in what seems like what could be the largest form of fraud the world has ever seen.
Massive building projects that are a burden on the community, all under the lie of overcrowding, which is a problem only for around 4000 families, so we go ahead and create a plan to build 45,000 homes in the borough, only 6000 of which will be social housing.
All the history of this borough is being slowly eroded, by greed and corruption that lies at the heart of our boroughs councillors, most of whom own multiple homes and wouldn’t know what real work was if it shot them in the foot. All of this occuring in a borough that shows the most divide between rich and poor in the entire country. Gentrification is here and its real for the working class of this borough, we have mass migration of not just the old white working class, but also the black community and the bengali community who cannot afford to live here anymore. This is going on right now outside your doorsteps, whilst we’re all getting distracted watching crap tv, or being diverted by innane stories like this which is like being tricked by the old 3 card monty.
Your all being lied to, wake the hell up…..
Lord Nazir also breached the party rules to but no one dare to say any think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGekGD2hyMg.
Yes, v good point and I will put it to the Labour party…and there was Ken himself of course. Maybe the party is institutionally hierarchialist…
Ken Livingston breached the party rules
You idiot! You were on that racist Dispatches programme
Very funny Ted – you are susch a waste of space. Labour core value is to promote Equality and to stand against injustice. A great injustice has been visited to the community and it is high time that this was rectified. Labour can ill afford to lose the support of large sections of the BME community here in Tower Hamlets – and elsewhere. Everyone including Ken, councillors and members supporting Lutfur has balls to stand against injustice, they are great and the real Labour, opportunist and supporter of yes ministers are simply supporters of right wingers. Who is to suspend Ken? Remember he just had highest member’s supports nationally in NEC election, his stand against injustice was acknowledge nationally. I am confident truth will reveal one day and culprit whoever they are will be brought to justice by the community.
[…] Hamlets Labour Party announced last week that it had expelled five councillors for supporting Lutfur Rahman, the borough's extremist-linked mayor. The five – Kabir Ahmed, […]
Oh boo hoo poor didums out of the party and now might lose seat come next big election and then may actually need to go get a job which isnt funded by poor LBTH rate payers…
From what I’ve heard TH Labour Party is institutionally biased towards Bengali community, white candidates face far higger hurdles to get selected, also just how many non-Bengali people does Lootfor have in his cabinet? Why not stand a white candidate in Spitalfields to balance things instead of Robbani? How many of the non-bengali Respect candidates were elected in their hey day…. Oh yes the totally non racist Muslim voters of this borough saw fit to not elect any of them at all. A load of waffle and bollocks from these dismal, failed politicians who have done nothing for this borough!