Forthcoming Wakefield by-election after Imran Amhad Kan found guilty
- Thread starter PR1Berske
- Start date
PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
I might start an "index" thread to keep up with them all!
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
A brace of cunts.I’m home, living in W Yorks again. Yvette Cooper is my mp, not Khan, but Wakefield is the nearest city and we’re under Wakefield councils jurisdiction.
Since this kicked off, I’m being utterly bombarded online, by ads from The Reclaim Party.
Similar to UKIP bollocks that was targetted at pensioners, but packaged for Yorkshire, mining nostalgia / Gods Own Country .
And oh look they’ve snuk a Yorkshire Rose into the logo.
So I agree with other comments, (especially because of this sort of bullshit) Labour will win but not with a big majority. Sigh.
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PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
LabourList article:
labourlist.org
Exclusive: Labour accused of breaching rules in Wakefield candidate selection – LabourList
Labour has been accused of breaching its own rules for managing the choice of parliamentary candidates by limiting the number of local representatives allowed to…
labourlist.org
andysays
Love and solidarity
I'm hoping all these by-elections turn into a car crash, regardless of the reasons for calling them.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i think that's the one certainty
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Well...
PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
Aaron Bastani has vented:
novaramedia.com
Keir Starmer Doesn’t Trust Ordinary People | Novara Media
Labour’s selection stitch-up in Wakefield shows that Britain's liberal establishment doesn’t trust people to run their own lives, argues Aaron Bastani.
novaramedia.com
PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
Novara tends to ramp up the emotions in times like this.
PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
From the Guardian
"Sun 15 May 2022 15.30 BST
Wakefield’s Labour party executive has walked out of the final selection meeting for the party’s byelection, in protest at the candidate choice, which members termed a stitch-up by Labour HQ.
In a rebellion by activists that could harm the party’s chances of taking the crucial West Yorkshire seat, the local party’s executive walked out en masse ahead of the vote on the final two shortlisted candidates. The vote was won by Simon Lightwood, a former staffer for the ex-Labour MP Mary Creagh.
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Labour is widely expected to take the seat in the byelection triggered by the resignation of Imran Ahmad Khan, the former Conservative MP who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Regaining the seat would have major symbolic value for the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to show the party is making progress in “red wall” seats won by the Conservatives in 2019.
The shortlist from Labour’s national executive committee excluded several local candidates, including the deputy leader of Wakefield council, Jack Hemingway.
Members of the local executive argued the final shortlisted candidates did not have close connections to the region. Lightwood said he had lived and worked in the city for 10 years.
“We have a lot to be proud of in Wakefield, and a huge amount of strength and resilience in our communities, but the Conservatives and their disgraced MP Imran Ahmad Khan have failed us,” he said. “Times are much tougher than they should be for hardworking people across our constituency. We are in a cost of living crisis, and in Wakefield, real wages will fall by £1,100 this year on average because of spiralling inflation.
“It’s time we sent a clear message to Boris Johnson that enough is enough, because Wakefield and the country deserve so much better.”
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
Voting continued after the walkout with around 120 local members – around a quarter of the total local membership. Sources in the room said the atmosphere had been “nasty”, with several officers appearing to be uneasy about the walkout.
Advertisement
In a statement, the party’s executive said: “Today’s meeting should have had a good range of candidates to choose from, including quality Wakefield-based aspirants. Instead they had just two, with all the Wakefield options already stripped out.
“We had a longstanding objective of an early selection – not least to avoid all the problems of a last-minute rush – and a local Wakefield candidate to meet the well-known aspirations of our communities.”
The executive accused Labour’s NEC of having “dragged its heels till we’re up against the byelection” and said that the shortlist excluded all local candidates.
“The executive committee – including all the officers bar one externally appointed individual – is resigning in consequence, and it will be for the full constituency general management committee to receive our resignations and take matters forward.”"
"Sun 15 May 2022 15.30 BST
Wakefield’s Labour party executive has walked out of the final selection meeting for the party’s byelection, in protest at the candidate choice, which members termed a stitch-up by Labour HQ.
In a rebellion by activists that could harm the party’s chances of taking the crucial West Yorkshire seat, the local party’s executive walked out en masse ahead of the vote on the final two shortlisted candidates. The vote was won by Simon Lightwood, a former staffer for the ex-Labour MP Mary Creagh.
Advertisement
Labour is widely expected to take the seat in the byelection triggered by the resignation of Imran Ahmad Khan, the former Conservative MP who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Regaining the seat would have major symbolic value for the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to show the party is making progress in “red wall” seats won by the Conservatives in 2019.
The shortlist from Labour’s national executive committee excluded several local candidates, including the deputy leader of Wakefield council, Jack Hemingway.
Members of the local executive argued the final shortlisted candidates did not have close connections to the region. Lightwood said he had lived and worked in the city for 10 years.
“We have a lot to be proud of in Wakefield, and a huge amount of strength and resilience in our communities, but the Conservatives and their disgraced MP Imran Ahmad Khan have failed us,” he said. “Times are much tougher than they should be for hardworking people across our constituency. We are in a cost of living crisis, and in Wakefield, real wages will fall by £1,100 this year on average because of spiralling inflation.
“It’s time we sent a clear message to Boris Johnson that enough is enough, because Wakefield and the country deserve so much better.”
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
Voting continued after the walkout with around 120 local members – around a quarter of the total local membership. Sources in the room said the atmosphere had been “nasty”, with several officers appearing to be uneasy about the walkout.
Advertisement
In a statement, the party’s executive said: “Today’s meeting should have had a good range of candidates to choose from, including quality Wakefield-based aspirants. Instead they had just two, with all the Wakefield options already stripped out.
“We had a longstanding objective of an early selection – not least to avoid all the problems of a last-minute rush – and a local Wakefield candidate to meet the well-known aspirations of our communities.”
The executive accused Labour’s NEC of having “dragged its heels till we’re up against the byelection” and said that the shortlist excluded all local candidates.
“The executive committee – including all the officers bar one externally appointed individual – is resigning in consequence, and it will be for the full constituency general management committee to receive our resignations and take matters forward.”"
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Only Keir Starmer's Labour could effectively blow up their own racecar on the starting grid in a winnable race. Labour controlfreakery is so pointlessly self-destructive.
If I were the rejected local councillor I;d be tempted to run as an independent and likely would win. That bellend Galloway will also be salivating at the prospect of standing here.
If I were the rejected local councillor I;d be tempted to run as an independent and likely would win. That bellend Galloway will also be salivating at the prospect of standing here.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Disagree only with your first line, It's not unique to Starmer (though he is particuarly good at it), Labour has always had the ability to snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Inevitable Victory
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Yeah of course, Tony Blair imposing Alun Michael over Rhodri Morgan, that knob they stood in Hartlepool over the wishes of the local CLP, Sean Woodward in St. Helens (someone who openly boasted that the LP had adopted "One Nation Conservatism", etc etc).
The point is that this is long weird controlfreakery that Starmer is continuing rather than letting go.
The point is that this is long weird controlfreakery that Starmer is continuing rather than letting go.
What makes you think this? No-one but politics weirdos will even be aware of this story, much less care about it.
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Local voters will be aware of it as it is the kind of story on the front page of the local paper for weeks. Especially, the local electors who actually bother to go out and vote. So whilst I get that the internal politics of Wakefield CLP and the national leadership's controlfreakery is an esoteric topic for those not directly affected, it will have an impact in a seat that Labour are desperately looking to win to begin to re-establish the 'red wall'- LOL.
A well established "local" candidate who also has an insurgent quality- standing up to the indifference and arrogance of a centralised party- is in a powerful position right now. Recent hisotrical examples include Livingstone beating Frank Dobson and the Morgan / Michael conflict already mentioned.
But this has happened from time to time elsewhere, and the unselected local councillor always gets nowhere. I don't see any local or national conditions which might make it any different this time?
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
er, the imposition of an unwanted central candidate on locals versus a popular candidate with a high profile locally never ends well for the central party. That's the whole point.
It almost always goes just fine.
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Ok, you don't agree, I'm not spending all day arguing about it shrug
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
Ken Livingstone isn't a great example is he? How many politicians have the sort of profile he had? Jeremy Corbyn running as an independent might be a roughly equivalent example, not some local councillor.
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Ken Livingston beat Dobson in London.
Rhodri Morgan ousted the centrally imposed Alun Michael as first minsiter after Michael was unable to impose his authority and a right wing Blairite agenda on the Welsh party.
Dennis Canavan returned to the Scottish parliament in 1999 with 55% of the vote having been de-selected expelled from "new" Labour.
& so on
Rhodri Morgan ousted the centrally imposed Alun Michael as first minsiter after Michael was unable to impose his authority and a right wing Blairite agenda on the Welsh party.
Dennis Canavan returned to the Scottish parliament in 1999 with 55% of the vote having been de-selected expelled from "new" Labour.
& so on
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
It's a relevant example of an ex-Labour guy running as an independent, and winning.
How about some local councillors running to be MP as an independent after being passed over by the party, which is the actual situtation we're talking about here - when has that happened?
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
Yes very good. You've obviously a huge amount of time on your hands this morning, and a massive appetite to be right on the internet.
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