Tuesday 28 March 2017

LATEST: Labour selections for Brent Council elections 2018

Former councillor James Powney failed in his 'come back' selection bid for Harlesden ward last night. Joshua Mitchell Murry, claiming he'd 'put residents first' was selected along with Lloyd McLeish and Mili Patel. Fryent selected Shama Tatler, George Crane and Vincent Lo.

On Tuesday Kensal Green and Barn Hill will select. In Barn Hill it is a formality with Shafique Choudhary, Sarah Marquis and Michael Pavey re-selected without  opposition. Wednesday Update: Matt Kelcher and Jumbo Chan were re-selected in Kensal Green and Claudia Hector won the third position.

Welsh Harp (Amer Agha, Harbi Farah and Roxanne Mashari), Queens Park (James Denselow, Neil Nerva, Ella Southwood) and Tokyngton (Muhammed Butt, Orleen Hylton and Ketan Shah) will all confirm the re-selection of current councillors.

Thursday's meeting in Alperton will confirm the re-selection of James Allie and Bhagwani Chohan with a contest for third place between Nushan Nazemi and Trupti Sangani.

Meanwhile more is emerging about the de-selection of John Duffy in Kilburn which was a surprise to many of the public given his record of robustly challenging the Cabinet and officers.

In an email to Kilburn ward members, following up on an email he sent listing his achievements as a councillor, Duffy said:
Normally I would ignore stupidity like this, but I have had to sit in meetings where the tone has been unacceptable some member calling Hillary Benn “a Fascist”.

At the meetings members often wearing pictures of Jeremy Corbyn these members are normally in their 50’s and 60’s its very odd. If you dare raise the fact working people are turning their backs on the Labour Party they say its not important that the Labour Party win elections. Some times I feel I am at a Moonies convention, without the humour or big wedding at the end.

Like most Labour party members, I am dismayed at our electoral position. So I ignore them and push on trying to deliver socialist answers to problem facing the residents of Kilburn because of the unbalanced Tory austerity attack on hard working families and people who are need support.

These members have apparently decided at Wednesday night selection meeting that local issues and local residents will more or less be ignored and the main issue at the meeting will be about how much you support Jeremy Corbyn.
In an earlier email he accused Momentum members of using the 'pernicious Tory tactic of blacklisting' (regarding Brent Momentum's Facebook listing councillors who supported Owen Smith's leadership bid) and said that his wife would not attend the selection meeting for fear of intimidation.

 A Kilburn Labour Party member reacted with this statement:
This is John Duffy's version of alternative facts. Not a different interpretation of facts, but a "different truth". The idea that members are all in their 50s or 60s, sit around in Corbyn T-shirts and ignore local issues is about as far from the truth as you can get. That and the idea that the main issue at the selection meeting was Corbyn.
The member went on to say that despite Duffy not being at the selection meeting his candidature had been tabled and he did receive some votes. Duffy did not have an automatic right to be short-listed and this had also been the case with Cllr Rita Conneely. He rejected claims that local issues were not discussed citing a recent special meeting on South Kilburn Regeneration and said no one else had noticed an atmosphere of intimidation.

There was a recognition that Duffy had made life difficult for the Council leadership and forced them to retreat on a number of issues but it was also felt that he was not a team player able to work co-operatively with other councillors and campaigners.

Listing councillors who had supported Owen Smith's leadership bid was an attempt to provide political information for Labour Party members to consider when making their selections. In fact most of the councillors named had been re-selected.  It was not comparable to blacklisting by employers to stop militant trade unionists from gaining employment.

The Kilburn member denied that the de-selection of Duffy could be interpreted as a victory for Muhammed Butt and the Labour leadership but instead was about the above issues and a reaction to Duffy's email claims.

21 comments:

Alison Hopkins said...

This quota thing: that one candidate has to be a woman. Do Brent Labour actually get that it's a MINIMUM, not a goal?

It's as though once they've got two blokes, they then look for the woman. I can't help thinking this is all leading to a situation where it will always be one third women, two thirds blokes.

Anonymous said...

Yes, how come Matt Kelcher and Jumbo Chan get automatically reselected in Kensal Green but Claudia Hector has to fight it out with other women?

Anonymous said...

Coming from the Lib Dems who don't do any positive discrimination and have no female MPs that is a bit rich

Anonymous said...

Any news on Wembley Central candidates, I'm guessing Stopp will not stand again and Mitchell Murray has done nothing for years. Cllr Sheth is the only councillor Wembley Central can rely on, she has been very pro-active and diligent in supporting the residents.

Unknown said...

I would like to see John Duffy represent Wembley Central and would support Denise Cheong of Wembley Champions if she were to stand for election alongside Cllr Krupa Sheth who has supported myself and residents on numerous issues with regard to Wembley Central. I don't care about what political party they represent. We need people who care about the residents and have their best interest's at heart and act accordingly.

Anonymous said...

So women can't take the place of already selected males in Labour?

Anonymous said...

Are you as ill-informed about all your politics?

Anonymous said...

Wilhelmina Mitchell-Murray is trying to stand in Wembley Central despite showing no interest in the ward until she failed to get selected in Stonebridge, we don't want a councillor who considers the ward to be second best or feels she can get away with doing nothing as in recent years!

Anonymous said...

Could you point us in the direction of the LibDem MPs then?

Anonymous said...

So Alison, before the electorate wiped you out, how many lib dem wards in brent had more than one female cllr? Hummm, zero? For labour sudbury, kilburn, wembley central and fryent all do

Anonymous said...

Keep going west, head a little south & you'll come to Richmond.

Sarah Teather was about locally, miss her now we have Dawn?

Alison Hopkins said...

19:12 - exactly.

Alison Hopkins said...

It's also wrong to say that we don't have positive discrimination. There's a very strong programme to encourage and promote BAME/gender/etc. for candidates.

Anonymous said...

The fact that Joshua Mitchell Murray claims he'll 'put residents first' is, surely, a joke. He has been our Councillor in Northwick Park, and I fail to see one example where he's put us first. He's been, at best, absent - at worst, a puppet.
I feel really bad for Harlesden - a Ward which really needs fighting for - on his past record JMM is just not up to it. I hope, for Harlesden's sake, he turns himself around and WORKS for you.

Anonymous said...

That word 'WORKS' should be what its all about. They each get a £10k+ annual allowance to work as councillors on behalf of the people they are meant to represent.

How many of them give value for money? And if they don't, why do they think they deserve to be elected again?

Anonymous said...

Like mother like son.

Anonymous said...

I live Sudbury and our Councillors Mary and Abdi work hard for the sake of the residents. Many days in early morning when I am going to work I have seen them chasing up fly toppings and monitoring Veolia

Anonymous said...

What is the latest news on Wembley Central, Alperton etc

bigbreadeaterellis said...

I agree with you.
for Councillors raking in £10k per annum,
I think the local residents deserve something of value in return.
And in that case,I am still waiting.

Anonymous said...

Alperton have selected Trupti Sangani, Bhagwanji and Allie. Wembley Central's selection is taking place on Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

What about Sudbury?