Pamela Fitzpatrick campaigned to save Belmont Health Centre from closure in 2019 (more HERE)
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition LINK in a single day in support of a popular Harrow Labour councillor.
The petition in support of Labour Councillor for Headstone South, Pamela Fitzpatrick, was launched by local Labour members when she was threatened with expulsion from Labour this week. The bizarre reason for expulsion was for giving an interview to a publication (Socialist Appeal) in May 2020, support for which was banned by Labour more than a year later in July 2021. A similar move based on of what appears to be retrospective guilt by association, has been made against Pete Firmin of Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party .
The petition attracted a huge response when it was shared on Wednesday 25 August and is still growing. It can be signed HERE .
Today Fitzpatrick announced on Twitter:
In respect of the Labour Party threat to auto exclude me from the party for giving an interview in 2020 to Socialist Appeal. I have now instructed Solicitors who have today written to the Labour party to put them on notice of potential legal proceedings.
Elected as a councillor for Headstone South in 2014 and re-elected with an increased majority in 2018, Pamela also stood to be Labour MP for Harrow East in the 2019 General Election, attracting hundreds of volunteers who came to Harrow from across and beyond London to canvass for her. In an effort to defeat Bob Blackman, the Green Party candidate Emma Wallace stood down and demonstrated her respect for her opponent saying, ‘Whilst there are a number of differences between the Labour party and the Green Party, we believe Pamela Fitzpatrick is a progressive voice, one that is committed to working with the local Harrow East community and standing up for all their best interests.’
Pamela Fitzpatrick was recently elected to Labour’s Women’s Committee and is well known nationally across the Labour movement. Her interview to Socialist Appeal in May 2020 was given when she stood to be General Secretary for Labour.
In addition to her political work, she set up Harrow Law Centre and continues to work there supporting people in often desperate situations. LINK
Cllr
Maxine Henson, councillor for Roxbourne ward in South Harrow, said:
Pamela is a very caring and hardworking councillor who has done a lot for her community. It would be a great loss for residents and the Labour Party if she were to be expelled.
Cllr Fitzpatrick is not the only member at risk from Labour’s recent rule changes banning support for groups deemed to be ‘left’. Respected British director Ken Loach, who has spent decades making films exposing social injustice and campaigning, was also recently controversially expelled by the Labour Party in similar circumstances.
THIS IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE PETITION
This petition was started by members of Harrow West Constituency Labour Party (CLP)
We understand that Pamela Fitzpatrick, a member of our CLP and Labour Councillor for the Headstone South ward in the London Borough of Harrow, has been threatened with "auto-exclusion" from membership of the Labour Party by the party's Compliance Unit on the grounds that she is allegedly a supporter of Socialist Appeal, an organisation that was proscribed by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) in July 2021.
The Compliance Unit's evidence for Pamela being a "supporter" of Socialist Appeal is, in its entirety, that she gave an interview to Socialist Appeal in May 2020. This is not a valid basis for exclusion, for two reasons.
First, the conduct that may amount to "support" for a proscribed organisation, as defined by the NEC, is clearly set out in the updated Labour Party Complaints Policy (https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Labour-Party-Complaints-Policy.pdf Pamela is not alleged to have done any of these things listed there. Giving an interview to Socialist Appeal does not amount to any of those things. Therefore the Compliance Unit has provided no evidence that Pamela has supported Socialist Appeal as defined by the NEC.
Second, the interview took place more than a year before the NEC made the decision to proscribe Socialist Appeal. Anything a member is alleged to have done at a time when an organisation is not proscribed cannot possibly be a basis for auto-exclusion on grounds of support for that organisation.
Pamela's conduct did not amount to supporting Socialist Appeal as defined by NEC, and even if it had, it took place at a time when Socialist Appeal was not proscribed. Therefore there are no grounds on which to auto-exclude Pamela from membership of the Labour Party. The Compliance Unit's purported action against her is contrary to Labour Party rules, the decision of the NEC and the principles of natural justice.
In the light of the above, we urge the Compliance Unit to immediately cease its purported action against Pamela and confirm in writing that she will not be auto-excluded from Labour membership.
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