Ibrahim Taguri confirms he will not stand as an Independent in Brent Central

As Brent Green Party was meeting across the road, the signage at Ibrahim Taguri's temporary campaign office in Walm Lane was being taken down last night. Earlier Ibrahim had confirmed to me that he would not be standing as an Independent in the General Election. He had anticipated a quick resolution of the allegations about donations made in the Daily Telegraph but this has not happened.

Lauren Keith was last week selected as the Liberal Democrat candidiate for Brent Central.

On March 26th the Electoral Commission made the following statement:

The Electoral Commission has today (26 March 2015) provided an update on its consideration of two separate allegations regarding donations to the Liberal Democrat Party.

Daily Telegraph allegations

Following the allegations that appeared recently on The Telegraph online (11 March) and subsequently in the newspaper regarding Ibrahim Taguri and donations to the Liberal Democrats, the Electoral Commission requested information from the newspaper, the party and Mr Taguri to help it establish the facts in the case.

Based on the information that the Commission has seen, one alleged offence centres on the potential evasion of restrictions on donations in contravention of section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). Offences under this part of PPERA are ultimately a criminal matter and fall outside of the Commission’s civil sanctioning powers.

The Electoral Commission has therefore passed the information that it has received to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The MPS have confirmed to the Commission that they are also aware of the allegations and that they are considering them.

Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ 

Following the allegations that appeared as part of Channel 4’s Dispatches programme (23 March), the Electoral Commission requested further information from the programme to help it establish the facts in the case.

Based on the information that the Commission has seen, the alleged offence in this case centres on the potential evasion of restrictions on donations in contravention of section 61 of PPERA and is ultimately a criminal matter. As a result, the Commission has also passed the information that it has received to MPS who are aware of the allegations and are considering them.

Donations received in the course of both cases

In both of these cases, the Liberal Democrat Party received a number of donations.

One donation in the Telegraph case, a cheque for £7,650 was delivered to the party. However, it had not been banked and the funds had not cleared and as a result no offence was committed under the donation rules set out in PPERA.

The other donations included one of £1,450 made by the undercover reporter in the Telegraph case that was received and accepted by the party; and another of £10,000 received from the ‘step father’ of the undercover donor in the Dispatches case, Mr Paul Wilmott. The Commission is in contact with the Liberal Democrats about the actual source of these donations and will provide a separate statement about this matter once these further facts have been established.

Next steps

Any decisions about what further steps to take at this stage in relation to potential evasion of restrictions on donations in either case rest with the Metropolitan Police Service.

Should further facts emerge in relation to The Telegraph allegations or Channel 4’s Dispatches, which could lead the Electoral Commission to consider any other potential breaches of PPERA, the Commission will do so in line with its enforcement policy.

Yashika not to be deported today so fight goes on

 

Lawyers representing Yashika Bageerathi, the 19 year old student faced with deportation, have been told she will not now be put on a flight to Mauritius today.  Yesterday her fellow students, teachers and sympathisers demonstrated in Parliamment Square against her deportation and there was a Twitter and phone campaign to persuade Air Mauritius not to accept her on the scheduled flight.

Yashika remains in detention at Yarl's Wood.

This is just a delay rather than a reversal of the decision to deport and Theresa May is still refusing to intervene in the case. The campaign has to continue for the release of Yashika the granting of right to stay.

It has been heartening to see, amidst the UKIP inspired ratcheting up of anti-immigrant rhetoric, how the school community at Oasis Hadley have risen up in defence of their fellow student, backed by staff, and gained support across the country.

It is important though to recognise that focusing on an indvidual has strengths in showing the impact of our immigration laws at a personal level, it is important to make the laws themselves a focus of the campaign. The emphasis on Yashika's 'star pupil' status and her bright future as a mathematician begs the question as to whether a run of the mill, or under performing student, would somehow not merit the support that Yashika has received. 

Surely it is the issue of detention at Yarl's Wood, separation from family and deportation into a dangerous situation, and the legal framework which allows this to happen, that are important and should apply to anyone, regardless of academic achievement?

Meanwhile congratulations to the Save Yashika campaign for their success in stopping the deportation today and bringing the issue into the national spotlight.

The school Principal and students are interviewed on this clip from Channel Four News LINK

Lib Dem's Chief Fundraiser selected for Brent Central

The official party  press releases on Ibrahim Taguri, the Liberal Democrat's chosen parliamentary candidate for Brent Central, have mentioned his background in charity fundraising. However he ended his role at Compton Fundraising Consultancy in 2009 and since then has been the Liberal Democrat's national Chief Fundraiser, raising nearly £2m in 2013. The press releases did not reveal this.

Taguri came to the attention of Channel 4's Michael Crick LINK when he found himself not so welcome a guest at the Liberal Democrat's 2011 Annual Corporate Day. 80 business people had paid £800 each to attend meetings, seminar and break-out sessions:

Among those they’ve been meeting are the junior business minister Ed Davey. And tonight 200 business people are due to attend the party’s business dinner where premium tables cost £5,000 for 10 people.

Among those I came across this afternoon were business people from tobacco companies. We get better access here than from the Department of Health, Stephen Stotesbury of Imperial Tobacco told me.

But party officials were clearly embarrassed and upset by our presence. They kept turning their backs on our camera, and eventually asked us to leave the corridor outside the hall.

One party official, Ibrahim Taguri, kept insisting it was just an opportunity to get its message across to business. We later discovered, though, that he’s the Lib Dems’ chief fundraiser.

 Taguri lived in Willesden Green and attended Latymer Upper School and Reading University. He is an avid Spurs fan and on Twitter follows the Lib Dem line of claiming that the Lib Dems have stopped Tory excesses on issues such as  young people's housing benefit, the  Human Rights Act and employment rights. He was strongly critical of the racist van campaign

After he selection he tweeted:

Delighted & humbled to be selected as Lib Dem Candidate for Brent Central where I grew up. A special place with great people Sarah Teather has been and continues to be a true champion for our community and I hope to carry on her great work.

Sarah Teather has said she will support his campaign which should make for some awkward moments on the doorstep.

Care UK or DON'T Care UK?

Guest blog by Sarah Cox:

If the Accident and Emergency Department at Central Middlesex Hospital closes, as proposed in every option in the NHS NW London consultation document Shaping a Healthier Future, residents in Brent’s poorest wards with the greatest health needs will be at the mercy of private health care provider Care UK which runs the Urgent Care Centre at Central Middlesex.

Urgent Care Centres are designed to take the pressure off A & E departments by dealing with minor injuries and less serious illnesses. Fine, but one of the reasons people go to their doctors or to A & E when the doctor isn’t available, is that they are not medically qualified so don’t necessarily know how serious (or not) their condition is. One of the NW London NHS documents gives the example of a mother who takes her baby to A & E with a high temperature. She is told that the baby is just teething. One of the functions of qualified medical staff should be to reassure patients. What about the case where the baby’s high temperature is not caused by teething but is a symptom of meningitis? Meningitis is hard to diagnose, but if not treated very quickly, can be fatal. There have been reports of Urgent Care Centres failing to spot meningitis and sending a stroke victim home http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5185165/Urgent-care-centres-putting-patients-lives-at-risk-doctors-warn.html

 

As a patient, Care UK’s record doesn’t fill me with confidence: 

X-rays: At the CMH Urgent Care Centre, Care UK failed to carry out the required checks on 6,000 x-rays, missing such details as broken bones http://www.channel4.com/news/flaw-leads-to-review-of-patient-x-ray%20records. All x-rays should be reviewed by a specialist to make sure that nothing has been missed, they should also be checked against the child protection register and GPs should be informed when their patients have attended the UCC. Care UK neglected to do this and took more than a year to find the flaw in their system and start to review the x-rays. Channel 4 reports, ‘Asked how it had happened, Care UK blamed it on "a couple of changes in the management structure of the team that ran the centre". They also failed to report it to the Care Quality Commission. Care UK said that although it was not legally obliged to do this, it "probably should have told CQC, but nobody picked up the phone".’ What a caring attitude!

The contract to run the CMH Urgent Care Centre was given to Care UK by the former Brent Primary Care Trust. All eight Brent NHS clinical directors wrote urging them not to sign the contract, but were told they were too late. Former members of that PCT are now non-executive directors of Care UK and NHS Brent is tied into a contract with Care UK that they cannot get out of.

Friends in high places: The wife of Care UK’s then chairman gave £21,000 to Andrew Lansley when he was shadow Health minister to help run his constituency office in the run up to the general election, an investment that has certainly paid off when you see how many contracts the firm has been awarded in the NHS and social care sectors. 

Tax avoidance  Care UK, which operates NHS treatment centres, walk-in centres and mental health services, has a reduced tax bill by taking out loans through the Channel Islands stock exchange and coming to an agreement with HMRC Guardian 17.3.12 Care UK join the likes of Vodaphone and Jimmy Carr in claiming that they’ve done nothing wrong.

There’s more about Care UK, but I’ll leave that for the next instalment. What’s your experience of Care UK or specifically of the Urgent Care Centre at Central Middlesex?