Pamela Fitzpatrick: 'Solidarity really is the most beautiful of words' - fighting for justice in today's Labour Party

 Post by Martin Francis in a personal capacity

 

 I left the Labour Party a very long time ago (c1965) but have kept up an interest in developments in the party from Wilson to Starmer.  Recently I have been dismayed by the way Labour Party friends have been treated under the Starmer regime. A lack of natural justice and a developing authoritarianism is evident in the disciplinary processes that I have observed from the outside.

It makes me anxious about the approach Labour would take as a government.

Pamela Fitzpatrick is a local example of such an unfair disciplinary process. This is her account below:

 

It is now 14 months since I lodged my appeal against my expulsion from the Labour Party. I was a long standing member of the Party and at the time of my expulsion I was Chair of the Harrow Labour Group, the Labour appointed Chair of the Planning Committee, a Labour councillor for almost 8 years, and a recent Labour Parliamentary Candidate. Throughout my time in the Party I also held a variety of CLP and Branch positions. 

 

Against this long history and work for the Party the sole reason I was expelled was that I had given an interview to the organisation Socialist Appeal in May 2020 and in doing so the Party judged me to be in breach of a rule it had created over a year later. I have contacted Labour several times over the past 14 months to ask for an update on my appeal, but I have had no response or acknowledgement. Reluctantly therefore I have instructed Solicitors who have now issued a letter before claim to the Labour Party. 

 

Labour has 28 days in which to respond and remedy this illegality. But if they fail to do so satisfactorily, we will have no choice but to commence proceedings in the High Court. This is not my desired outcome.

 

The letter before claim sets out the impact the unlawful treatment by Labour has had on me. It has resulted in my exclusion from any political positions associated with the Party and has had a profoundly damaging impact on my political career. Upon expulsion from the Party, I lost my position as a Labour Councillor, as Chair of the Harrow Planning Committee and as Chair of the Harrow Labour Group. I also lost my position on Labour’s National Women’s Committee. A position I had been elected to in June 2021 by Labour members, with a majority of over 100,000. This is a committee that is very close to my heart as I have experienced abuse within the Party and am aware of many other women who have also experienced similar abuse. The position was voluntary and lasted 2 years. 

 

I have not been able to exercise the role since my expulsion. I am unable to put myself forward for selection as a Parliamentary Candidate (having stood for Harrow East in the 2019 General Election).

 

I was an active member of my CLP but have been unable to participate in any Labour Party events or activities. This includes going to the Party Conference, any events that are organised, branch meetings, taking part in canvassing, fundraising events. These activities have taken up the majority of my time for many years, but I am no longer able to attend them. 

 

I have been shunned by people I previously considered to be colleagues, including other councillors who ignore me now if I meet them. This has all had a damaging impact on my professional and political reputation. It is uncontroversial that such treatment would have a negative impact on a person’s personal life and wellbeing, as it has had on me. But I know I am but one of so many treated this way. 

 

My heartfelt thanks to all those who have supported me. Solidarity really is the most beautiful of words.

 

Pamela's friends and supporters have launched a fundraiser to help her in her  Challenge to Labour's lack of fair procedures and natural justice. They say. 'At this first stage we are simply seeking an appeal hearing in Pamela’s case that is conducted in a fair, impartial and transparent way. We will also be looking at all legal avenues to achieve our goal. 

As of today the fundraiser stands at £11,438  against a target of £15,000 with eleven days to go.

Follow this LINK to the fundraiser which contains more details of the case.

Hundreds rally to support of popular Harrow councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick, threated with expulsion by the Labour Party.

 

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.

Green GLA candidate condemns Priti Patel's 'inflammatory 'language' on immigration lawyers after right-wing attack on Harrow solicitors

Cavan Medlock, 28, from Harrow in north-west London, allegedly visited the offices of Duncan Lewis Solicitors in Harrow  last month armed with a large knife and threatened to kill a member of staff last month.

 

At his trial last week, the prosecution alleged Medlock planned to take a solicitor hostage and display flags of Nazi Germany and the US Confederacy in the firm’s office windows to inspire others to carry out similar offences. He allegedly blamed lawyers at the firm for preventing the removal of immigrants from the UK.

 

Days earlier the home secretary, Priti Patel, had claimed activist lawyers were frustrating the removal of refused asylum seekers from the UK.

 

Medlock is charged with six offences including the charge of preparation of an act of terrorism, racially or religiously aggravated attacks against two members of staff at the law firm, and threats to kill.

Emma Wallace, Green Party candidate for the Brent and Harrow GLA consituency said today:

It is incredibly concerning to hear that the UK home secretary, Priti Patel, dismissed intelligence briefings from counter-terrorism police over the alleged far-right terror attack that was attempted at a local Harrow law firm at the beginning of September.  LINK

The Home Secretary's key role is to use intelligence provided to her and the Home Office to protect local communities and ensure they are kept safe and secure from any such threats from rightwing terrorism.  Instead, the home secretary ignored intelligence reports and is recorded using inflammatory and deregoratry language to describe immigration lawyers, in effect contributing to a rise in hatred and extremism, rather than quell it.

Brent and Harrow are diverse boroughs whose residents deserve to be protected by government - not undermined and endangered by it. I call on my fellow GLA Brent and Harrow candidates to condemn the Home Secretary’s inflammatory language and her  lack of action on the threat from right-wing groups and individuals.

Harrow Law Centre Director, Pamela Fitzpatrick, who is also a Harrow councillor, told the Harrow Monitoring Group website LINK:

This is very worrying as Harrow Law Centre has three immigration solicitors and less funding for security than big firms. This is the result of the actions of the Tories calling us activist lawyers.

After the alleged attack, Duncan Lewis wrote to the Law Society asking it to contact the home secretary and the lord chancellor “to ensure that attacks on the legal profession are prevented from this point forth”. It added: “The position as it stands is untenable, dangerous and cannot be allowed to persist.”

On Sunday 800 prominent legal experts wrote an open letter to the Guardian LINK:

We are all deeply concerned at recent attacks, made by the home secretary and echoed by the prime minister, on lawyers seeking to hold the government to the law.

Such attacks endanger not only the personal safety of lawyers and others working for the justice system, as has recently been vividly seen; they undermine the rule of law, which ministers and lawyers alike are duty-bound to uphold.

We invite both the home secretary and the Prime minister to behave honourably by apologising for their display of hostility, and to refrain from such attacks in the future.

In support of the letter, former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald QC said:

The home secretary may not grasp the indecency of her language, but the prime minister should know better.

Lawyers who represent demonised people are always attacked by populist politicians, but it is demeaning to our country and its institutions that the government itself is now dipping into this disreputable playbook.

It is precisely this sort of ugly authoritarianism that the rule of law is called upon to counter. The entire legal profession is proud of those lawyers who are being so crudely and dangerously vilified.