Sabina Khan, 'a unique combination', sends confident message to Brent Labour Party members

As Labour's Brent Central selection committee begins the task of interviewing candidates, Sabina Khan has sent this confident message out to Labour Party members:

Dear friends and members in Brent Central,

Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your patience and support in considering me in your branch nominations recently.

Thanks to you I have been nominated in 5 out of 9 wards including the largest wards, as your preferred candidate and for giving me the most nominations out of all 38 candidates.

I am also grateful to have been nominated by the Co-operative Party and GMB Union and am truly honoured and humbled by members' support across Brent Central.
 
 A fresh start

I offer a unique combination of local roots, experience in business and family life coupled with strong Labour values and experience. I have knocked on thousands of doors in Brent over the years and as a mum and community activist have unrivalled understanding of local issues and know what it it takes to beat the Lib Dems.

Your support has shown that I am able to appeal to Labour members from all areas of the constituency and now, with your support, be the candidate who will appeal to the whole of Brent Central's electorate. 

If we want a different outcome from last time, we need to do things differently this time.

I am not fighting for any other seat nor seeking reselection to Parliament. Neither is it simply a stepping stone to Parliament but a desire to represent the community and area which formed me and where two generations of my family live.

As a local mum, campaigner, small business owner working with manufacturing industries and genuinely locally known politician I can win Brent Central back for Labour and keep it Labour.

I hope to meet you all in the coming weeks and am asking for your support and first preference in the upcoming candidate selection on 7th December.

Mapesbury go for Katz and Khan for Brent Central Labour nomination

Th provisional ballot results for Mapesbury ward's nomination for Brent Central Labour Parliamentary Candidate  are Sabina Khan for the female candidate and Mike Katz the male candidate.

This leaves Dawn Butler one ahead of Sabina Khan across the wards and Zaffar van Kalwala as the only male candidate backed by more than one ward.

Dudden Hill and Welsh Harp decide tomorrow.

Mixed reaction to Teather's withdrawal from 2015 election

Sarah Teather's decision not to stand for election in 2015 has come as a surprise to many but her increasing alienation from her party has been clear since her sacking as Children's minister, which itself followed her failure to vote for Government welfare reform. The Daily Mail and Tory MPs vociferously called for her resignation at the time.

Some argue that she missed her moment and should have resigned on a matter of principle at the time rather than limp on until she was sacked. Her post-sacking re-dedication to her constituents was seen by many as an attempt to rekindle local support ahead of the General Election. She was suddenly available to constituents and campaigners again after pleading that ministerial conduct codes prohibited her from openly campaigning on national political issues - she dropped letters to ministerial colleagues instead.

I had a hunch that free from these constraints she would become a more open critic of the Lib Dem's collusion with the Tories and that by 2015, if she survived the likely Lib Dem  electoral disaster, she would be in a position to contest the leadership on the basis of 'I saw it coming'. This would of course have raised difficulties about her General Election campaign and how to distance herself from the party's manifesto.

This was not to be but her position as regards her party appears confused this morning. Her Observer interview says that she no longer feels able to operate within the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat group BUT she will stay in the party. Her personal statement on her website says that she will campaign for Lib Dems in the local elections and for her Lib Dem successor in the 2015 General Election. This seems to indicate that she will not cross the floor of the House.

Similarly Nick Clegg is both a 'decent bloke' who has done many good things but also someone whose stance on immigration left her 'catastrophically depressed'.

Teather's by-election victory six months after Iraq was partly due to her strong anti-war position and she won many plaudits for her progressive stance on Guantanamo and Palestine. Living locally and modestly in Willesden Green she was highly visible on local streets in contrast to Barry Gardiner Labour MP for Brent North who lives out in Chorley Wood. In opposition she won a reputation as a hard-working MP excellent at case work.

However her appointment to government after the General Election was immediately controversial as tuition fees were raised despite signed Lib Dem pledges.  Her passionate maiden speech opposing tuition fees was circulated on the net underlining her 'betrayal' LINK. Her acquiesce to Michael Gove's policies on free schools and academies, and her personal admiration for him, angered many on the left as did her later opposition to equal marriage.

Reaction on Twitter to Teather's decision has ben mixed to say the  least. Iain Dale called her 'A rather sad, pathetic hypocrite and  Alistair Campbell at his most cutting stating:

Sarah Teather- a looming lost seat dressed up as look-at-me 'principles.' Her voting record speaks louder than today's self-pitying whinge

Sunny Hundal called it a 'significant and principled decision' and Marc Cohen commented:

Agree w her politics or not (mostly I don't) as my local MP Sarah Teather has by most accounts been v good &u can't knock her principled stance

Tory MP Nadine Torries wrote:

 Hope knives stay locked away re Sarah Teather. She was never going to retain seat in 2015, has been a good constituency MP. Good luck to her

Patrick Vernon, one of the leading Labour contestants for the Brent Central Parliamentary candidate nomination in an exclusive statement said:

I understand why and appreciate why Sarah Teather has resigned as a Lib Dem MP.  As a former Minster she realises that her party has no moral compass on social justice in fighting for the rights of local people in Brent. It is a pity that she did not give the opportunity for a Labour Candidate to fight against her in the 2015 election so local people can decide on her record as a MP since 2003.

Some people have said that there should be a by election as she may not be committed to Brent over the next 20 months. This is up to Sarah to decide but I do think she does have a duty to organise a public meeting to explain to her constituents her intentions as the current local MP.

In the meanwhile a number of potential candidates including myself are putting ourselves forward as a prospective candidate for Labour in Brent. Local party members need to decide who has a track record working in Brent to build and mobilise an election campaign based on social justice and fighting against the growing inequality facing residents along with the massive cuts  and destruction of public services by the Coalition government. Also the selected candidate has to be transparent and accountable to restore confidence as a public servant to the community

Shahrar Ali, spokesperson for the  Brent Green Party and former parliamentary candidate for Brent Central said:

Having stood against  Sarah Teather as a Green in two general elections, I can testify to her verve on election platforms and her ability to mobilise the local Libdem electoral machine with a finger pointed at a heap of rubbish for good measure. I can't shake off the feeling that her decision not to stand again is as much political calculation based on party unpopularity as the frustration she now declaims with her party direction.

Now is not the time to eulogise about the high points of Teather's political career, not least when Guantanamo remains open for business. With her party in government, injustice remains rife across society home and abroad.

Yes, it is a privilege to represent the electors of Brent and one which I would like to see Teather exercising more with her new-found voice, no less than if she had been intending to stand again

James Powney: Catherine West 'very inspiring'

Catherine West

As the contest for Labour's nomination for Brent Central heats up Cllr James Powney posted this about one of the possible candidates on his blog yesterday.LINK  He didn't mention the Brent Central contest but Catherine West seems to have gained a fan.

I went to hear the very inspiring Catherine West, Leader of Islington Council, speak last night at a meeting in Kensal Green.  Although Islington is very different to Brent (for instance, in the amount of social housing), I am sure we could learn much from both their policies and campaign techniques.

West was recently awarded 'Council Leader of the Year' by the Local Government Information Unit and praised as a 'doer and thinker'.

Jeremy Corbyn MP (Islington North)  congratulated her:

Congratulations Catherine on your prorities of social justice and making our borough a better place. Well deserved award for your wonderfully inclusive approach to dealing with all the issues that face us!