Major reshuffle speculation this morning, after Sir Keir lost his third shadow minister in 15 days. Shadow women’s minister Charlotte Nichols has stepped back from Starmer’s top team on a temporary for “personal reasons”, according to The Guardian. Starmer’s shedding spokespeople faster than popularity…
While it’s denied the move has any connection to political disputes or disagreements, it inconveniently came on the same day as he lost his shadow secretary for women and equalities, Marsha de Cordova – a move that seemingly was brought on by a political row. On the 30th Sir Keir also lost his shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard who stepped back to focus on his constituency after last month’s Plymouth shooting. Perhaps it’s not just Boris in need of a reshuffle…
While Labour MP Siobhan McDonagh interrupted a select committee yesterday to show off her social media pride, Luke Pollard is going above and beyond to brag about his Facebook successes. Locals in Devonport will spot a gadget in his office window tracking live how many Facebook likes his MP page has.
Last November, local Labour councillor Jeremy Goslin recorded his delight with the tech tracker, with Pollard telling constituents to “Like my Facebook page at facebook.com/lukepollard and watch the counter spin round #plymouth :-)”
What Luke didn’t tell his constituents is they actually forked out for the useless bit of ego-boosting tech. A search of Pollard’s expenses and an FoI enquiry later, Guido can reveal the taxpayer coughed up out £330.66 for the window display.
Even after fleecing the taxpayer for over £330 of unnecessary expenses, Luke’s Facebook page has only 8,309 likes. Equating to about 4p per follower…
As the new Agriculture Bill was going through committee stage late yesterday afternoon, the Labour Party attempted to tack on an amendment that would have stripped subsidies from farmers who allowed hunting on their land. The way the amendment was worded would have excluded any land on which anyone had killed a rat with a terrier in the last 15 years from any farm payments – stripping almost all farmers of their government income. Welcome to the sweeping agrarian reform libertarian revolution, comrades…
The radical amendment – tabled by Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary and Plymouth MP Luke Pollard and other urban MPs- was so poorly formed it undermined Labour’s own Hunting Act’s definition of hunting. Back when Labour held some seats in the countryside, they thought to exclude rats from the Hunting Act as farmers use dogs as the most environmentally friendly form of pest control. The alternatives of laying poison or traps both have damaging environmental consequences…
Looks like Labour aren’t looking to win back any rural voters any time soon. Solely relying on urban seats can’t take them to a parliamentary majority…
Plymouth City Council have reported the odd behaviour of Plymouth Labour Officer Baz Ahmed to the police and the Electoral Commission after his posting of pictures of postal ballots was reported by Guido. Neighbouring MP Johnny Mercer has also said he will be informing the police.
Baz meanwhile is now claiming that he was posting photos that had been sent to him, not that the ballots themselves were as he previously tweeted “received”.
Just to clarify these photos were sent to me not the ballot sent to me! Appologies for any confusion
— Baz Ahmed (@PlymouthBaz) November 27, 2019
Labour incumbent Luke Pollard tells Guido:
“I’ve spoken to the volunteer and he feels bad that a media storm has been caused by him sharing a picture that was sent to him.
Plymouth Labour takes postal vote law very seriously and train all our volunteers not to touch or handle postal votes – we will now be updating our advice to say don’t tweet pictures sent to them of completed ballots too.”
Hmmm…
The BAME Officer for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Labour Party, Baz Ahmed, has boasted on Twitter of ‘receiving’ postal votes from local voters. He has even tweeted pictures of unsealed ballots voting for the Labour Party. Electoral Commission rules are clear that handling someone else’s ballot paper is in breach of the code.
Those two X’s are identical…
Electoral Commission rules clearly say:
“You should not touch or handle anyone else’s ballot paper.”
“It is absolutely clear that anyone acting on behalf of a party or campaign should not solicit the collection of any ballot paper.”
“If you are asked to take the completed ballot paper, you should ensure that the voter has sealed it first and then post it or take it to a polling station or office of the Returning Officer immediately, without interfering in any way with the package.”
“If you are with a voter when they complete their ballot paper, remember they should complete it in secret. Equally, you should ensure that the voter seals the envelopes personally and immediately.”
One of the ballots Ahmed tweeted included personal details of a local voter, which Guido has obscured.
Somebody should really tell him he has committed multiple offences under PPERA. Plymouth Labour will have some serious questions to answer…
UPDATE: Luke Pollard has told Guido that he didn’t know this was going on, saying “If that was happening it would be illegal.”
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat has commented “This is a police matter not a joke and must be investigated immediately.”
A Sikh councillor in Plymouth has quit the Labour Party, saying membership is no longer compatible with his faith. This follows Labour becoming the second ever political party to be formally investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, after the BNP…
In his resignation letter, Cllr Chaz Singh said his decision to resign was “based upon the fact that I believe that my continued membership is no longer compatible with my faith” saying concerns he had voiced had not been “addressed properly” by local party officials. His decision embarrassingly undermining Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi’s PMQs rant last week about Boris’s Burqa comments…
Later on Twitter, Singh claimed two more BAME UK Labour members in Plymouth have cancelled their membership. Local MP Luke Pollard has called for the newly-independent councillor to resign – rather than address Singh’s concerns with the Labour Party…
