Guido’s old enough to remember when even Lisa Nandy said she was “personally very interested and attracted by the idea” of rent controls back in September…
Left-wing MP Shabana Mahmood was elected chair of Labour NEC’s disputes panel this morning – the sub-group of Labour’s national ruling body responsible for adjudicating internal complaints and disciplinary cases. Mahmood will now oversee Labour’s overhaul of its disciplinary process promised by Sir Keir after the findings of the EHRC antisemitism report last December. Will she be up to the job?
Given the role the chair will play, it’s lucky Labour electors gave the position to someone with comprehensive experience of ill-discipline:
- In 2014 she was “hauled in” by the Labour leadership after participating in an anti-Israel protest that forced a branch of Sainsbury’s to close for selling Israeli and kosher produce
- Subsequently, Mahmood was accused of “promoting public disorder” by the Jewish Leadership Council
- In 2015, Mahmood attended a gender-segregated party rally in the run-up to the 2015 election
- In 2019 she was accused of “courting blatant homophobia” after backing anti-LGBT education protest outside Birmingham schools, with Owen Jones calling on her to apologise
Even with this less-than-glowing track record, Shabana is a step up from the committee’s 2019 chair, Claudia Webbe – whatever happened to her?
Over £1 million of taxpayers’ money has been diverted to offshore property companies through the MPs’ expenses system. In 2012-13, 13 MPs were paying rent expenses for properties in the luxury riverside Dolphin Square complex, made famous as the home of coke-snorting Lords (and worse).
Records show MPs including top Corbyn allies Steve Rotheram, Nic Dakin and Shabana Mahmood paid the expenses cash to subsidiaries of Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd. This is a network of 612 companies which own two flats each in Dolphin Square. All 612 companies are registered in Jersey…
Tory MP Jonathan Evans meanwhile paid rent expenses to Abal Establishment, a property company with offices in London but which is registered in the tax haven of Lichtenstein:
Overall in 2012-13 MPs sent over £230,000 of taxpayer cash to tax-avoiding offshore property companies. Extrapolating these figures means over the course of the last parliament well over £1 million of your money was sent offshore so MPs could live it up in London…
Labour MPs attended a gender segregated rally in Oldham last night, with photos released from the meeting clearly showing Muslim women and men being seated seperately. The event was hosted by the Labour affiliated group Labour Friends of Bangladesh, in support of Jim McMahon, the party’s candidate in the upcoming by-election. A wide selection of Labour MPs and officials attended, including the candidate Jim McMahon, Naz Shah, Angela Rayner, Khalid Mahmood, Rushanara Ali, Shabana Mahmood and Debbie Abrahams. Abrahams states in in her twitter biography that she is interested in “inequalities”. Although Guido presumes this doesn’t include gender inequalities…
Labour Friends of Bangladesh here to return @CllrJimMcMahon as the next MP for #OldhamWest with fab @ShabanaMahmood pic.twitter.com/ZLDYbSyDFJ
— Debbie Abrahams (@Debbie_abrahams) November 29, 2015
Readers will be well aware that this isn’t the first, or even second, time senior Labour figures have attended gender segregated rallies. When will Labour come out and denounce this gender apartheid?
“There are a number of people who have said [the non-dom ban] could raise hundreds of millions,” Labour’s Shadow Exchequer Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Daily Politics. Asked to name just one, she could not. Funnily enough, Guido had the same problem with the Labour press office as well:
@labourpress watched it, thanks. Ed said "independent experts" (plural) had "found a way to do it". Who? Can we have names (plural) please.
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 8, 2015
Two hours later and no reply. The only ‘expert’ making such a claim is a Labour member and even he has admitted he got it wrong. #nondomnishambles…
