Sam Tarry, the Corbynite MP best known as Angela Rayner’s boyfriend, is facing the fight of his life to stay on as the Labour candidate for Ilford South at the next election. His securing of selection in 2019 was incredibly controversial at the time, resulting in local discontent that he’s clearly failed to reconcile. At the time the frontrunner, Jas Athwal, was suspended by Labour, allowing Corbyn to slot his favoured candidate in. Now deselection battles are in full flow…
As of Saturday, members have so far voted 224 for a full and open selection contest, with just 104 backing Tarry. Over the weekend, six local Labour branches held their trigger ballot, with Tarry losing all six. Oh dear…
Over the weekend Tarry threw a barrage of emails at members from MPs and Lords backing his claim to the seat, not least from Ed Miliband who told members that Tarry worked as his shadow PPS, where he was “passionate” about the Green New Deal. Tulip Siddiq also sent a brief lobbying email, writing “I’ve known Sam since we were members of Young Labour and I know his commitment to socialist values.”
Most eyebrow-raising was an email to members from Lord Wajid Khan, by far the longest textual endorsement of the beleaguered Corbynite MP. Notably this email was sent exclusively to local Bangladeshi members, who were told “Sam has spoken up tirelessly for Kashmiris during his time as a member of the [APPG] for Kashmir as well as serving on the Executive Committee of Labour Friends of Kashmir.”
To think, open selections were once the favoured tool of Corbynites to remove Blairite MPs…
Despite an ill-fated attempt by the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs to re-instate Rebecca Long Bailey, Starmer has no intention to. Instead Guido is told a new Shadow Education Secretary will be chosen in days. Here are the runners and riders…
- Emma Hardy – Currently a Shadow Education Minister, Hardy has been MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since 2017. Before then she had worked as a primary school teacher but quit to work for the NUT. Her dad was even head teacher at her primary school. She’s also handily Starmer’s former PPS back when he was Shadow Brexit Secretary. Would fit right in…
- Toby Perkins – Shadow Minister for Apprenticeships and Lifelong Learning and Chesterfield MP since 2010. State educated. A member of Labour Friends of Israel, his sekectin would really annoy the Corbynistas. Although he is male so would shift the ShadCab gender balance awry…
- Tulip Siddiq – Privately educated at The Royal School, Hampstead, Sidiq is now Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years. She’ll know the brief…
- Lucy Powell – Currently Shadow BEIS, Powell held the Shadow Education brief for nine months under Corbyn until she resigned in the failed coup against his leadership in June 2016. A standard bearer of the soft left…
- Liz Kendall – Currently a shadow social care minister, state educated, and standard bearer for Labour centrism. Blairite Kendall is who to pick if Starmer wants to go nuclear on the hard left…
- Lord Adonis – Proper Blairite with radical views on education that Michael Gove continued. If Starmer cares about education results and not union blessings the architect of the incredibly successful London Challenge and Tony Blair’s academies policy is the man. Imagine the faces of the Corbynistas…
One member it definitely won’t be is Dawn Butler, who currently sits on the Education Select Committee. A colleague of hers on the committee tells Guido she has now missed seven meetings in a row…
The Lib Dems have been distributing a corker of a bar chart on their election leaflets in Hampstead and Kilburn, cheekily extrapolating projected EU election results in order to claim that they “won the last election here in Hampstead & Kilburn.” Which will probably come as a surprise to Tulip Siddiq and her 15,560 majority…
Tulip Siddiq said in her statement this morning that “some members of my family are involved in politics in Bangladesh” but insisted “I have no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh”. Looking at her past tweets, this just isn’t true. Tulip boasted of facilitating meetings with the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s office, meeting government ministers, attending parties and even helping them improve their online presence. Another tweet places her at dinner with the Bangladeshi PM after Tulip became an MP.
The Bangladesh government led by Siddiq’s aunt has been condemned by Human Rights Watch for killing and disappearing political opponents, as well as a “sustained attack” on freedom of speech and homosexuals. Siddiq claimed today that she has nothing to do with them. Judging from her tweets that just isn’t true…
Tulip Siddiq says sorry for this:
“I want to apologise unreservedly for my comments to Channel 4’s producer, which were an off-hand and ill-judged attempt to deal with what I felt was a hostile situation. I would never want to upset her and I hope she accepts my apology.
With regard to the Channel 4 news report itself, and as I made clear prior to the event on Saturday. I was born in London and serve as a British Member of Parliament. The focus of my work is spent on delivering for the residents of Hampstead and Kilburn who elected me to represent them.
The fact that some members of my family are involved in politics in Bangladesh has long been a matter of public record which I have not hidden from. That said, I have no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh.”
Yet she thinks she has the capability to influence politics in Iran. What was she thinking?
