The secretary of Enfield Southgate Constituency Labour Party will sensationally resign tonight, claiming senior local Labour figures believe the party’s own candidate in Enfield North “exhibits all the hallmarks of a sociopath”. In an explosive letter to his chairman seen by Guido, Ben Maloney demands the party take action against come-back seeking, expense cheating, former MP Joan Ryan’s “attempts to undermine democracy in Enfield”, accusing her of being “a cancer at the heart of Enfield Labour Party”. As reported by Guido at the time, Maloney alleges Ryan and fellow Labour candidate Ibrahim Dogus tried to stitch up a selection by “pack[ing] Southgate CLP’s AGM with hordes of questionable “members”, many of which had been recruited by her and Dogus less than 24 hours”. On his way out the door Maloney tells Guido:
“Joan will stop at nothing to get her way politically, and this led to one concerned senior Labour Party figure recently telling me that “Joan exhibits all the hallmarks of a sociopath”. That’s unsurprising given she has a track record of meeting packing that would make Lutfur Rahman and his cronies in Tower Hamlets blush.”
When approached this afternoon, Ryan told Guido: “I have nothing to say”. Perhaps Enfield Labour will at its AGM tonight…
Brooks Newmark has compared being exposed as a sex text pest to being “mentally raped”. Yet another stunning example of the Women2Win founder’s record on women’s issues:
Dear Brooks Newmark, I'm sure being exposed as a cock-flashing text pest was humiliating, it was in no way comparable to any kind of rape
— Louise Hector (@louisehector) November 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/thepotatofarmer/status/532923826729140224
Brooks Newmark compares being subject of newspaper sex scandal sting to rape http://t.co/GQDD8TvP7p Oh come ON! He CHOSE to do this! #twonk
— Anne McMaster (@Rosehill_girl) November 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/jennifercwebber/status/532916074933927936
Man who sent pictures of his cock to lots of people says being caught was was JUST like him being raped. Not really: http://t.co/Rz7LQ7cqzP
— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) November 13, 2014
Bollock-in-human-form Brooks Newmark compares getting caught sending dick pics to rape. Nope. Nope. Nope. http://t.co/kzP55K3Mc5
— Camilla Mills (@MsCamillaMills) November 13, 2014
He always had a way with words…
Labour’s candidate in Enfield North is in line for a taxpayer-subsidised windfall of more than half a million pounds, after ‘doing a Maria Miller’. Joan Ryan, who held the seat until she was booted out in disgrace in 2010, claimed tens of thousands of pounds in mortgage interest payments on her Enfield second home between 2004 and 2008 under her Additional Cost Allowance. She also famously claimed £4,500 doing up the property, including redecorating the living room. The semi-detached Enfield house was bought in 1999 for £249,000. Properties on the same road now typically go for over £750,000, some half-a-million more. The taxpayer subsidised Ryan’s mortgage payments while the price of her home was sky-rocketing, leaving the shamed ex-MP in line to cream the profit.
That’s not all. In 2008, Ryan then flipped her first and second home, designating a flat in Kennington as her new second home. Expenses records show that Ryan went on to claim for second home mortgage interest payments well into 2009. The palatial apartment at Imperial Court was bought for £192,000 in 2004. It is now estimated to be worth over £400,000. Generously subsidised by the people she now hopes will re-elect her…
Back in 2012 the Bureau of Investigative Journalism exposed former Labour MP Joan Ryan for deleting references to her expenses scandal shame from her Wikipedia page. She was caught red-handed and ‘fessed up, and details of her flipping her second home were returned to her entry. This week they mysteriously went missing again.
Wikipedia’s “revisions” analysis shows that yesterday the section “Involvement in the expenses scandal” was removed from Ryan’s page. Curiously, the changes were made anonymously from an IP address located within the Houses of Parliament. This is what the mystery deleter didn’t want you to see:
Whoever they are, they certainly seem to have a strong opinion on the subject:
Could an old friend of Joan be trying to clean up her record ahead of her ambitious attempt to stand for parliament again?
H/T @parliamentedits
UPDATE: A parliamentary source gets in touch to report that none other than Joan Ryan visited the Commons yesterday, the day her page was edited from a parliament computer. Curiouser and curiouser…
The MPs listed below don’t trust their voters:
Abrahams, Debbie
Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob
Aldous, Peter
Alexander, rh Mr Douglas
Alexander, Heidi
Ali, Rushanara
Allen, Mr Graham
Arbuthnot, rh Mr James
Bacon, Mr Richard
Bailey, Mr Adrian
Bain, Mr William
Baker, rh Norman
Baldry, rh Sir Tony
Baldwin, Harriett
Balls, rh Ed
Barker, rh Gregory
Barwell, Gavin
Beckett, rh Margaret
Beith, rh Sir Alan
Benn, rh Hilary
Beresford, Sir Paul
Berger, Luciana
Berry, Jake
Betts, Mr Clive
Blackman-Woods, Roberta
Blenkinsop, Tom
Blomfield, Paul
Blunkett, rh Mr David
Blunt, Crispin
Bradley, Karen
Brady, Mr Graham
Brake, rh Tom
Brazier, Mr Julian
Brennan, Kevin
Over the weekend this statement went up on the IPSA website:
The Compliance Officer for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has today opened an investigation into claims made under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs and Expenses by Mr Bob Blackman MP.
In accordance with the legislation and the procedures for investigation made thereunder, no further information shall be published until the investigation has been concluded.
Upon conclusion of the investigation, a report including details of the case made against the MP, evidence, findings and any sanctions will be published.
Under new guidelines, investigations into MPs’ expenses are to be kept secret…
