Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Newham Mayor Candidate - Why we need a leader to make a hard decision

I must admit that I agree with much (but not all) of the angry polemic below by Newham @triggerdemocracy. I too have been overwhelmed by complaints by local Party members about what has gone on and will support the call for a proper and independent enquiry into the many allegations of criminal forgery and deception about the affiliate vote.
However, I do think that the Party is hopeless split and divided and that the only way to unite the Party is for the current Mayor to be a leader and agree to put himself through an open selection process. 

I genuinely fear for the Party locally if this is not done. Party unity is key and the only way I think this can now be achieved is if the Labour Mayoral candidate is elected by one member, one vote. 
Unknown undemocratic affiliates
"Robin Wales has no mandate from Labour members for an automatic 5th term as Mayor of Newham. He is ignoring the will of party members in favour of nominations made by unknown and undemocratic affiliates. Labour members in Newham call on Robin Wales to agree to an open and democratic selection to choose Labour’s candidate for Mayor.
Full results – below
Newham’s Local Campaign forum sat in a small room and quietly announced to themselves that Robin Wales has been re-selected as Labour’s candidate for 2018 with 20 branches/affiliates voting Yes and 17 No.
The results demonstrate Robin Wales has no mandate for an automatic 5th term from Labour members in Newham. He is claiming a technical victory made up of unknown and undemocratic affiliates. Members went to their meetings in good faith and voted for what they believed was best for Labour and Newham. We call on Robin Wales to listen to them and to agree to an open selection, that would include himself, which would result in a  democratically selected Labour candidate for Mayor of Newham that everyone in the party would support.
Below is a breakdown of the votes. Remember, the question was “Do you want to reselect Robin Wales”. Labour members overwhelmingly voted for an open re-selection (by voting No), but more affiliates, most of which aren’t made up of members but have an equivalent weighting to a branch, returned nominations to automatically re-select Robin Wales (voting Yes).
Wards (11 No and 9 Yes)
Of the 20 ward branches in Newham –  11 voted No, for an open selection, and 9 voted Yes (full list at end).
775 Newham Labour members went to their ward meeting – 424 voted No and 351 voted Yes – so No won by a majority of 73 votes.
Affiliates (6 Yes and 11 No)
1) Co-op Party – No (37 voted No and 36 Yes, many Co-op members are also Labour party members so this was a 2nd or even 3rd vote for many)
2) Women’s Forum – No (46 voted No and 36 voted Yes, all Women’s Forum members are members of the Labour party so this was a 2nd or 3rd vote for many)
3) Newham Fabians – Yes (members state they were not invited to a meeting so it’s not clear how this nomination was made)
4) Christians on the Left – Yes (members were invited to a discussion on ‘Working with Faith Groups’ which had a ‘we will also canvass opinion on the Mayoral Trigger Ballot’ as an aside. They returned a Yes vote)
5) CWU – No (no meeting of members)
6) NAHT – No (no meeting of members)
7) UNISON No (no meeting of members)
8) Unite – No (no meeting of members)
9) GMB Yes (no meeting of members)
10) GMB Yes (no meeting of members)
11) GMB Yes (no meeting of members)
12 BECTU Yes (no meeting of members)
13) CWU  Yes (no meeting of members)
14) CWU Yes (no meeting of members)
15) USDAW Yes (no meeting of members)
16) TSSA Yes (no meeting of members)
17) GMB Yes (no meeting of members)

Some unions have more than one vote as they have more than one branch affiliated.
Ward branch results:
Beckton: Yes (Yes 16, No 3)
Boleyn: No (Yes 3, No 36)
Canning Town North: No (Yes 17, No 21)
Canning Town South: No (Yes 6, No 8)
Custom House: Yes (Yes 7, No 6)
East Ham Central: No (Yes 29, No 31)
East Ham North: No (Yes 20, No 23)
East Ham South: Yes (Yes 26, No 8)
Forest Gate North: No (Yes 13, No 30)
Forest Gate South: Yes (Yes 34, No 21)
Green Street East: No (Yes 5, No 32)
Green Street West: Yes (Yes 36, No 32)
Little Ilford: No (Yes 23, No 36)
Manor Park: Yes (Yes 29, No 28 (recount first was 30/30))
Plaistow North: No (Yes 27, No 17)
Plaistow South: No (Yes 12, No 19)
Royal Docks Yes (Yes 11, No 1)
Stratford & New Town: No (Yes 11, No 34)
Wall End Yes (Yes 20, No 18)
West Ham: No (Yes 8, No 20)
It has been nearly 15 years since Labour members last got to choose who they wanted to be Newham’s Mayor. 11 wards have now voted FOR an open selection.

No comments: