A Fresh Start for Ilford South
It seems that Sam Tarry’s relationship with the constituency of Ilford South is coming to an end. When veteran MP, Mike Gapes left Labour to join the short lived Change UK. The Ilford South nomination went up for grabs in 2019. Many people thought that this would be a shoe-in for the popular local Leader of the Council, Jas Athwal. That was before the dirty tricks team had their way and Athwal was suspended.
Tarry has local(ish) roots; before standing for parliament he was a councillor in Barking and Dagenham, although he was investigated by the police for electoral fraud because there were allegations that he was living in Brighton, whilst supposedly representing Chadwell Heath on the council. In the end he had no case to answer because he owned a second home in Barking, which satisfied the requirements of electoral law. This didn’t mean that he wasn’t living in Brighton, just that no offence had been committed.
A supporter of Corbyn, he worked with Jon Lansman on Corbyn’s campaign for the party leadership and subsequently for the trade union TSSA, prior to being adopted as candidate for Ilford South.
As a loyal Corbynista he was marked for higher office and parachuted onto the shortlist for the seat in Hull West in 2017, where he was confidently expected to be selected. Unfortunately, the membership got it wrong and decided to choose local teacher, Emma Hardy.
When his name went to the members of Ilford South in 2019, there was no problem with the members of the constituency party getting it wrong again, in a repeat of the Hull experience. The night before the ballot, front-runner Jas Athwal was suspended from the party, making him ineligible to stand as a candidate. This time Tarry won.
The timely and convenient allegations against Athwal were soon shown to be without any foundation. But by then Tarry’s posterior was warming the green benches in Westminster.
In a process, beloved of Labour’s Left, Ilford South members chose to begin the trigger ballot process. We’ve imagined how Momentum will report this.
And now the results are in showing huge support for Tarry.
The people’s favourite, Sam Tarry got a massive 42.5% of the vote, (361 votes).
Athwal only managed to get 57.5%, (499 votes).
So, it’s all change. Labour’s candidate and the likely next MP is Jas Athwal. A few years late, but we can’t help but wonder if this is the result that the members would have chosen, if they had been allowed, back in 2019.
Still, all is not lost. Tarry will now be able to dedicate his time to the overthrow of the Leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer; whether or not his close personal friend, Angela Raynor will be joining him in this enterprise is not known.
And Redbridge Council will be looking for a new leader.