This Sounds Eerily Familiar

We reported on the dirty tricks campaign that saw Redbridge Council Leader, Jas Athwal, suspended from the party and therefore excluded from the parliamentary shortlist in 2019. As a result, the nomination, which was expected to go to the popular local candidate, went to a reliable Corbynite and close personal friend of Angela Rayner MP, Sam Tarry. On this occasion, Tarry was imposed by the NEC.

Athwal had been accused of acting inappropriately by a female party member. Once the selections had been done, the complaint mysteriously evaporated.

Skip forward four years and Athwal was selected, not by the NEC, but in a landslide by local party members and Tarry was left looking for a job.

Now we see something that seems strikingly similar happening in neighboring Barking & Dagenham, where Darren Rodwell has been the council leader for over a decade. Rodwell was selected as the candidate in Barking.

And then there was a complaint.

The Guardian reported it as follows, “earlier this week the Independent revealed he was being investigated for alleged sexual harassment, after a woman complained he had touched her hands and legs in an inappropriate way.”

Rodwell denies the allegations. We understand that the ‘incident’ is said to have occurred at a meeting that is not in his diary with a person he doesn’t seem to know. There are references to drinking and this of itself made us suspicious because Rodwell is famous for refusing to drink alcohol.

The NEC confirmed on Tuesday 4th June, that Rodwell will not be on the list of candidates for the July 2024 election. He has been replaced by Nesil Caliskan. Caliskan is the leader of the council in Enfield and surprise, surprise, she just happens to be another member of the NEC.

We would take these allegations against him somewhat more seriously if they had been made a year, or even six months ago, when there would have been time to investigate properly. The fact that they have suddenly been presented in time to spoil an application but without time to investigate smacks of more dirty tricks.

Rodwell has a number of things against him. He is white and working class; he doesn’t speak in the coded language of the graduates of the humanities that now permeates the Labour Party; he has a distinctly local accent. The fact that he has led Barking and Dagenham though a major period of regeneration doesn’t seem to matter. The fact that he saw off the BNP didn’t matter. The fact that he is the choice of the local party doesn’t matter.

There may be a silver lining for Rodwell. Let us suppose that the allegations evaporate in the same manner as the allegations against Athwal. Would he then find an enterprising libel lawyer and sue both his accuser and the party? Such an approach might net him considerable financial recompense and dissuade the Labour Party from acting in such a cavalier fashion in the future. Alternatively he could do what Athwal did in Redbridge and start planning for the deselection of the usurper.