Things are Moving Fast in Newham Labour

First came the shock resignation of Lyn Brown MP on Tuesday. Our sources tell us that Lyn Brown, who has represented West Ham constituency since 2005 had been approved as a shoe-in to the new Stratford and Bow seat. She, it seems, then conducted something of a straw poll to determine the level of support she would get from the voting public.

Stratford and Bow, which once seemed impregnable for Labour, now seems a little more vulnerable. The Green Party have been picking up support from the liberally minded middle classes in the new developments and Gaza has energised the Muslim vote. Brown it appears, could no longer count on their support. Thus, it was time to go. We understand that there is a head of steam building in the Muslim community to back Galloway’s choice in the form of Halima Khan, while Labour has yet to select a candidate. With a divided opposition, Asser must still be the favourite, but it will be interesting to see the way the vote is split.

It seems that our information was correct. We asserted three days ago, that James Asser was going to be announced as the candidate to stand in the West Ham and Beckton seat. The party had actually opened up the process, (sort of) and they invited prospective candidates to submit names and we are aware of at least half a dozen that claimed to have sent in their CVs by the Tuesday 5pm deadline.  

After an exhaustive process the Labour Party apparatchiks whittled down this number overnight so that by the time Wednesday morning arrived, only one candidate remained. And surprise, surprise; by the most unexpected of coincidences, the candidate that they finally alighted on was one James Asser. (List of candidates on Labour List)

He should perhaps seek rather different pictures of support from the local community.

Standing in Beckton, he may face some embarrassing questions on the doorstep when it comes to ‘who was responsible for the closure of the city farm?’; ‘who led on LTNs?’; ‘who hiked up resident parking charges?’; ‘who was responsible for the increases in parking fees for shoppers?’; ‘who was responsible for the reprimand by a judge for the abusive way Newham staff were wrongly prosecuted?’; ‘who is using taxes on vehicles as a form of unregulated taxation?’ etc., etc.

Asser has now resigned his council seat, leaving the third council seat to be contested in July.

Labour has sprung into action.

Potential candidates have a little over 24 hours to respond.

As we reflected earlier, Labour has not been a model of openness and transparency in the process to select Westminster candidates. The declared candidates, that we know of, are as follows:

Asser will face Cllr Sophia Naqvi who is contesting the seat as an Independent (with the backing of Galloway’s Workers Party); we are awaiting news of the Tory candidate. It seems that the Tory Party was caught with its metaphorical pants down, by a Tory Prime Minister. They are currently seeking to fill 100 vacancies, it seems, including all three Newham seats.

Rob Callender, a serial Candidate for the Greens is standing in Beckton and the Lib-Dems are also still to select a candidate.

Rosie Pearce is challenging Stephen Timms in East Ham for the Greens. Tahir Mirza has been announced as the Independent Group candidate and the Tories and Lib Dems have yet to choose a candidate.

Labour has yet to choose its candidate for the Stratford and Bow seat, where the first to declare was Halima Khan for the Workers Party. Joe Hudson-Small is contesting the seat where the Greens hope for a good showing and Janey Little is the candidate for the Lib-Dems. As we noted, the Tories seem unable to organise the proverbial gathering to ingest alcohol in a brewery. So, we are awaiting the news of their candidate.