Source: Overseas Development Institute
Ken Livingstone has appeared on the Tower Hamlets mayoral campaign trail this week in support of controversial independent candidate Lutfur Rahman, who was withdrawn from the Labour party candidacy last month.
His support of Rahman – who was deselected as a Labour candidate by the party’s ruling body, following ‘serious allegations’ about his conduct – has caused consternation among political analysts.
As Labour contender for London Mayor, Livingstone is not allowed to participate in campaigning against official Labour candidates for political office.
According to the party’s rules, those violating this principle ‘shall automatically be ineligible to be, or remain, a party member.’
Livingstone’s violation of this rule yesterday is particularly pertinent as eight other local Labour representatives have already been suspended for supporting Rahman’s candidacy rather than that of the party’s nominee Helal Abbas.
Responding to these cases last Thursday, Harriet Harman, deputy leader of Labour, told journalists: “There is nobody else that is a Labour candidate for Tower Hamlets, so basically people can either be supporting Abbas, which is what we want Labour supporters to do, and all of us in the Labour Party are doing.”
“But if they are not supporting Councillor Abbas – if they are supporting somebody else – then they are opposing the Labour Party, and you cannot be against a party and in it.”
Rahman was removed from the Labour nomination in September, despite winning the most votes from Tower Hamlets Borough party members.
His candidacy had already proved controversial during the shortlisting process, and came after he was removed from his position as Labour leader in Tower Hamlets in May.
Labour’s National Executive Committee took the decision to bar him from the mayoral ticket following allegations in The Telegraph on 3rd September that he had been involved in signing up fraudulent ‘paper’ party members in order to win the nomination.
Rahman is also alleged to have links to Islamic fundamentalism – a claim featured in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary entitled ‘Britain’s Islamic Republic’ earlier this year.
Livingstone has described Labour’s decision to deselect him as ‘a big mistake’ and ‘a moment of madness.’
Journalist Andrew Gilligan, who was involved in the making of the Dispatches film, reacted to Livingstone’s endorsement of Rahman by describing it as ‘an act of political self-harm amazing even by his [Livingstone’s] own standards.’
Livingstone himself has a chequered history with the party, having won the London mayorship as an independent in 2000 after he was not selected as an official Labour candidate. He was readmitted to the party in 2004.
Labour has thus far refused to disclose whether action will be taken against Livingstone.
Not quite. Ken has made it clear he’s supporting Abbas and asking voters to vote for Rahman as 2nd choice in the supplementary vote electoral system. No violation of Labour rules, then.
“Livingstone said: “I am disappointed by the way the NEC handled the selection in Tower Hamlets and I am sure that under Ed Miliband’s leadership things would have been handled differently. However, my position is clear: I fully support Labour candidates in all elections and I am calling for Tower Hamlets residents to use their first preference vote for our candidate, Helal Abbas. A second preference should be used for Lutfur Rahman to keep the Tories out.” ” http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/19/ken-livingstone-expulsion-labour-party
It should also be made clear that Lutfur Rahman completely denies the allegations of vote fixing made against him by Abbas (who came 3rd in the Labour selection vote) and the right-wing press. Rahman was deselected by the Labour party NEC before he’d been given a chance to hear the allegations against him and before the NEC had carried out any kind of investigation.
Rahman also denies the racist allegations of “fundamentalism” made against him by Gilligan, the right-wing press and the right-wing faction of the Labour party, including Jim Fitzpatrick MP.
Rahman is campaigning to fight the Tory cuts to protect poor, working-class people of TH. The allegations and deselction are part of a nasty, Islamaphobic, racist witch-hunt led by the right-wing of the Labour party in alliance with the Tory press
More on the background to this row here: http://leninology.blogspot.com/2010/10/labour-rights-kamikaze-act-in-east-end.html
@Neil – Nothing you have mentioned insubstantiates the story above. Livingstone may have subsequently made the comment you quote regarding Abbas, but the fact remains that he has appeared in support of Rahman during his mayoral campaign, thus clearly endorsing him as a candidate. In so doing, he has raised questions from various quarters about whether this is a violation of the party’s rules.
He’s supporting Rahman him as 2nd preference. Just as during the last Mayoral election he campaigned alongside the Greens and supported their candidate for 2nd preference votes; it didn’t mean he was campaigning against himself.