The Labour Party’s Croydon branch is under investigation by Scotland Yard. Pic: Wikipedia
Police have launched a criminal investigation over allegations of vote-rigging among the local Labour Party in last autumn’s parliamentary selection for the new Croydon East constituency.
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed to Eastlondonlines that Scotland Yard’s special cybercrime unit is conducting an investigation into Labour’s Croydon East selection process.
The selection was suspended temporarily by the party in November, after complaints that the Croydon Labour membership lists had been tampered with, and that lists that were provided to some candidates had vital details altered.
A Met spokesperson told ELL: “We have received allegations of computer misuse in relation to an internal selection process for a political party in Croydon during October and November last year.”
Controversial figure dropped out of the race
The selection process started back up last week, but previous candidate Joel Bodmer had been dropped from the contest to be Labour’s nominee for a theoretically safe seat at the forthcoming General Election. Bodmer, who is a trade union official, claims he withdrew from the contest in order to spend more time with his family. The police declined to give out information on whether or not anyone had been questioned as part of the investigation.
In a post shared on X – formerly Twitter – he said: “I do not want to expose myself or my family to the distressing level of abuse that arose from some quarters during the original selection campaign.”
Joel Bodmer has withdrawn from the East Croydon selection process. Pic: X
The Labour Party admitted in a message sent out to members earlier this month that an internal investigation found proof of attempted electoral fraud, according to the website Inside Croydon. They also revealed that the electoral fraud began in September 2023, a month before the Croydon East CLP was formed.
Andrew Fisher, a member of Croydon Labour and former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn took to X to say: “Members are really being let down by some seemingly terrible behaviour.”
A member of the Labour party – who wishes to remain anonymous – told ELL that her previously unwavering support and trust in the party she has stood by for decades is now being questioned.
“I guess there are rotten apples in every party, but I’ve always trusted Labour rather blindly. I’m afraid it might be because I’m part of the older generation and we tend to be a bit naive to these things… But a political party needs to have integrity if they want to keep going. I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
The Labour Party has not responded to requests for comment but it has previously stated that the party “takes the protection of personal information and the rights of Labour Party members very seriously”, adding that a “thorough investigation” had been conducted.
