I’ve been compiling a detailed report on some pretty major issues we’ve had with West Midlands Regional Labour and Hodge Hill CLP, of which I am a member. I sent this report and all the supporting evidence I collated to Jennie Formby, Jon Lansman and a number of individuals on the NEC about a month ago but, despite my chasing them up numerous times over the past 3 weeks, I’ve had little joy in getting hold of anyone, let alone getting any decisions. I understand that they are likely to have their hands full right now because fending off the Zionist Israel defence league is very likely taking up so much of their time that they’re not functioning as an effective governing body at the moment. So where does that leave ordinary Labour members who are fighting hard to restore democracy and take control of the party out of the hands of a small clique of right wing, anti-Corbyn zealots?
I am normally a very patient person but, frankly, we could have a General Election any day now and I, for one, do not want to see a repeat of what happened during the 2017 campaign when the anti-Corbyn PLP and their associates effectively deceived the leadership and ordinary Labour members and ran a negative campaign to undermine Corbyn and his policies, which effectively lost us the election.
The question I asked myself, again and again over the last few months is “is it loyal to stay quiet or is it true loyalty when you speak out against those in our party who would happily see us lose yet another election just so long as Corbyn doesn’t get his feet under the table at number 10” and I’ve come to the conclusion that true loyalty is fighting for what you believe in – a truly democratic, grass roots led, socialist Labour government. I realise this might mean suspension from the party but, frankly, if I have to leave the party, in order to fight for democracy and support grass roots Labour and Jeremy Corbyn’s policies then that’s a small sacrifice I would happily make.
Asides from the fact that we might have a General Election any day now, there is another immediate concern I have for Hodge Hill CLP that has forced me to go public now. Tomorrow we will finally have an AGM, a full 2.5yrs since the last one in January 2016. However, I have been made aware that Hodge Hill CLP is controlled by a number of family cartels who have installed ghost members who a) only attend AGMs and selection meetings and b) vote according to the instructions they’re given by the families controlling the CLP. Some of our local Cllrs actually negotiate with these people to ensure that they get their allies appointed to the CLP and Ward Executive, or selected as Cllrs and MPs. I’ve attached screenshots of a text conversation I had with Cllr Majid Mahmood over a number of days between 14th Dec 2017 and 2nd June 2018, at the time we were hoping to have our AGM in January and I was hoping to stand for Women’s Officer. Our last Women’s Officer (Elaine Daley) hadn’t attended a single CLP meeting in at least 2yrs, let alone made any effort to get a Women’s Forum off the ground and, as I had already managed to organise a successful Women’s forum meeting by this point, I was fairly confident that it would only be a formality. You can imagine my shock when Cllr Mahmood told me I was wasting my time and informed me that we had ghost members in our CLP who decided these things and that our CLP Secretary, Diane Donaldson, was also aware of this and knew that Cllr Mahmood would have to ‘negotiate’ with these people and that “deals” would “have to be done” in order to secure appointments to the executive.
It’s worth mentioning here that my own ward (Washwood Heath, now Alum Rock) as well as Hodge Hill Ward all have Councillors (Cllr Majid Mahmood, Cllr Diane Donaldson, Cllr Ansar Ali Khan, Cllr Mariam Khan and Cllr Mohammed Idrees) who are happy to negotiate and in some cases may well have close ties to these families. My ward, in particular, has had no official ward meetings for nearly 3yrs but our Councillors decide how to allocate large sums of grant money within the community without consulting ward members and no one seems to know how or where that money has been allocated. That said, last September, the three Cllrs in my ward (Ansar, Mariam and Idrees) held a so-called ward meeting but only invited about 15 people (ghost members) because they wanted to ensure the two male cllrs would be selected (going against the party policy of 1 male, 1 female cllr) to stand in the upcoming local elections. Other members got wind of the meeting and over 30 people turned up in the end. I attended but demanded that they reschedule the meeting and invite all the ward members next time but no other meetings were called (I’ve attached screen shots of cllrs at fake ward meeting).
It’s also worth mentioning here that ordinary members of Hodge Hill CLP are deliberately kept at arm’s length. We are not given any training or guidance, we have no sub groups at all (Womens, Youth, Bame, Disability for example) and so very few members feel confident enough to stand for an executive post in the first place.
There are a number of other serious concerns we have at Hodge Hill CLP and with WM Regional Labour. I don’t want to go into too much detail at this point but it covers things like…
a) Questionable applications from candidates standing as cllrs that were approved by West Midlands Regional Office and Regional trying to block new members from standing.
b) Serious concerns about the less than kosher practices of the Birmingham Board
c) CLP executive colluding with certain individuals at West Midlands Regional Board (mainly Keith Hanson) to block people from setting up forums, having meetings or organising in any way.
d) West Midlands Regional Labour manipulating NPF candidate voting at the WM AGM.
e) No proper Treasurers Report for nearly 4yrs and, as no auditors were appointed during that time, the Treasurer’s husband’s accountancy firm have been doing the auditing. Note, the previous Treasurer, who was the Treasure for about 15yrs and very efficient, was deliberately forced out by Keith Hanson (WMRO).
Needless to say I have collated a lot of supporting evidence on all these issues and sent them over to Jennie Formby, Jon Lansman and a number of people on the NEC, along with a detailed report. I gather the matter is currently with the Governance and Legal Team and I’m told they will respond in due course. That said, the Hodge Hill AGM is still going ahead tomorrow, despite my repeated pleas for an intervention (I’ve been chasing this up for nearly a month now) and, I understand that Hodge Hill CLP isn’t the only CLP under West Midlands Regional control who have had similar issues and are calling for their AGMs to be suspended. In fact, as I understand it, Cannock, Sandwell, Walsall and West Bromwich West have all asked for their AGMs to be suspended until a new regional Director is in place. No decision have been made and all the AGM are all still going ahead.
Koser Saeed
