May 6 aftermath: Sadiq, Unmesh & Farah win well; Newham Democracy Referendum narrowly loses; Wales keeps Red as does some regions (but crushing by election defeat)

Now I have had some time to recover from electioneering and reflect upon last Thursday 6 May - some thoughts:-

Congratulations on Sadiq being re-elected as London Mayor; Unmesh re-elected as our local City & East Assembly member and Farah winning the by election in East Ham Central with over 52% of vote. Newham turnout was 35% which is by any standards unacceptably poor. We did not get out the Labour vote in Newham that we should have had. 

The Newham democracy referendum on replacing the Executive Mayor with a Councillor run committee model was lost by 44% to 56%, which is a shame but the narrow majority shows the concern felt by many residents about such governance arrangements. I supported the "Newham for Change" campaign and hope it will continue to argue for greater democracy and transparency in government, both locally and nationally. Certainly we should support the opposition to the Tory led referendum in October to change Croydon Council into a Mayoral system.  

My UNISON colleague Lola came second in the Kent Police and Crime commissioner election, doubling the Labour vote from the previous election & having the highest single candidate vote Labour has ever had in Kent. 

I was so pleased that Wales kept "Red" and Labour had one of its best ever assembly votes despite the very high Welsh brexit vote. Unlike the dreadful by election outcome in Hartlepool. 

Welsh Labour shows that we can win back our traditional working class base with a left of centre pragmatic socialist programme (and working in partnership with trade unions). 

Labour did well in many areas but overall it was not good and we need to get much better, we need to unite around Keir and get our policies across better. 

I did suggest at a recent meeting of UNISON Greater London Regional Council officers, where we compared the strong support for Labour in our region and the principality, that perhaps London ought to consider leaving the UK and forming a political union with Wales? It was just a thought....

Vote Labour, Vote Labour, Vote Labour - 3 votes for Labour in London: Mayor, Assembly member & Party

 

Braving the rain yesterday evening with Plaistow South Canvass teams and our super active Labour City and East Candidate, Unmesh Desai.

(In the East Ham Central ward by election they have a fourth Labour vote for Farah Nazeer)

West Hammers help out in East Ham Central By Election

Yesterday evening I went out on the Labour doorstep with our West Ham MP, Lyn Brown and Cara (the infamous Labour attack dog) to support Farah Nazeer, our Labour candidate in East Ham Central by election on Thursday May 6 (and our London Mayoral Candidate, Sadiq Khan and local East London Assembly member, Unmesh Desai).

We joined local Councillors Susan Masters and Alan Griffiths (Agent). Despite a mixture of sunshine and showers the canvass went really well with pretty extraordinary high levels of Labour support. 

We also came across some beautiful urban gardens. 

Using the Labour Party mobile "doorstep" appears to work really well. No more soggy paper canvass sheets to try and fill out in the rain. 

On the knocker for Farah, Sadiq & Unmesh in East Ham Central By election

This afternoon I joined the 2pm Labour team canvassing for the by-election in East Ham Central ward. Stephen Timms MP and the ward election agent, Cllr Alan Griffiths, were the only ones to turn up for this session. I had been out with the fantastic candidate, Farah Nazeer, last Thursday with West Ham MP, Lyn Brown.   

I was impressed how so many people recognised Stephen and said hello and thanked him for his support for them in the past! This also meant that many "door knocks" turned into case work sessions for Stephen. I could see that residents were genuinely pleased that we were out there speaking to them about their concerns.  

West Ham Leaflet & East Ham Canvass for Team Labour: Sadiq, Unmesh, Elly, Bob & Farah

Yesterday was a big day for me. I went (Covid safe)  leafleting and door knocking for the first time in over a year. I have really missed such contact with residents. 

After the Workers Memorial Day event during the day, in the evening I went with our MP, Lyn Brown to join Labour Party activists in West Ham ward to leaflet with  our City and East GLA Assembly Candidate Unmesh Desai. 

Then Lyn and I joined a canvass team to support the Labour Candidate, Farah Nazeer, who is standing in the East Ham Central by-election also taking place on May 6 . Farah is a fantastic candidate and if elected will make a brilliant councillor. 

Farah was joined by Labour Greater London Assembly candidates, Elly Baker and Bob Littlewood and we all went out as a canvassing team wearing masks, keeping social distancing and standing away from doors. 

Slightly to my surprise (and relief)  I did not witness any concern or complaints about us knocking on doors. 

Newham Compass: "How could the House of Commons work better?"

(Guest post by Sue Masters on last weeks debate) "If the House Of Commons is a megaphone to broadcast the opinions of those who don’t have a voice – one brilliant metaphor to spring out of our night’s debate – it’s an instrument whose booming tones too often can falter – drowned out by the herd, detuned by the strains of adversarial politics and muffled by party whips.

These were just a number of the problems expounded on by tonight’s speakers at Newham Compass’ debate.

Chaired by South East MEP candidate and local councillor, Farah Nazeer, The night’s conversation ranged widely and soon revealed there was no shortage of areas ripe for improvement.

The Electoral Society’s CEO, Katie Ghose kicked off proceedings with the radical notion that to truly alter perceptions of the House Of Commons you’d need to tear it down and rebuild from scratch, as the institution’s problems are embedded in its very architecture.

She also talked about the need to reconnect politics with the people, reform the Lords and truly think about what it is we want from our MPS – whether they’re there to represent us, scrutinise the executive, develop legislation or handle local casework. For her, though, there were glimmers of hope in terms of the increased impact of select committees, improvement in terms of their selection and emergency questions as a means to bring a wider array of voices to bear on proceedings.

If Katie took the strategic approach to the night’s question, it was left to Lisa Nandy (as MP for Wigan, a resident of the house in question) to give us the bird’s eye view of the day-to-day challenges facing her in the Commons – issues that were seldom black and white.

If she agreed with the needs for Lords reform she equally conceded the high quality of debate provided by that institution and felt the frustratingly adversarial nature of sessions such as Prime Minister’s questions, were counterbalanced by opportunities to work together, cross-bench, on legislation to ensure all angles and opinions were considered.

We heard about the limitations of MPs’ resources when squaring up to private sector lobbyists and when juggling many different areas of legislation across their working days. And then there was the strain push-button protest platforms such as Avaaz and 38 degrees have put on a member’s working day. While we’d all agree the preservation of our forests is a worthy (and seemingly uncontentious issue) how quickly would we hit that “send” button to register our support if we knew a vote, taking less than a minutes on our part could force an MP to spend hours dealing with correspondence, leading them away from assisting elderly constituents unable to afford heating bills?

If the issues raised by our two brilliant speakers covered a wide range of areas, this was more than matched by the ensuing Q&A, in which an audience of local councillors, candidates and residents raised their own concerns.

Perhaps the real issue of the night, however, was how such questions would ever receive proper airtime in the very house under consideration - though it was felt that questions about self-governance raised by the Scottish question and the prospect of a new government in 2015 offered a few rays of hope".

Newham Labour PragRad "Pick of the Policies"

I arrived too late last night at Stratford Picture House for the "Pick of the Policies" competition due to
Tower Hamlets Pension committee.

But it had obviously been a great success. Lots of people still around who spoke about a lively and informative evening of political debate.

The Pragmatic Radical model was "Have you got a policy idea that you think Labour should adopt? If so come and pitch it, in just 90 seconds, at the Newham Top of the Policies event".

Newham MPs Lyn Brown and Steve Timms chaired and were time keepers. There were 16 pitches and the winner was West Ham, John Saunders, who spoke in favour of fixed terms for Council Executive Mayors!

Second was Aleen Alarice on "info Sharing" and joint third place was Alan Griffiths on "Housing"; Gavin Pearson on "profit from planning" and Newham UNISON NEC and West Ham CLP Kim Silver for the ending of Zero hour contracts.

Afterwards a group of us finished off the evening at the Pizza Express downstairs (see picture).

Who says politics can't be fun?

Many thanks for Julianne and Farah for organising this event. Hat tip Ayesha, Gordon and Seyi for pictures.

Strong, Committed and One Nation Labour MEP Candidates

This is a Labour Party press release. Of the candidates that I know its congratulations in London to Lucy Anderson and commiserations to Ivana, Kamaljeet and Sanchia. Well done to Newham Councillor Farah Nazeer for a credible performance in the South East region.

"Today Labour unveils its candidates to fight the 2014 European Elections. Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, said: “I am proud that such strong, committed and inspiring people have been picked by Labour Party members to be their MEP candidates for next year’s Euro Elections.

“Like the people they seek to represent, they come from all walks of life and from all different communities across the UK. “Unlike David Cameron whose first priority on Europe is appeasing the ever more extreme demands of Tory backbenchers, Labour MEPs will be a powerful One Nation voice who stand up for ordinary hardworking families.

“Their top priority is to be a strong voice in the European Parliament to make sure they get the best deal and bring jobs and growth here in the UK.”

1. The following candidates have been selected to represent Labour in the 2014 European Parliamentary election:

East Midlands 1. WILLMOTT, Glenis 2. PALMER, Rory 3. WOODINGS, Linda 4. HADADI, Khalid 5. BROOKS, Nicki Eastern 1. HOWITT, Richard 2. MAYER, Alex 3. MARTIN, Sandy 4. JOSHI, Bhavna 5. BISHOP, Paul 6. AYUB, Naseem 7. OSTROWSKI, Chris

London 1. MORAES, Claude 2. HONEYBALL, Mary 3. ANDERSON, Lucy 4. DANCE, Seb 5. BARTOLETTI, Ivana 6. JANDU, Kamaljeet 7. ALASIA, Sanchia 8. BIONDI, Andrea

North 1. KIRTON-DARLING, Judith 2. BRANNEN, Paul 3. SHOTTON, Jayne North West 1. MCCARTHY, Arlene 2. GRIFFIN, Theresa 3. KHAN, Afzal 4. WARD, Julie 5. KHAN, Wajid 6. STOGIA, Angeliki 7. CARTER, Steve 8. LAMB, Pascale

South East 1. DODDS, Anneliese 2. HOWARTH, John 3. WESTLEY, Emily 4. SINGH, Del 5. NAZEER, Farah 6. SWINDLEHURST, James 7. HUGHES, Maggie 8. WATKINS, James 9. LANDLES, Karen 10. To be confirmed

South West 1. MOODY, Clare 2. FORD, Glyn 3. REEDER, Ann 4. ROBERTS, Hadleigh 5. ROBINSON, Jude 6. ALI, Junab

West Midlands 1. GILL, Neena 2. SIMON, Siôn 3. WALTHO, Lynda 4. KHAN, Ansar Ali 5. HAMER, Olwen 6. ETHAPEMI, Tony 7. EDWARDS, Claire

Yorkshire and The Humber 1. MCAVAN, Linda 2. CORBETT, Richard 3. TUNNICLIFFE , Eleanor 4. KHAN, Asghar 5. MIRFIN-BOUKOURIS, Helen 6. HUGHES , Darren

Scotland 1. MARTIN, David 2. STIHLER, Catherine 3. MUNN, Derek 4. MURRAY, Katrina 5. KHAN, Asim 6. O'BRIEN, Kirsty

Wales 1. VAUGHAN, Derek 2. BRYANT, Jayne 3. THOMAS, Alex 4. REES, Christina 2.

Labour party applies a "zipping procedure" to ensure a balance of male and female candidates. 3. The election to the European Parliament is a list system. The Labour Party ran a one member one vote ballot of its members to determine the order of candidates on the list. Across the country, nearly 70,000 Labour party members took part in the process.