Lisa Nandy MP and John Cryer MP Fund Raiser

Picture from last week's Labour Party fund raising meal in Southwark for Lisa Nandy MP and John Cryer MP. 

It was a rare combination of an excellent meal, lots of table political debate (and the odd bit of juicy gossip) as well as some great speeches. 

Guest speakers were John Healey MP and Dennis Skinner MP with the traditional Labour Party auction led by the Daily Mirror's finest, Kevin McGuire.   The supporters were local Party members, affiliated unions, friends and family.

Dennis gave a typical barn storming speech.  He pointed out that in 1997 £33 Billion was spent on the NHS while in 2010 Labour spent £113 billion.  He is a survivor of Cancer and a Heart attack who would not be here now without the NHS.

He talked about the "Tribune Test".    He and John don't just disagree with the Tories but both of them detest them and what they do.

John Healey talked about how he use to manage 2000 people as Housing minister, however he is now ordering his own stationary and photocopying.  He notes that despite defeat the Labour Party has not turned amongst ourselves as the Tories did in 1997.  There is so much at stake and so much depends on us.  What the Tories did in 1980s with Utilites they will now do now with our public services. 

They are not making these cuts because they need to - it is because they want to.

Update: in the traditional Labour Party raffle I won "Change" by Barack Obama.

Black candidate beaten by black votes”?

Check out this post with its provocative headline regarding the outcome of the recent Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party selection for its Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. This is on the blog “Operation Black Vote”.

I will admit to being a mate of Terry Paul who came 2nd (and check out this, this and that)

No-one is really suggesting that John Cryer did not win this election fairly under Party rules and by a significant margin. He was the clear leader in all the rounds. Looking at all the figures I think he would have won in any case so well done to him and I am sure that he will make a very good MP for the CLP.

The row is about whether or not Ahmad Shahzad (Chair of BAME – see picture) who came 3rd should have “encouraged” his supporters to vote for another black candidate if he was knocked out. It would clearly appear that they were not. Which is not good if you are Chair of BAME and “Our main aim is to work towards increasing the number of black and Asian and other minority Members of Parliament and other elected bodies.

While this could be “cock up” rather than "conspiracy" (and I repeat that I think that John would have won anyway) this sort of thing needs to be sorted out asap.

John Cryer selected as PPC for Leyton and Wanstead.

The ballot closed yesterday and the count was today. I got a text at about 5.30pm and heard the news. John won by 38 votes which is a clear margin and congratulations to him.

Former Chair of West Ham CLP Terry Paul came 2nd (see posts here, here and here). I think congratulations are also in order to Terry as well for running a great campaign and if things had had worked out differently he could have won. But that’s history now – there is only one position and only one real winner.

The local Party will now rally around John for the forthcoming real election and I am sure he will do well and retain the seat.

I spoke to Terry just a little while ago and he was obviously a little disappointed but was energetic and enthusiastic as ever. He especially wanted to thank the local members who had supported him.

Next time he stands somewhere it will be different I think.

Congratulations also to Unite’s Jack Dromey who was last night selected as PPC for Birmingham Erdington.