Tristram Hunt Wins Stoke Central Labour Contest

At the selection meeting of Stoke Central Constituency Labour Party this evening, Tristram Hunt was selected by an overwhelming majority to be Labour's candidate in the general election.

The vote breakdown was:

Tristram - 50
Joe - 6
Saj - 7
Spoiled - 8

The vote to enable the selection was passed with 41 votes for.

So congratulations to Tristram.

Full report to follow, and expect more on Newsnight later.

EXCLUSIVE: Stoke Central Re-Opens Nominations!

Just when you thought there couldn't be any more twists to the Stoke Central general election saga, here comes this 11th hour bombshell from Daisy Prafollo of the NEC. In an email sent to Labour party members in the early hours of this morning it says:

* Today's selection meeting has been called off.
* The suspension of Stoke Central CLP has been lifted.
* Applications for consideration are once again open.
* A 'long shortlist' of eight will be drawn up by the elected officers of the CLP.
* This list will be voted on following an expanded hustings.

Assuming the election is called on the sixth, we'll still be without a candidate until mid-way through the campaign. If only the powers that be had gone down this route to begin with it would have saved a lot of frustration and bad feeling. Will they ever learn?

Here's Daisy's letter:

Dear Colleague

Stoke Central CLP Selection Meeting scheduled for Thursday 1st April is Postponed

Last night (31st March) members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) met in emergency session after reports were received from the NEC Organisation Committee and the Senior Constitutional Officer regards the selection process in Stoke Central Constituency Labour Party (CLP). The NEC noted the selection process used to long list and shortlist Labour's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) has exacerbated divisions in the CLP, gives the appearance of an imposition, and could damage the Party's standing in all of Stoke and North Staffordshire.

Members are Labour's lifeblood. Up and down the country they undertake inspirational work at weekends and in the evenings to get Labour candidates elected. Confidence in candidates and the processes that select them are vital. Members need to feel they have a real stake in our success!

Therefore the NEC has resolved the following:

1) The suspension of Stoke Central CLP, enacted on Saturday 13th March, is lifted with immediate effect. The administrative suspension of several of its officers is also lifted. Other sanctions remain in place.
2) The PPC selection meeting due to take place on Thursday 1st April has been postponed.
3) Nominations for the position of PPC are re-opened. Previous applicants may apply.

The NEC also resolved:

1) The officers of Stoke Central CLP will draw up a shortlist of no more than eight names. The truncated electoral timetable leaves no time for long listing.
2) Shortlisted candidates will face an extended hustings meeting.

Furthermore, the NEC decided:

To encourage as wide a participation as possible, colleagues with more than six month's membership can vote for their preferred candidate by telephone, post, email, Facebook or Twitter.

On behalf of the NEC I do apologise for the inconvenience. But it feels strongly we have to take lay democracy in the Party very seriously. We need trust in our ideas and our Party if we are to win a Future Fair for All.

Thank you for your continued support,

Daisy Prafollo
Junior Constitutional Officer

Tristram Hunt for Stoke Central

For balance, here's the full address Tristram Hunt has circulated to members of Stoke Central CLP.


Tristram Hunt

A strong voice for Stoke

‘Stoke needs a candidate committed to party unity, jobs, and taking on the BNP – I have the energy and experience to do that.’

My name is Tristram Hunt and I am one of the candidates for the upcoming parliamentary selection in Stoke Central. I have known and worked with Mark Fisher MP for many years on numerous issues including heritage policy and regeneration. It was a shock when he announced two weeks ago he was standing down. In the days following, I spoke with Mark and he suggested I should try to seek the nomination in Stoke Central.

I know that the decision you have to make about our candidate is important and one you do not take lightly. But I believe I have something to offer Stoke-On-Trent as Labour strives to regain council seats, fight the growing threat of the BNP, improve education and regenerate the six towns. I come from a Labour family. I am passionate about the party. I am a member of Unite; the Co-operative Party and The Working Class Movement Library.

I am presently a university lecturer in history – I have written three books, produced and presented a number of TV programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, and appeared on ‘Question Time’ and ‘Any Questions’. As a historian, I understand the incredible heritage of the Potteries and North Staffordshire. I am on the Board of the Heritage Lottery Fund and worked tirelessly to ensure they funded the outstanding Wedgwood Museum and provided the recent £1.2 million grant to ensure the Staffordshire Hoard returns home to Staffordshire and the Potteries Museum. I will work closely with the Potteries Museum and Destination Staffordshire to ensure they receive further funding to revamp the museum and create a permanent home – which will attract thousands of visitors into Hanley.

But history needs to be an asset, not a dead weight. We need to draw on this heritage of innovation, craftsmanship, business acumen, and entrepreneurialism to attract high-skilled well paid jobs into Stoke. How do we do this? It will require improved education, skills training and apprenticeships – my number one priority as candidate.

I have worked with various ministers in the Labour Party on science and education policy and regional industrial strategy. As a Trustee of the Centre for Cities I understand how vital it is for cities to draw on their talents and skills to increase jobs and living standards. I know that schools should be centres of civic pride and excellence at the heart of our local communities. At the same time I firmly believe that Stoke needs a strong presence in Westminster to ensure that highly skilled jobs locate here and that the urban regeneration that is always promised is finally delivered.

I have met with numerous party members, Councillors and officers who have told me that more than enough energy has been spent on local and regional divisions; it’s time to remember that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. We all know that it would be a disaster for this city if a BNP candidate was elected. What high tech firms would want to locate here? What new teachers, doctors or police officers would want to work here with a BNP Member of Parliament? We need a tough candidate who can unite the party and counter this serious threat.

I know it will require hard work: street-by-street campaigning and door-knocking to return a Labour MP this May and win Labour seats in the crucial 2011 elections. The campaigning must continue throughout the year to ensure we are fully prepared to win back the council in 2011. It will also require growing the party – getting more young people involved and reaching out to parts of the local community put off by traditional politics. I am ready and committed to that fight.

If selected as Labour candidate I would:

• Fight to keep schools located in our communities
• Use all my business, political and media skills to bring investment, regeneration, tourism and jobs to Stoke;
• Work tirelessly to improve the profile of Stoke-on-Trent nationally;
• Tackle the BNP head on and remove their vicious stain from our streets;
• Build a vibrant and inclusive local party;
• Liaise with local groups, the police and Council to fight anti-social behaviour;
• Make a family home in the constituency;
• Publish transparent and open expenses.

Please take a moment to read my Labour CV and send me your thoughts on what our priorities should be – the new policies, plans for the party, and how to win again.

Joe Ukemenam for Stoke Central

... and here's Joe Ukemenam's address:


Dear Colleague

Re: Stoke Central CLP Candidacy

I write to ask for your vote and support in this selection event (1st April 2010).

For over 26 years years, I have worked very hard for our party, building its community base and supporting the candidacy of others. My strength is building and empowering communities both constituted and un-constituted groups. I have done so for over 35,000 community groups in the UK and internationally working across various thematic areas such as health, regeneration, justice system, education, enterprise solutions, environment, mediation, participation, civil and welfare rights etc.

Three things about me. I am a community leader, an influencer and an organiser with local and international experience. With my United Nations experience, I reconcile and regenerate communities that are passionately divided about various issues. I propose to bring together all my experience and skills (international, national, local, trade unionism and activism in the Labour party) and devote the required time to fight for the re-election of Labour, the issues that you care about, our public services, the defeat of facism and the Tories.

I have no special friends amongst the top, rich and powerful in our party or society. I am a committed foot soldier, who has performed even the roles of Generals and is dedicated to the mission of our people. With me, you will always know what you are getting.

Currently

· I chair the UNISON voluntary organisations branch and worked very hard to increase membership by 30%; campaign for equal pay, the million voices amongst other issues and the defeat the BNP.
· I have capacity built over 35,000 community organisations around the world and raised over £900 million on their behalf.
· I do not plan to win the seat alone.

My first priority is to keep Labour in power. The second will be to do as the constituents want me to do. If elected, I will relocate to Stoke.

Let me know if you want us to meet and or if you require further information before you are able to give me your support and vote. I sincerely hope that you will support me.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Joe Ukemenam

Saj Malik for Stoke Central

Now Labourites in Stoke know who's made it through to the shortlist, Stoke Central CLP members will be pressing the flesh with the candidates, ringing around, googling their names and trying to get a sense of who these men are. We've already seen what Tristram Hunt pledges to do if he's selected and goes on to represent Stoke Central in parliament. But what about his two opponents?

Both have emailed around their letters and CVs today. Below I reproduce Saj Malik's address to the CLP. Joe Ukemenam's will shortly follow.


SAJ MALIK FOR STOKE CENTRAL

Dear Comrades

My name is Saj Malik and I am writing to ask you to choose me for your prospective parliamentary candidate for Stoke Central. I am a member of Unite. I have been a councillor since 2004 and have been an executive board member since 2006. I am an experienced and tireless campaigner. I opposed the war in Iraq and went on March against the war. I first joined the Labour party in 1990 and worked as a local campaigner and rejoined again in 2006. I work with Andrew Smith MP and his campaign team, which has achieved great results in last two elections against the national trend. In Oxford East we have been going out regularly and this year we spoken to approximately 40,000 people on the doorstep. I am a hard worker and experienced campaigner who will not just unite the local Labour party but will double the membership within two years.

What will I do?
Given the chance I will work hard for the people of Stoke Central and protect jobs and our Pottery industry. I will fight to keep schools located in our communities. Working with the local community and police to tackle anti-social behaviour I will be able to bring in my experience as a cabinet member for safer community since 2008. Crime has fallen in Oxford under the labour run council over the past two years. I will move to the constituency straight away if given the chance to serve you, and I will send my kids to local schools. My expenses will be on the website every month for public accountability. Especially now in these difficult times we need to help people. I will work with our Labour councillors on Stoke City Council, who are working hard to serve you. I wish to take the fight to BNP and the other groups to get majority on the council. Lets reclaim Stoke and take this historic city forward for a bright future.


Why Saj for Stoke Central?
Stoke Central is working class area, and you won't find anyone more working class than a down to earth taxi-driver who lives in council house on council estate. I am passionate about serving the British public. We often hear about doctors and barristers or other professionals who can earn more in their job than being an MP. I say to those who want to earn money please stay in your law chambers or surgeries not in parliament. We need MPs who in their hearts want to serve the British public. MPs should be the servants of the public and not be there for the money. We need to put the trust back which MPs lost during the expenses scandal and now the lobbying row. I will never take anything for granted and keep in touch all year round. I would create a grid to raise contact rate in the constituency, only requesting you one session a week on door or phone canvass, regular going out every Wednesday and Sunday. I will promise to report back to the members every quarterly in person, so you have the chance to scrutinise my progress and have your say.

Who is Saj Malik?
I was born in Pakistan, my father was a police officer who later became a Prisoner Of War during the civil war of 1971. My uncle served in the British Army. I got married to Claire Jones in 1996 at the historic church of Ewelme in Oxfordshire. We have three children.

Serving the British public is my small contribution to the country which has provided me with a roof over my head, a wonderful wife and beautiful children. Thank you.

SAJ MALIK
FRESH START FOR STOKE CENTRAL

EXCLUSIVE: Stoke Central Shortlist

Here's the list politics geeks in Stoke-on-Trent have been waiting for.

The biggest shock is that the short list is ... short. The names are:

Tristram Hunt
Sajjad-Hussein Malik
Joe Ukemenam

And there we have it. Odds on favourite? Tristram Hunt.

The Ahmed Hussain Manouevre

Remember former Welsh Assembly Member Dr John Marek? Formerly an AM for Labour, he was deselected in 2003 and successfully defended his seat on a John Marek Independent Party ticket. For a time he was seen as a useful vehicle for the left Welsh nationalists of Cymru Goch to develop a left regroupment vehicle not unlike the Scottish Socialist Party. After some shenanigans aimed at excluding the "Brit left" from the eventual lash-up (which got a bit of coverage in the Weekly Worker at the time), CG and JMIP dissolved themselves into Forward Wales.

In its brief existence (FW disbanded earlier this year) the party didn't really achieve a great deal, beyond recruiting former Labour minister Ron Davies and polling a stunning 17,280 votes (1.9%) in the 2004 European election. Clearly Marek and Davies thought the party label was more a hindrance than a help and elected to stand as independents in the 2007 Welsh Assembly elections. Neither were successful.

Nonetheless FW was part of the far left, standing for a democratic socialist Wales (while, strangely, not officially ever calling for Welsh independence). You can read its statement of principles here.

I was therefore tickled to learn "comrade" Marek had performed the Ahmed Hussain manouevre. i.e. Jumping straight from the far left (in Ahmed's case, formerly a sitting SWP councillor) to the Tories. Well done, John! You can read his sorry statement here.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with some elements of Marek's statement. Sad to say, on some civil liberties issues the Tories do outflank Labour from the left, particularly on ID cards. Quite why the government continues to extend petty authoritarianism over more and more aspects of social life remains a mystery to me. But what worries me more is their ability to get away with rafts of repressive measures without so much as a ripple of mass opposition.

I digress. I wish John Marek all the best in his new home and hope his socialist conscience doesn't trouble him too much.

Stoke Central Long List

Tomorrow 11 people still in the race to be Stoke Central's Labour MP after the general election will be interviewed in London. According to Peter Kenyon they will be grilled by Keith Vaz, Cllr Ann Lucas of Coventry, and USDAW deputy general secretary Paddy Lillis. So who are these folk lucky enough to make it onto the long list?

In the 'no surprises' category are Jane Heggie, Rob Flello MP's office manager, Sarah Hill, leading light of Labour's 'City Party', historian Tristram Hunt, and Byron Taylor of the Trade Union and Labour Liason Organisation (website here). I was unsurprised but disappointed left wingers like Mike Ion and Mark Seddon didn't clear the first hurdle, nor did various other locals who threw their hats in the ring.

Who are the others that made it?

Neil Goulbourne is a GP from Coventry and a member of the Labour affiliated Socialist Health Association. A verbatim transcript of a talk he gave on health inequality can be found here.

Mervyn Smith is only one of three local names to have got through. He was part of former Labour mayor Mark Meredith's "advisory panel" and remains one of his supporters in Stoke Central CLP. He lost his council seat in the Labour wipeout of 2008.

Sajjad-Hussein Malik is a sitting councillor in Oxford where he holds the sports and leisure portfolio in the council cabinet. Interestingly he defected from the LibDems as a councillor as recently as 2006. He previously made the shortlist to replace disgraced MP Elliot Morley.

Fadel Takrouri is a nuclear physicist(!) and pharmacist. He was born in Palestine and is another Coventry applicant. He is a member of Labour's Black And Minority Ethnic (BAME) group as the representative of Arabs for Labour.

Kamaljeet Jandu has, according to this profile, a long history in the trade union movement and is now the GMB's national officer for equality.

Joe Ukemenam is a former UN ambassador to several African countries and is currently a journalist. He is also chair of a Unison voluntary organisation branch.

Zahid Nawaz is West Midlands regional manager for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a former parliamentary researcher and has served in a variety of capacities as an international relations/security consultant. He also sits on the WestMids police authority, where he's curiously described as an independent.

None of the above would be my first choice for candidate, but as a trade unionist I'm drawn to Byron Taylor and Kamaljeet Jandu. Unfortunately, the CLP grapevine has it that Byron does not plan to move to the constituency should he be successful. If that's right he can kiss his chances goodbye. Apart from these two, none of the remaining five really do it for me.

That said I am warming slightly to Tristram Hunt. Like several other candidates he's been out and about this week and has made clear what he's standing for. His pledges are:

* Fight to keep schools located in our communities
* Use his business, political and media skills to bring investment, regeneration, tourism and jobs
* Work to promote Stoke's profile nationally
* Take the fight to the BNP
* Build a vibrant and inclusive local party
* Liaise with community groups, police and council to tackle anti-social behaviour
* Move himself and his family to the constituency
* Keep his expenses transparent and open

Not a programme for the abolition of capitalism by any means, but well within the mainstream of Labour party opinion.

Who will make the shortlist? Assuming there will be five names Tristram is a dead cert, as is Sarah Hill. I think Jane Heggie and Byron Taylor are very probable too. As for the fifth, I would be surprised if one of the Coventry names didn't get through. And who will get the big prize? It's difficult to say. Last week I pooh-poohed Tristram's chances, but now I think this was a mistake. The problem with Jane and Sarah is they are too associated with region's side of the interminable dispute between it and the CLP, and it is a relationship that will cost them dear when it comes to the selection vote. Tristram on the other hand - despite his association with the Prince of Darkness - is an untainted figure.

On a final note I will say the selection process has been a shoddy disgrace - it should be up to the elected officers of CLPs to determine who gets on the long and short lists, not the party machine.

Monday update: I have heard Byron Taylor does after all intend to move to the constituency.

Monday evening update: Byron Taylor, Jane Heggie, Sarah Hill and Mervyn Smith didn't make the shortlist. So that's no local candidates and means Tristram is now the clear front runner. The selection meeting on Thursday will be most interesting.

BA Strike Video

Spread this video far and wide:



Also keep an eye on the excellent Air Strike for updates from the picket lines.

The New Party and British Proto-Fascism

Oswald Mosley formed the New Party (not to be confused with the tiny, right-populist groupuscule of the same name) after he split from Labour in 1931. In its brief existence the New Party was a transitional formation that went on to provide the core for Mosley's British Union of Fascists, and has since become nothing more than a footnote in Britain's political history. In a paper given at Keele yesterday, Matt Worley sought to redress the balance by looking at the kinds of people the New Party attracted, while locating it in the context of a crisis in the British party system.

As a party drawing sustenance from all political traditions, the five personality archetypes Matt drew on to illustrate the New Party's history demonstrates the party's fluid and unstable character.

The first of these is the 'disillusioned socialist', exemplified by Herbert Hodge, a London taxi driver. He had been disappointed with Labour's performance and was put off by what he saw as the dogmatism of the Communist Party. He longed for a political movement that was "new and clean, neither capitalist or communist". He stood for the party in Stepney Limehouse in the 1931 election and polled 307 votes (1.4%). Hodge experienced Mosley as distant and insincere, and this disappointment was compounded by the resignation of the leading socialist intellectual, John Strachey. Once militarism became an established feature of the party's youth wing Hodge too departed.

The second was the 'progressive intellectual', exemplified by the then well known (but now largely forgotten) writer and broadcaster, C.E.M. Joad. Joad came from a prosperous background, had got himself expelled from the Fabians for sexual misadventure and was part of Mosley's social circle. When the New Party formed it initially provided Joad a vehicle to exert his influence - Mosley's modernist statism chimed with Joad's Fabianism. But again it was Mosley's drift to fascism and the increasing willingness of the youth group to use violence against its political opponents that cut short Joad's New Party career.

The third type of personality is the 'family friend', illustrated here by James Lees-Milne. Lees-Milne was a distant Mosley relative and like Joad was from a well-heeled background. Unlike Joad he had imbibed the anti-communism common among his class and saw the New Party as a way of keeping the working class in its place. His affinity with the project, however, was always tenuous. He described its general election campaign as a "small and grotesque band of candidates". Like the others he departed when the party's fascist direction became apparent.

Important for the formation of the New Party's youth group was the fourth archetype - the Oxford undergraduate. Here Matt used the example of Peter Howard, a student sport star who captained the England Rugby team while he was associated with Mosley. Touring the country as a party activist Howard was genuinely moved by the poverty he saw and he "began to see myself as a latter day Lenin". As a paid official he was tasked with organising the youth wing - the way his fellow Oxford students stewarded New Party meetings became the blueprint for its later militarisation. By the end of the year he had drifted out because of a love affair, and that his standing in the party had been undermined by staunch anti-communists (ironically his later conservative journalism was associated with that movement).

Lastly there is the 'radical reactionary'. Peter Chanie was cut from this cloth. As an extreme reactionary, he had been variously involved in anti-socialist and patriotic groupings in the 1920s, and volunteered for the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies during the General Strike. He immediately started organising stewarding and militarising the youth group and was generally recognised as having a "pernicious influence". Still he imparted an interest in martial sports on the organisation but, somewhat surprisingly, left politics before the founding of the BUF.

Overall the New Party was mostly male, youthful, and drew recruits mainly from the middle and upper class. Many of the initial personnel were from the left, which was unsurprising as Mosley had spent time cultivating influence in the Parliamentary Labour Party. The New Party was marketed explicitly as a home for disgruntled socialists, and those from Labour and CPGB backgrounds who signed on saw the move as a continuation of rather than a rejection of socialism. And when Strachey resigned, much of this milieu drifted back to Labour.

The New Party also had a propensity to attract those whose association with the centre ground of politics was tenuous. Those from Labour backgrounds mostly had a history with the Independent Labour Party (in 1932 the ILP disaffiliated from Labour), were not from the working class and had very little understanding of class politics - their socialism was of the technocratic and ethical variety. This isn't to say working class members were entirely absent, but again there was a tendency of them to have moved into journalism and other non-manual occupations. Also there was personnel from Labour and the Tories who had felt frustrated in trying to reorganise their parties and so gave up to try their hand elsewhere.

Not only were many of the recruits politically marginal, relatively speaking, they were restless, marginal people. Each of the examples above had already led or went onto multiple careers, and many of these careers involved wide-ranging travel.

Lastly, the New Party expressed generational conflict. On a personal level many leading members had complicated and fraught relationships with parents and uncles - not least the Mosleys themselves. This was expressed culturally in the party as a reaction against the sins of the father, such as alcoholism and Victorian morality, and the embrace of political modernism. There was also an element of political patricide in the New Party mix. The front benches and government were, in the main, the same men that had led Britain into the slaughter of 1914-18. The generation that risked life and limb in the trenches found itself stymied by the parliamentary old guard. The New Party's propaganda played on this by projecting a youthful image. Mosley himself cut an athletic figure, which complimented his reputation as a man of action. The party's youthfulness was mixed with the glamour of pseudo-military discipline, and drew in the undergraduates and sports figures. The New Party provided a brief home for those seeking discipline and order, and confrontation.

As the New Party developed over the course of 1931 the left, which had played a prominent role in getting it off the ground, gradually fell away and return to Labour. The socialist element of the New Party was expunged by Mosley after Strachey's departure, allowing it to be increasingly anti-communist in character and further feeding its evolution toward fascism. Later recruits - especially the young - unsurprisingly followed Mosley into the BUF.

In the subsequent discussion, Matt was asked about the near invisibility of women in the New Party's history. He replied that was because women were almost entirely absent. Very few women joined, the youth movement was defined explicitly as male-only and Mosley himself discouraged women from joining. Later on he was to admit this was a mistake and women were admitted to BUF membership (women were organised by Mary Raleigh Richardson, a former leading suffragette).

What is interesting about the New Party is how it is emblematic of a certain form of political formation that is thrown up by British politics from time to time. The New Party then espoused a particular anti-politics in much the same way UKIP, Veritas, BNP, Libertarian Party have done. The difference being today's attacks on politicians is about corruption, whereas the sentiment the New Party fed off was a sense politicians of the day were intellectually deficient and not up to the problems facing modern Britain. Secondly the New Party was extremely unstable - within a year it had gone. UKIP and the BNP are certainly longer lived, but they are unstable as the never ending stream of fallings out, expulsions and resignations attest.

So the New Party may be a historical footnote, but its trajectory and the character of its personnel means its has plenty of lessons for today.