UK
Something rotten in Islington North
Over 70 members of Islington North Labour Party are today asking voters to vote for the independent candidate Jeremy Corbyn, including the overwhelming majority of the CLP’s executive committee. Further below we reproduce their letter in full. First, we publish an exclusive article from a group of Party activists who are bitterly angry at how have they have been treated.
This is a strange election, but for some of us it is even stranger. We have been Labour Party members in Islington North for decades, and have loyally turned out to campaign for all sorts of deadbeats, no-hopers and right wingers. But this time, like most of the members of the constituency, we are not.
In May Cllr Anjna Khurana was elected Mayor of Islington for this year. Anjna represents the best of us: hardworking, principled and brave, she took legal action, challenging the sale of local GP surgeries to an American health care company. It’s convincing proof of how Islington Labour defends the vulnerable and sick, great to mention on the doorstep, as one of those surgeries returns to the local GP Federation at the beginning of July. Well, we are not on the doorstep and we doubt anyone who is canvassing for Labour is mentioning it.
Everyone knows what has happened to our MP of over 40 years, and that Jeremy Corbyn is now standing as an independent. Islington North members were presented with a shortlist of two by the NEC, and then told that even that ‘choice’ was denied them, and someone called Praful Nargund was to be the Labour candidate in this hitherto safe seat.
Most residents had never heard of him, but we Party members had. There were rumours about his ambitions to be an MP, ever since he was elected as a local councillor two years ago, after a ‘selection’ in which, unusually, only those selected stood, in a ward in the neighbouring constituency. He is alleged to have employed a PR or lobbying firm to further his ambitions, soon after buying a house in Barnsbury (a terraced house there will set you back over £4m today).
So who is Praful Nargund? According to the Daily Mail, he is a multi-millionaire private healthcare entrepreneur, who was educated at the now £25,000-per-year King’s College School in Wimbledon and holds more than £9.4million worth of shares in his family’s holding company. He is reported to have been a director of a US-owned private healthcare company, which made £16million profit in just nine months, from UK patients, and only left his role just prior to being publicly announced as Labour’s imposed Islington North candidate.
In spite of all those resources, however, he has been undistinguished as a councillor in the London Borough of Islington where he sat on only two council committees – the minimum. Unsurprisingly, Praful Nargund is refusing to take part in election hustings or talk to the local press, skewered by his comments in favour of the privatisation of health services.
His candidacy is in stark contrast to the hugely popular and hardworking MP whom he seeks to replace. Many local councillors and branch and constituency officers have chosen not to campaign for him, despite pressure to do so. Scores of activists have left the Party in disgust, including many branch organisers, chairs and even the chair of the CLP.
The constituency has had no access to Organise or Contact Creator for several months, making it difficult to organise campaigning for Sadiq Khan during the mayoral campaign. Seemingly, Sadiq’s victory was less important to some in the Party bureaucracy than the need to stop the local Party functioning. Yet we overcame the problems and turned out to campaign for him in spite of it. The shutdown was supposedly because of a data breach which prevented branch and constituency meetings. But miraculously now we can all get Party emails, and one of the first was from Nargund, asking for campaign donations.
The impact across the borough Party of the leadership’s persecution of Jeremy Corbyn has been profound. The Council and Party are both very divided and unhappy. As members leave, there is demoralization and drift. Beyond the Party, there is confusion and dismay among ordinary voters that a much-loved MP no longer has the official Labour label.
Whoever becomes the MP for Islington North, the damage to the local Party may be irreparable. Many of those who left may not return to a Party that is so tainted and is fast becoming home to a small group of bumptious, entitled right wingers and where what was once a pioneering progressive council is losing its values and its touch.
In the circumstances, it is important that those on the left who are staying in the Party do not dance to the tune of the right and seal themselves off from those who felt they had to leave. Member and ex-members, the left inside and out, need to work together and prepare for the battles to come.
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Media outlets are reporting today that 72 members including most CLP executive officers have signed an open letter calling on voters in the constituency to back Jeremy Corbyn, who is now standing as an independent. But few are publishing the letter in its entirety with all its signatories. Labour Hub reproduces this below.
A plea from resigning and former members of Islington North Labour Party: vote for Jeremy Corbyn, Independent
Dear voters of Islington North,
We have been proud members of Islington North Labour Party for many years. Together, we have campaigned on a wide range of issues, from defending the local Number 4 bus route to saving the local hospital’s A&E. These campaigns have united members from all sides of our Party, and we are proud of the collegiate atmosphere that we have created. In many ways, Islington North CLP was the genuine broad church that the Labour Party claims to be.
This year, we have been denied the right to choose our own candidate for the General Election. Not a single person in Islington North has had a say. We believe in democracy – and the people of Islington North deserve an MP who believes in democracy too.
Jeremy Corbyn has dedicated his life to this constituency. We hear on a regular basis from people how Jeremy has been there for them in their time of need, whether that is housing, education or anything else. He has always worked in partnership with our progressive Labour Council, both as a Labour MP and as an Independent MP.
We have been proud to stand alongside Jeremy over the course of ten General Elections. This year, we will be campaigning for him as an independent candidate for Islington North. Many of us have already resigned or been expelled from the Labour Party as a result. Those of us who are still in the Party know our support for Jeremy will
result in the termination of our membership. We do not take this decision lightly, but it is time to take a stand in the name of democracy and justice.
We will campaign on the same principles we have always had. That includes ending all privatisation of our NHS in order to restore the principle of free, public and universal healthcare.
Jeremy has always been an honest, brave and principled voice. We need that voice now, more than ever. We implore Labour voters to support Jeremy Corbyn as an independent candidate, and vote for him on the 4th July.
Signed,
Alison McGarry (CLP Chair)
Bisi Williams (CLP Vice Chair Membership)
Gill Lawton (CLP Vice Chair Membership)
Ruth Clarke (CLP Women’s Section Secretary)
Steph Linkogle (CLP Vice Chair Campaigns)
Sarah Doyle (CLP Secretary)
Oliver Durose (CLP Assistant Secretary)
Martin Franklin (CLP Environment Officer,
Tufnell Park ward delegate)
Michael Rowan (CLP Communications and Social Media)
Simon Hinds (ex-CLP BAME Officer)
Terry Conway (CLP LGBT Officer, GM
delegate Unite LE 00014 branch)
Karen Shook (Finsbury Park Ward Executive Committee)
Nadine Finch (Union delegate from Unite LE 790 Branch, Chair of Arsenal Ward)
Mumtaz Khan (Union delegate from Unite LE 00014 branch)
Talal Karim (Union delegate from Unite LE 525 branch)
Gillian Dalley (Tollington Ward Chair)
Diane Reay (Vice Chair Tollington Ward)
Kate Buffery (Junction Ward GM delegate, Local Campaign Forum)
Peter Murray (Treasurer, Junction Ward)
Jonathan Gore (Ward Organiser, Highbury)
Cassie Mayer (Hillrise Ward GM delegate)
Sophie Maisey (Hillrise Ward GM delegate)
Ginette Williams (Hillrise GM Ward delegate)
Jan Whelan (Hillrise Ward GM delegate)
Mica Nava (Tufnell Park Ward GM delegate)
Dr Azhar Malik (Tufnell Park Ward GM delegate)
Jeremy Maher (Tufnell Park Ward GM delegate)
Annette Thomas (Tufnell Park Ward GM delegate)
Tony Graham (Highbury Ward GM delegate)
Stelios Foteinopoulos (Finsbury Park Ward GM delegate)
Minda Burgos-Lukes (Highbury Ward GM delegate)
Nick Davidson (Highbury Ward Treasurer, GM delegate)
Jan Whelan (Hillrise Ward GM delegate)
Dr Zohra Malik
Dr Rohi Malik
Sive Malik
Reem Abou-El-Fadl
Jan Pollock
Celie Hanson
William Murphy
Jenny Howell
Judy Garton-Sprenger
Tom Cockcroft
Juliette Mullin
Joei Silvester
The following members and delegates resigned before 2024, but after Jeremy was initially
suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party – positions in brackets at time of departure.
Asima Shaik (Islington Labour councilor for Finsbury Park, now Independent councillor)
Osh Gantly (former Islington Labour councillor for Highbury East)
Julia Bard (Ward Political Education Officer)
David Rosenberg (Political Education Officer)
Patricia Brewerton (Mildmary Ward Secretary and Ward Organiser)
Andy Coghill (Junction Ward Organiser)
Ruth Steigman (Tufnell Park GM delegate)
Jenny Richardson (Tollington Ward GM delegate)
Terry Barry (Tollington Ward GM delegate)
David Brewerton
Debbie Shewell
Tim Mohun
Andrea Croce
Desna Roberts
Dr Brigid Sheppard
Louisa Kaplin
Alexandra Stein
Dr Gill Yudkin
Peter Thomas
Rosy Pearson
Jonny Evans
Jonathan Chadwick
Brenon Ford
Stephen Moorby
Robin Jarossi
Heidi Rice
Brennon Ford
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andymiah/34393582690. Author: Andy Miah. CC BY-NC 2.0A TTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL 2.0 GENERIC
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