Livingstone may face wrath of Labour leadership
LABOUR’s National Executive is now poised to discuss disciplinary action against its London Mayor candidate Ken Livingstone for publicly appearing in the East End in support of the party’s rival who won last Thursday’s Mayor of Tower Hamlets election.
It is to hold a meeting next month in the wake of calls for Livingstone to be reprimanded after his ‘walk-about’ support in Whitechapel just two days before the election, the East London Advertiser has learned.
His actions seeking the ‘second preference’ for Labour rival Lutfur Rahman, who won overwhelmingly with 51 per cent of the vote, has angered Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick, whose Poplar & Limehouse constituency now falls under the shadow of former council leader Rahman who quit the party to run independently.
“We are bitterly disappointed at Rahman winning,” the MP said.
“Labour is now the Official Opposition on Tower Hamlets council, even with its vast majority. It was a big defeat and we are now left to lick our wounds.”
You may also want to watch:
He and fellow East End MP Rushanara Ali are due to meet the Labour Group on the council tomorrow (Tuesday) to plan its next move.
Labour was hit by the low turn-out, just 25 per cent, with many of its traditional rank-and file staying away from Thursday’s poll.
Most Read
- 1 Ethnic communities not taking up Covid jabs, Tower Hamlets Mayor warns
- 2 Man sentenced after teenage boy groomed on Snapchat to sell heroin
- 3 'Racist consultation' protest rejected on Tower Hamlets street closures as Labour sticks to its manifesto
- 4 Council fined for Alexia Walenkaki's playground death in Mile End and says sorry to family
- 5 NHS nurse assaulted at east London hospital
- 6 Airbnb house party violence leaves police officer with broken finger
- 7 Covid vaccination hub opening in Westfield next week
- 8 Police hunt after stabbing in Cable Street: One man hurt
- 9 Streets around proposed Chinese embassy building could be renamed after persecuted Muslims
- 10 Death of woman, 75, in Mile End fire could have been avoided
Labour’s ruling NEC is now looking into Livingstone’s actions at a meeting in mid-November.
“The NEC is to decide about Livingstone and the eight Labour councillors who supported Rahman,” Mr Fitzpatrick added. “It is up to the NEC what to do about them.”
The eight councillors who openly backed Rahman “have expelled themselves form the party,” he pointed out, although a lawyer’s letter of appeal has now been received by the NEC on their behalf.
Ken Livingstone in a statement before the election called for ‘first preference’ for official Labour candidate Helal Abbas—but ‘second preference’ for Rahman “to keep the Tories out” which critics in the party say cost them the election.
