Following our editorial on last week’s local election results (here), we publish here a report from a Momentum activist in Bedford, illustrating the hold that the old-guard right-wing still has on many parts of the Labour Party’s local government election machine and the responsibility they bear for the losses last week, modest though they were alongside the Tory massive losses.
By Md Mamunul Islam, Bedford Labour Party member
After the elections on May 2nd 2019, Bedford was left with 15 Lib Dems councillors, 11 Tories, 11 Labour, 2 Greens and 1 Independent. The Lib Dem mayor was elected for the third time. Labour lost 3 seats to the Lib Dems and one to the Green Party. The most ‘safe’ Labour ward that was contested was only won by majority of 1 vote from an independent.
The background to these losses are years of continuous collaboration and effectively ‘coalition’ (although it isn’t called that) with the Lib-Dems.
In the local elections of 2011, the Labour Party agreed a deal with the Lib-Dems not to fight certain wards. Remember, the Lib-Dems were the party at this time who were propping up the Cameron government. The Labour mayoral campaign was actively hampered by councillors because the candidate was campaigning in supposedly ‘banned’ wards where there was a deal with Lib-Dems in place. The outcome of the Bedford ‘deal’ was that each of the three main parties ended up with 12 councillors, alongside 4 Independents. Labour then did another deal to support the Lib-Dem Mayor, in exchange for having three places on the Council Executive.
In 2013, a new Labour mayoral candidate was selected and she tried to persuade the Labour councillors to end the arrangement with the Lib-Dems for the next elections. Individually, a majority of councillors agreed, but at a vote of the Labour group, to which she was not invited, they refused. The mayoral candidate then resigned and within the party there was a growing resentment about the Labour councillors’ refusal to withdraw from the agreement with the Lib-Dems.
By 2015, with the Lib-Dems in government with Cameron, they were losing council seats, so the elections that year produced a council with 14 Labour, 15 Tory, 9 Lib-Dem and 2 independent councillors. The Lib-Dem Mayor retained his position because the Labour mayoral candidate had only 3 months to campaign and was given no funding. Again, Labour campaigners from Bedford were informally ‘banned’ from helping in the rural wards. Again, Labour agreed a deal with the newly-elected Lib-Dem mayor, offering their support to him and his minority party councillors, in exchange for 4 council Executive positions.
To justify this farcical situation, it was said by the Labour Group leader that the council would implement the entire Labour manifesto, but this has not been the case. Scandalously, the regional office of the Labour Party, using powers delegated to it by the NEC, approved the deal, on the basis there would be an annual review and that it should take account of grass roots members opinions. But it is the grass-roots membership who have had no say in this process from the very beginning.
None of the promised quarterly all-member special meetings across the borough of Bedford have taken place. None of the promised ‘progress reports’ have been given to members. The question of a review has not be raised at any CLP meetings and there is no evidence of Labour proposals influencing any initiatives in the four main areas where Labour holds Executive portfolios. Indeed, most Labour members are even unaware of the deal.
2019 Local Elections:
When it came to the 2019 mayoral and local elections, many Labour Party members again felt that the right wing were using a variety of tricks and gerrymandering to make sure that there was no early selection of a candidate. There was a feeling that some Labour councillors were trying to make sure (again) that Labour did not win the mayoral position in Bedford. These concerns were highlighted in several occasions at Bedford CLP GC meetings and Bedford LCF meetings, but it was ignored, and the problems were all blamed at region. Eventually, to the dismay of members, the selection panel only allowed one candidate to go forward to the members so there were no hustings and there was no selection process in which members could participate. What was even more bizarre was the fact that the selected candidate was actually part of short-listing panel, which means she knew all question that panel would ask and the answer they are looking for. This state of affairs was opposed by left members of the CLP and it was only with the intervention of the NEC that the panel was widened to two candidates. Eventually, the one ‘original’ choice was selected, by now this being only weeks before the election.
Bedford Local Campaign Forum (LCF)
The LCF is grouping of representatives from all the CLPs within the same local authority and it has the responsibility for overseeing local election campaigning and identifying candidates for council elections. Many party members had been member of LCF for several years, but LCF members were not getting any invitations for meetings. The LCF continued for years without an AGM and the entire borough selection process revolved around rules that had been set by the former chair, including who should be at LCF meetings. Despite opposition from some left members of local CLPs, the LCF continued to operate in an undemocratic manner.
Finally, towards the end of 2018, there was an AGM of the LCF, but it has continued in the old vein. It hasn’t included all its membership in all decisions and decisions that were taken at LCF AGM end of 2018 have not been followed, including the writing of the election manifesto at an all-members workshop. LCF executive members were ignored, and soon after the AGM, the entire local election campaigning process and decision-making was done without having any LCF meeting. Likewise, no ordinary member or the LCF committee members, including executive, had any say on budget or election expenses.
Election result 2019:
The reason for Labour’s losses are down to the way the Labour councillors have controlled the group and the election process behind the backs and away from the scrutiny of the members of the party. Panel members from which the candidates are selected are packed with right-wingers. The right wing delayed and sabotaged the mayoral candidate selection. The right-wing refrain from campaigning in ‘Lib-Dem areas’. The LCF is stitched-up to favour the right-wing and councillors, some of whom urge a vote for the Lib-Dems ‘to keep the Tories out’.
Part of the pernicious influence of the right wing is to favour only those parts of the BAME community where there is perceived to be support for the right-wing, rather than all parts of the BAME population. That is a dangerous game and will lead to further Labour losses.
This is the background to the losses in Bedford. Perhaps it is repeatable in other parts of the country. Sadly, the Labour councillors seem once again to have done a deal with the Lib-Dems, selling their soul for three portfolios. It is the road to ruin and it will lead to more Labour losses in the future. On May 2nd, the Lib-Dems won at Labour’s expense, and they will do it again in the future. Indeed, why would anyone vote for fake Lib-Dems when they can vote for the real thing?
May 9, 2019
