onionbagblog

I find the treatment of Labour Independent Councillor Kingsley Abrams intriguing. It is a story that has only been touched on by the local South London media, and has yet to be really fully explained to the electorate.

The reasons for the Vassall ward councillor losing the whip of the local @LambethLabour party have some parallels with Betty Evans-Jacas, the former Labour councillor for Brixton Hill, who walked across the chamber to join the Tories.

But unlike Betty, Councillor Abrams is a Labour supporter through and through. Yet still he finds himself sitting on the outside of the local party, despite polling an impressive 2,533 votes, the highest number is his Vassall ward with 16% of the overall vote.

The real reasons for Evans-Jacas leaving @LambethLabour have never really been explained outside of the local party either. With such a powerful mandate to serve the electorate in Vassall ward, I wanted to put on the public record why Councillor Abrams has been pushed aside.

We met up in Councillor Abrams home patch early evening on Thursday. I found Councillor Abrams in amiable form. He appears to have been treated incredibly harsh over recent months. What has happened to this popular local figure to make the powerful cabinet clique give Kingsley the cold shoulder?

Councillor Abrams alleges in the podcast below that @cllrstevereed, the Leader of Lambeth Council, was personally responsible for an email sting operation to try and catch him out. The allegation is that a false email was sent to Councillor Abrams’ email account personally by @cllrstevereed, with the Leader of Lambeth Council hoping that this would then be leaked to the South London Press.

Councillor Abrams strongly denies leaking this email, and indeed the failure of the South London Press to publish the false story, seems to verify his account.

What I find more disturbing about the whole affair is the means in which @LambethLabour was able to discover that Councillor Abrams had forwarded the email sting to Kate Hoey, the local MP for Vauxhall. The allegation is that @cllrstevereed instructed an apolitical civil servant to hack into Councillor Abram’s email account.

The story then becomes a political farce; Councillor Abrams was asked to resign ahead of May 6th. He refused to do so, rightly claiming that there had been no evidence presented against him. The election campaign was in full flow, and Councillor Abrams was given the absurd situation of doing the #labourdoorstep thing, knowing full well that if he were to win, his local party was going to do everything in its power to discredit him.

Unlike Betty Evans-Jacas, Councillor Abrams has declared his loyalty to the Labour party. He has been a member for thirty-two years, and wasn’t prepared to give up on his politics on the insistence of what appears to be an incredibly dirty tricks campaign by the right of the local party in Lambeth.

Councillor Abrams continued to recount the events to me, explaining how still without any evidence after May 6th, the power of the @LambethLabour cabinet led to a four-month suspension. An appeal followed, with the unprecedented action of the Leader of Lambeth Council actually representing himself and having to explain how the email hack had happened.

The conclusion is that Councillor Abrams lost the hearing. To this date, no evidence has yet been presented as to why he was even given a four-month suspension from the party that he is passionate about. Councillor Abrams speculates in the podcast below about how the clash of personalities within @LambethLabour, and to a lesser extent, political policy, is probably behind the playground style behaviour from the powers that be @LambethLabour.

I have a lot of time for Kingsley (although not that much - he had to dash off for a ward surgery, and then a tenant meeting on a local estate. He may have had the whip withdrawn, but he is still serving the locals on his ward incredibly well.)

We walked around the Cowley Estate early evening, and he was greeted with friendly smiles and waves at every corner. This is a battle that is of the making by the right wing of @LambethLabour. It is difficult to understand what the @LambethLabour cabinet is trying to achieve. Losing the services of a highly respected local Councillor, as well as the support of a local community, isn’t the traditional way to go about fighting the savage cuts being proposed from the opposition in Westminster.

For all the claims of a personality clash being responsible for the suspension, Councillor Abrams remains a very strong personality locally. This strength of that support will be seen in four months time when the suspension is complete, and Councillor Abrams ponders his next political move.

I have been having some problems with my Hotmail account of late. Yeah, yeah, I know - should have switched to gmail. I have, as it happens, with each gmail being forwarded to my Hotmail account.

The reason why I haven’t migrated fully is because my good old Hotmail address stretches back fifteen years. Everyone knows how, and where, to contact me.

Some people have been a little *too* enthusiastic in trying to make the most of my Hotmail account though. I have been receiving of late those Hotmail automated messages, telling me to change my password ASAP. These are triggered off by someone trying (and failing) to hack into my account.

There’s a pattern to all of this online activity as well - the password changing email always appears after I have posted a Lambeth based political post to m’blog.

Blimey.

I can write endless cricket waffle, and much like the post itself, my Hotmail account is of little interest to anyone. Write a Lambeth based political post however, and all of a sudden, someone wants to see what is inside my personal email account.

This appears to be something of a theme in Lambeth over recent weeks. I have already explained the circumstances that led to @LambethLabour’s Councillor Kingsley Abrams being suspended from his party for a period of four months.

The Vassall ward Councillor was suspected of leaking Nu Labour information to the South London Press [um, site borked, at time of posting...]. An internal Labour Party panel was set up to enquire into whether he had leaked information, which produced a report that was then handed over to the Labour Group Executive for consideration.

The panel found no evidence that Councillor Abrams leaked any information to the South London Press, yet still the full @LambethLabour group voted for a four-month suspension for Councillor Abrams at its group meeting on May 17th.

Here’s where the hacking story in South London gets rather sinister, leading me to consider switching my own personal Hotmail account to a provider that is known not to have so many security holes.

Why was Councillor Abrams suspended with no evidence presented to the @LambethLabour group that he had leaked to the South London Press? Someone, somehow, had found some information, which led to the suspicion that Councillor Abrams wasn’t the enthusiastic flag waver for the Nu Labour project in Lambeth that the party requires of its councillors.

What was this information? On the day of the full @LambethLabour group meeting, copies of a number of emails were produced by the Leader of the Council, all copied from Councillor Abrams’ Lambeth Council account. These included an email sent to Kate Hoey, the MP for Vauxhall, informing her that the Head of Lambeth Living had resigned.

Blimey.

This was news to Hoey, and of great political significance, seeing as though along with Councillor Abrams, she has long since been critical of the Lambeth Living ALMO experiment.

There was absolutely NO truth in the resignation of course - the email had landed in Councillor Abrams’ inbox as a political sting to try and encourage him to leak it, and then subsequently provide a bona fide reason to remove the left of centre Councillor from the right wing @LambethLabour party.

The resignation of the Head of Lambeth Living is a huge story of local interest - which is why you didn’t hear about it because the sting backfired spectacularly. Councillor Abrams forwarded the email to Kate Hoey as evidence of the dirty tricks campaign being waged against him by his own political party. The MP for Vauxhall was not impressed:

“It is central to a free democratic society that every citizen has an absolute right to free and confidential communication with his or her elected representative… without fear that their communications will be intercepted by third parties”

Or even your own local political party.

Whops.

In a serendipitous style, the smoking gun email that never was, bounced between the original high ranking @LambethLabour party member who hatched the plan, over to Councillor Abrams account, crossing the river into Westminster with Kate Hoey, and then back to Lambeth and the laptop of the very same person that sent it, after the instructions were given to hack into the Councillor Abram’s Lambeth account.

And all the time, Lambeth Living still had a Head in charge…

But the real issue here is one of the legalities of looking at the private email of other people. Most work contracts state that employers have the right to monitor emails coming through the internal server. But Councillor Abrams isn’t employed by @LambethLabour, and so the group has no business in snooping around.

Nu Labour has now obtained so much power within the borough, that it is able to exert pressure on supposedly apolitical council officers to do the dirty work on its behalf. If @LambethLabour has no morals in snooping on a party member, who else are they trying to hack into?

Um…

With the Vassall ward being a hotly contested patch between @LambethLabour and @LambethLibDems, you would expect our friends from the red side of the borough to be keen on keeping any card carrying members of the Labour party. Councillor Abrams polled an impressive 2,533 votes - the highest in the ward.

With a London Labour party panel next up to hear the case, I’m starting to consider who is actually on trial here - the Councillor with no evidence against him, or the political party that has been trying to trap its own party members.

Meanwhile, I’m busy changing the password for my damn Hotmail account. Must think of something easy to remember.

l***le_s***s

That should do.

And so the first full @lambeth_council meeting back in the Red Flag flying 44 43 42 seat controlled @LambethLabour borough, and it was all supposed to be apolitical; it was all supposed to be about the retiring @mayoroflambeth. It was all supposed to be about the incoming (and as yet not online) new Mayor of Lambeth.

And in a roundabout way, it more or less was. All up until sometime after the pomp and ceremony of the civic duties were complete, and the guests of Mr Mayor (Keith Vaz MP, Val Shawcross) had been shown the way to the warm white wine in Mr Mayor’s parlour.

And then up cropped the Tulse Hill Situation.

Oh Lordy.

In some La La Lambeth Land twisted turn of fate, the Tulse Hill Situation somehow became embroiled with dear old Comrade Kingsley. Having had the @LambethLabour whip removed for allegedly leaking sensitive Nu Labour documents (is it a co-op? / isn’t it a co-op?) the good Councillor for the Vassall ward suddenly found himself centre stage, somehwere between Vassal and Tulse Hill.

Cripes.

Trust it to be those pesky @LambethLibDems for trying to make political capital out of the internal failings of the squeaky clean Nu Labour tribe. Way down the order paper, and an amendment was placed in at the last minute by @BishopsGavin, one of the @LambethLibDems’ elected representatives for Bishops ward.

In essence, the good Councillor was asking what the chuffers do we do with *that* empty Tulse Hill seat in the chamber, all the way up until the by-election on July 1st?

The Love Me I’m a Liberal voice of reason (and actually it did seem rather sensible to me) was to allow the displaced old Labour figurehead of Comrade Kingsley to take up the Tulse Hill seat in the chamber, sitting as an independent.

This may be a symbolic gesture in principle, but it actually has real ramifications. Don’t be confused with talk of Comrade Kingsley becoming a Councillor in Tulse Hill. What was being put forward here was the motion that dear old Kingsley, now ostracised (rightly or wrongly) from the squeaky clean Nu Labour tribe, should be allowed to sit in an independent Tulse Hill seat in the chamber.

The implication is that Comrade Kingsley gets to form a group of one. Or even two, three or four, depending on how many of the squeaky clean Nu Labour sheep actually find a backbone.

I don’t think Comrade Kingsley will be joined by my Nu Labour Councillor, @JackHopkins_Lab. Having given a sychophantic first speech in the chamber, describing @cllrstevereed as “a champion for taking important decisions,” Jack the Lad Hopkins then used his Chief Whip role to talk down the sensible @LambethLibDem suggestion:

“Why do we need an independent group? The seat will be retained by Labour anyway in the by-election.”

Blimey.

This was fighting talk, not to mention arrogance in the extreme. It would have made sense during the political hustings in that merry month of May, but as a response in what to do with the incredibly delicate Tulse Hill Situation?

Jack the Lad Hopkins now has significant power within Nu Labour himself. So would you if you had just referred to your glorious leader as a “champion.” The @LambethLibDems motion was voted down by the Nu Labour tribe, and poor old Comrade Kingsley was left to sit alone on the Lambeth naughty step.

It’s not that his Nu Labour colleagues smell or anything, simply that forming an independent and recognised political group actually allows you council privileges within the Town Hall. You physically get a desk, a phone and access to the borough’s IT infrastructure.

Oh, hang on…

Comrade Kingsley is now stuck out in Lambeth No Man’s Land (somewhere between Vassall and Tulse Hill) awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the wider London Labour party over his treatment, following the removal of the @LambethLabour whip.

The move by @BishopsGavin to try and find a lone voice for Comrade Kingsley wasn’t a political act of philanthropy. There is little love lost between Comrade Kingsley and his @LambethLibDems ward colleague, Councillor Bradley.

In Lambeth street slang, I believe the vernacular for the inclusion of the motion is that of s*** stirring. Sadly it looks like that it is dear old Comrade Kingsley that is left in the s***, given the Nu Labour tribe respecting the “champion” that is @cllrstevereed.

And so why the cold shoulder for Comrade Kingsely? He’s a lovely fella, who although may not be politically aligned with the pioneering vision of a co-operative form of local government (aren’t we all?) he cares passionately about his ward, and the future direction of the Labour party.

At a time when the Nu Labour project has imploded so spectacularly on the national stage, now is the time when the party is supposedly trying to reconnect with its core values.

Not in Lambeth, it ‘aint.

Bahhh…

Kingsley’s appeal to the London Labour party should be lively. He wants to remain within the political organisation that he is keen to take forward. But does the Labour party, Nu or traditional, want to listen to a dissenting voice?

His @lambeth_council email account was hacked into directly by @LambethLabour. It is permissible for Lambeth Council as an employer to access his email account, but it isn’t @LambethLabour that is paying Comrade Kingsley his allowance.

And what did the hackers find within Comrade Kingsley’s Inbox? Nothing at all to do with the Tulse Hill Situation, but simply a few constituency emails, oh, and an email from some old bird called Kate Hoey.

Cripes.

We need to return to a familiar old theme around these parts to find further rationale as to why the Nu Labour election-winning machine wanted to take a butchers at Comrade Kingsley’s emails…

*shhh* The… South London Press.

Oh Lordy.

‘ere we go.

@LambethLabour has become so paranoid about the complete meltdown in relations between the sex ad funded newspaper and the Nu Labour cabinet, that it was prepared to hack into Comrade Kingsley’s account, just to access the slightest hint of any sordid betrayal.

One of the allegations that Comrade Kingsley is facing from Nu Labour is that he sent an email to a @SthLondonPress reporter. The allegation continues that this was then read back out over the phone from the offices of @SthLondonPress to a very high ranking @LambethLabour official.

Seeing as the contents of the alleged email haven’t appeared in the pages of the @SthLondonPress, the conclusion is that the local newspaper is either asleep on the job, or simply that the allegations are a complete fabrication.

As I said – the London Labour group internal investigation should be interesting.

It is actually the exact opposite that has taken place. Comrade Kingsley has attempted to act as a peacemaker in the whole @LambethLabour / @SthLondonPress stand off.

He arranged for a meeting in the Effra pub between a high ranking @LambethLabour party official, and a representative from the newspaper. Both sides failed to find common ground, and you can draw your own conclusion over the success of the meeting, with the continued publication by @LambethLabour of Lambeth Life. Which doesn’t really help anyone.

The end result is a further freezing of the frosty relationship between the local council and the local media (of sorts,) as well as a further problem to be added to the Tulse Hill Situation - what the hell do we do with Comrade Kingsley for the next four years?

Timing couldn’t be worse for @LambethLabour. Comrade Kingsley is entitled to remain representing the good people of Vassall until 2014. That is what they voted him in for with 2,533 votes - the highest in the ward.

It is my understanding that his wishes to continue to represent his Vassall constituents. I believe that he also wants to represent Vassall under a Labour banner, something that he campaigned under during the #labourdoorstep period.

So yeah – the first full @lambeth_council meeting back in the Red Flag flying 44 43 42 seat controlled @LambethLabour borough, and it was all supposed to be apolitical. It’s such a shame, as the other News In Brief (that really should be headline news) include:

The election of Neeraj Patil as the new Mayor of Lambeth, and a totally wonderful and inclusive speech from the as ever ace @mayoroflambeth.

Confirmation that Mr Mayor’s chosen charities for the year are the Springfield Community Centre, the Sickle Cell Society and the College of Emergency Medicine.

Hints from @LambethLibDems leader, Councillor Lumsden that the failed ALMO is going to be under close scrutiny from his opposition group.

A call for an investigation into the “events of May 6th and May 7th at the Town Hall count” (I think we’re talking about the bundles of missing votes in the Oval ward…)

A motion from the Tory group for all Councillors to take a 5% pay cut. @LambethLabour’s Red Jimbo @JimDicksLambeth called for the sheep to go back to grazing on this one.

A confused attempt at political humour from Lambeth Conservative leader, Councillor Whelan (male variety) that no one really understood.

Oh - and I got blanked, face-to-face, by @janeinlondon / E Hants. And so was a not very amused @AnnaJCowen. Cheers for shifting the fridge, luv. Lovely bike as well.

It’s a tale of two computers in Lambeth today. First off is a posting that has been made to the mighty urban75, in relation to the resignation of @LambethLabour’s Toren Smith, the elected Councillor for Tulse Hill.

The comment states:

“Seems Toren Smith, Labour councillor in Tulse Hill, has resigned for “personal reasons”. The gossip is that the police are bringing charges. Polling day will be 1 July. The police are reporting that they have seized his computer.”

I am unable to report any further, apart from referencing a post that has already been made to a public website. I have disabled comments for this particular blog post.

*Wednesday 26th, 13:00 update*

The London Evening Standard is running with the following story:

Councillor Resigns After Porn Arrest

“A London Labour councillor has been arrested by police on suspected child porn charges. Toren Smith, 42, was arrested at his home and questioned before being released on bail. His computer was seized for further examination. He has resigned his Lambeth council seat.”

Meanwhile, putting some more meat on the bone (or even adding extra RAM to the machine) with regards the strange case that is @LambethLabour’s Kingsley Abrams…

I reported yesterday how Councillor Abrams’ party has suspended the Vassall ward councillor for four months, after allegedly leaking [eek] sensitive Nu Labour information.

Councillor Abrams has now asked constituents not to email him using his official Lambeth Council email address. It seems that our friends from the party machine within @LambethLabour have hacked into the Councillor’s account, to see who he is briefing online keep a close eye on the casework he has been carrying out.

Careful what you wish for. Or even hack into a machine for. One of the private emails that @LambethLabour hijacked came from… the Honourable Kate Hoey MP.

Cripes.

The sitting MP for Vauxhall is non too pleased with the local Lambeth Labour party. This is a statement that works on oh so many levels, but especially applies to the snooping of the private correspondence between Councillor Abrams and Kate Hoey:

“It is central to a free democratic society that every citizen has an absolute right to free and confidential communication with his or her elected representative… without fear that their communications will be intercepted by third parties”

With @LambethLabour long since having felt the wrath of the sitting MP for Vauxhall, it remains to be seen if the Vassall councillor takes a similar stance.

Dear old Kingsley has had the whip withdrawn from the @LambethLabour bench for a period of four months. Our Red Flag flying friends can afford such sanctions, given the forty four three sitting councillors, and the whopping 43% share of the vote.

The maths also stack up for the ruling administration, should Kingsley decide not to rejoin the Labour group, once he has been allowed to get up from the @LambethLabour naughty step.

But ah - where will the good councillor then decide to plonk his backside? His Vassall ward is most interesting, returning @LambethLabour’s Councillor Garden, and @LambethLibDems’ Councillor Bradley.

The former is a novice, the latter has long since been the thorn in @LambethLabour’s backside, and is feared by many in the party for his political skills. An alliance between Abrams and Bradley could do some serious local damage to @LambethLabour in the Vassall ward.

Past political form would suggest that a walk across the council chamber floor to join the *shhh* Lambeth Tories is the more likely option for any discontent @LambethLabour councillor.

With only a fag paper being able to separate the coop council vision of @LambethLabour, and the similar right wing model argued by the Tory party, the traditional route for crossing the chamber floor in Lambeth is to go from red to blue. Betty Evans-Jacas did just that last year (before going on to lose her council seat…)

But Councillor Abrams is old Labour through and through. It would be like Dennis Skinner getting into bed with Call Me Dave. I would expect Kingsley to be an internal nuisance to the right wing Nu Labour project in Lambeth. With a mandate to represent the fine folk of Vassall for a further four years, that’s an awful lot of mischief making to get to grips with.

More pressing matters will be the first full council meeting taking place at the Town Hall on Wednesday evening. @LambethLabour had deliberately timed the triumphant (and much delayed) White Paper on the promised public consultation for the coop council with the first full meet. Now it seems that the agenda has shifted to Two of Our Councillors are Missing.

Ouch.

It is unlikely that Toren Smith will turn up. The appearance (and any speech) from dear old Councillor Abrams will be followed with great interest. I’ll be taking my MacBook along, security controls set to the max, following (and sharing) the debate online.

It seems that I have been slightly harsh on @janeinlondon / East Hampshire. I shouldn’t have singled out my local @LambethLabour candidate for having parliamentary political ambitions over in East Hampshire, or failing that, looking after the Little People in Lambeth.

A bit of digging around, and it now appears that Jane Edbrooke is not alone within @LambethLabour in looking towards Westminster first, and then the Rotten Borough second.

Blimey.

Forget the previous parlour game of Political Musical Chairs - it now seems that a number of @LambethLabour local Councillors are playing Pin the Tail on the Political Constituency / Ward.

First up we have Councillor Morgan, the democratically elected representative for my nearby Prince’s ward. You may remember how the ward was forced into a by-election, when Councillor Townsend decided to bugger off to Bristol with his £10k allowance.

Whoops.

The good voters of Prince’s ward would do well to remember this when they head to the ballot box on May 6th. So would the good voters over in Orpington, where Councillor Morgan is ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ as it is now known in local political circles.

Yep - that’s right. If at first you don’t succeed, double yer money (and your electable chances) by having the option of either a Westminster seat, or a local Council seat.

Priorities, priorities. It’s a complete sham of democracy, both for constituency and wards alike. The electorate want firm commitments, not a politician that is going to flip loyalties, depending on the size of their majority.

But wait - there’s more…

Looking over the boundaries of my Oval ward, and I note that Neeraj Patil, the current @LambethLabour councillor for Larkhall, is putting himself up once again to represent the fine folk of SW8.

Looking out further still, and I note that the flipping (as in flipping loyalties, natch) Councillor is also putting himself up to become the next MP for the not so nearby Surrey Heath.

Cripes.

Completing the hat trick of current @LambethLabour Councillors who are getting a little too big for their local authority boots is Councillor Sabharwal. The current Ferndale representative has a lively local ward to represent. One can only wonder then how he will find the time to also represent the good folk of North Herefordshire as their next MP.

A recent Freedom of Informaton request revealed that Stephen Morgan attended only 50% of full council meetings in the past political year. I am awaiting details of a further FOI request, asking what level of allowance each Lambeth Councillor has claimed this year.

Given his attendance record, it would be most disappointing to find that Councillor Morgan has troused his full £10,000 annual allowance; a fee of £5,000 would seem more appropriate.

Councillor Patil fares slightly better, having attended six out of the ten full council meetings. Credit where it is due - Councillor Sabharwal has the full set of ten out of ten.

Someone give that man PPC status…

But we’re not finished yet. Not quite ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ but what about the mysterious case of Kingsley Abrams, the current @LambethLabour Councillor for Vassall ward? Kingsley is standing once again under the Nu Labour banner in an attempt to become a local Lambeth politician.

I’m still not sure about the Wimbledon constituency though. It seems neither is Kingsley…

His own personal site was a campaigning shop front, boasting of how Kingsley is the best candidate for the good people of Wimbledon to elect as their next MP. A screenshot of the Vassall Councillor campaigning over in SW19 is published below.

How very strange then to find that the website has now been pulled, and Councillor Abrams is no longer listed as the Labour PPC for Wimbledon.

Maybe it is simply that Councillor Abrams has more sense than Neil Sabharwal, Neeraj Patil, Stephen Morgan and yes, Jane Edbrooke, in realising that local voters in Lambeth don’t take too kindly to this dual candidacy betrayal.

Political ambition - yes please. Doing an Edbrooke and keeping it quiet to the Little People of Lambeth about how you want to bugger off to Westminster - no thanks.

@LambethLabour has some very fine candidates. The Town Hall is a better place for being represented by these folk.

But once again, @LambethLabour - clarification on all of the above local / national candidates would be appreciated. Any more career politicians to add to my tally chart please?