OVER a dozen Labour Politicians including MPs and Mayors have been arrested for serious crimes, while investigations continue into a string of other party officials and campaigners. Sir Keir Starmer is yet to comment on any of them – yet here, VoteWatch exclusively reveals a socialist rogue’s gallery, and what is becoming an ever-growing scandal.
CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
The 55-year-old MP for Leicester East, who lives in Islington, was charged with harassment after making numerous abusive unwanted telephone calls to another female, a court has heard, and pleaded not guilty to one charge of harassment during a 20-minute hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
In court, Webbe spoke only to confirm her name, her age, and her address and to formally enter her not guilty plea.
In a statement on 28th September, Webbe said: “I am innocent of any wrongdoing and look forward to proving this in court.”
“I will be vigorously defending myself against these claims.”
Webbe has, however, acknowledged that the calls were made and was released on unconditional bail; the trial rescheduled to 16th March 2021.
The Metropolitan Police supplied evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service detailing claims of harassment between 1st September 2018 and 26th April 2020.
APSANA BEGUM MP
Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse, was given a £330,000 desirable riverside property just months after moving out of her estranged husband’s home. Official complaints were made over how the far-left Corbynista leapt to the top of an 18,000-strong housing list, despite having no children.
Allegedly using her contacts at the council, Begum is thought to have applied for a council flat while living with her family in 2011. Begum moved in with her husband in 2014 but the couple split a year later.
Within just six months, Ms Begum was offered the one-bed Isle of Dogs flat in a riverside block – jumping her own constituents; families and vulnerable residents – some of whom have been waiting desperately on the list for years.
Tower Hamlets only has the capacity to house 1,700 people per year, on a list of over 18,000 applicants.
A source from a political organisation in Tower Hamlets said: “She’s still in the flat despite earning £82,000 plus expenses a year as MP, and yet has the audacity to complain about housing shortages.
“The council are taking their time to ensure all their ducks are in a row. It has the potential to be bigger than the Onasanya saga”.
Fiona Onasanya, a former Peterborough Labour MP, was ousted by her constituents via a recall petition after being caught and convicted for lying about a driving offence.
Section 1 of the Recall Act dictates that the Speaker of the House can trigger a recall petition if a sitting MP receives a custodial sentence of under a year. Anything over a year leads to automatic dismissal of the MP without the need for a petition.
A four-day trial is set to begin on the 27th July.
MAYOR IFTAKHAR HUSSAIN
The Mayor of Blackburn, Cllr Hussain, has resigned after being caught by police attending an address where a wedding celebration was taking place.
The Labour Mayor’s bizarre and unbelievable initial excuse was that he had attended the address after being asked to come over and ‘open the front door to allow the delivery driver to deliver them food’.
Police handed £200 fines to nine people, including Mr Hussain, amid claims a wedding was taking place, and the Mayor has since resigned over what he confessed to be a “the momentary lapse of judgement”.
A Lancashire Police spokesman confirmed there were reports of up to 30 people attending a ‘wedding’ in Dukes Brow and added: “There they found nine people inside celebrating the wedding, including two residents of the address. Each individual was issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice and was instructed to leave, which they did.”
Cllr Hussain’s resignation comes after town hall bosses in Blackburn launched an investigation into the incident.
“Today I am giving this up to protect the reputation of the borough” he said.
“I hope my actions will serve as a reminder to the people of Blackburn with Darwen of the importance of following the Covid-19 guidelines as it remains a real and serious threat.”
MAYOR SABRI OZAYDIN
The clearly not-so-bright Mayor of Enfield has been filmed wearing his gold-plated chain of office whilst riding through the streets of the London Borough which has been hit hard by Covid-19 – even stopping for coffee with his chums, including councillors Ahmet Hasan and Mustafa Cetinkaya.
“Is that the mayor?” one local female can be heard gasping in the footage, taken by an angered member of the public.
“He knows he’s done wrong, look – the MAYOR of Enfield” another onlooker spoke out, looking over disapprovingly as Ozaydin stands sheepishly outside a local Paddy Power, seemingly preparing to go into a coffee shop next door.
Mayor Ozaydin, Labour mayor of the city since July 2020, is then asked what he’s doing and why he is breaking lockdown. “We are just cycling” he replies nervously, dropping his shoulders upon being reminded of the law and realising that he’s been rumbled.
As it currently stands, the law in Britain strictly states that no one is to meet up with people outside their bubble until the 8th March. Yet the mayor – who is supposed to set an example for his constituents – openly and carelessly flouted the rules for all to see.
London has seen some of the highest rates of infection of the Coronavirus during the pandemic, with the borough of Enfield witnessing thousands of citizens testing positive.
Yet as some of his constituents are forced to endure the heartache of not being able to be with their loved ones on their death beds, and as funerals continue to take place in the city for those who have been tragically lost, their mayor chose to don his flashy chain like a poundshop version of Mr T and enjoy himself while wilfully breaking the law and sticking two fingers up in the process.
CLLR ASAF AFZAL
Cllr Afzal is one of four people charged by police for perverting the course of justice in regard to an investigation into the tampering of postal votes.
The Labour councillor and Chairman of the Pakistan Community Centre in Derby stood for re-election in the May 2019 City Council elections, ultimately losing his seat to the Lib Dems.
In a statement, Derbyshire Police said: “Four people have been charged with perverting the course of justice following enquiries into an alleged incident of election fraud relating to the Derby City Council elections in May 2019.
“The four, three men and one woman, are due to appear before Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on March 22 charged with:
“Mohan Singh, 77 – two counts of perverting the course of justice;
“Baljit Rehalu, 41 – two counts of perverting the course of justice;
“Mohinder Rehala, 53, – one count of perverting the course of justice.
“Asaf Afzal, 53, of Colwyn Avenue, Derby – one count of perverting the course of justice.”
While serving on the council, Afzal was cabinet member for Neighbourhoods and Public Protection.
The former Labour Councillor refused to provide a full statement, saying only that: “I received some papers last week and the matters are in the hands of my solicitors.”
COUNCIL LEADER TONY NEWMAN & CLLR SIMON HALL
The cabinet member for finance and the former leader of Croydon Council have been suspended pending an investigation following complaints of bullying behaviour, ‘money mismanagement’, and what insiders suggest could mount to ‘illegal activity’.
Cllrs Tony Newman and Simon Hall were in charge of troubled Croydon council in the lead-up to its shocking financial collapse – even chucking £100m of the cash-strapped council’s dosh into a posh hotel.
Both stood down from their positions at the end of 2020 but remain as councillors, yet this week were suspended by the Labour Party in relation to an independent investigation by the Local Government Association in relation to financial mismanagement at the council.
Last week, four senior members of staff at the council were also suspended in relation to the same damning report into ‘dodgy dealings’.
The report has now been completed but is not expected to be made public until investigations into members of staff and councillors have concluded.
The report found that “council officials were instructed by members of Newman’s cabinet to rewrite some of their reports, in effect to disguise the council’s mounting financial problems”.
The council was forced to declare effective bankruptcy in November and is set to make significant cuts to services over the coming months and years as it faces a budget black hole of more than £60m.
The report’s author, Chris Wood, wrote, “It is clear that in recent history Croydon Council has failed to manage its finances adequately in many… areas. It is a council that is said to be unfamiliar with taking and implementing difficult financial decisions and as a consequence it has engendered a culture of poor budget management and poor financial control.”
Another source said: “It will be said that there has been significant incompetence, mismanagement, failures of diligence and poor governance. But as to unlawfulness, there is mere suspicion.
“The possibility that the suspicion is justified remains, as is often the case with suspicion, but unlawfulness has not yet been evidenced.”
RHIANON PASSMORE, WELSH LABOUR AM
Rising star Rhianon Passmore was caught taking part in a Welsh Parliament session from the £1m Swindon home of her lover, nearly 100 miles away from her constituency of Newport, South Wales.
It’s now understood that Passmore has been making regular lockdown visits from South Wales to Wiltshire – despite openly accusing the PM of breaking lockdown for travelling to a vaccination site while on official government business.
Ms Passmore, the Assembly Member for Islwyn, also posted and retweeted a series of “stay at home” messages through her social media accounts.
Her law-breaking was spotted when viewers of the Welsh Assembly noticed that the politician was ‘Zooming’ from a location different to that of her home in South Wales.
She also posted clips last month from the garden room of her lover’s plush home, with a local resident saying: “She was broadcasting from the property and thought nobody would notice.
“Everyone has been doing their best to help keep the virus at bay and what she is doing is certainly not in the spirit of the lockdown.”
Passmore has since tried to claim that her partner is ‘in her bubble’ – yet official guidelines state that bubbles must be kept as local as possible… not almost 100 miles away.
The recent incident isn’t the only time the Labour politician has found herself in hot water. In 2018 she was banned from driving by Newport magistrates and received a two-week ban from the Senedd after admitting to refusing to take a breath test when pulled over by police.
CLLR DIPU AHAD
Cllr Ahad admitted leaving a woman alarmed and distressed by engaging in a serious and prolonged stalking campaign against her.
Pleading guilty to the charge, Newcastle Crown Court heard that Ahad had committed a series of creepy acts between December 31st, 2018 and May 30th, 2019, which amounted to stalking.
The court heard the acts he confessed to include setting up fake email and social media accounts in the victim’s name, “sending an email to himself purporting to be a third party and revealing this to (her)”, phoning her home purporting to be from a Government agency, sending her a message claiming he had received malicious calls, sending her a voicemail purportedly left by a third party, using chalk paint to graffiti her car, sending her an email containing photographs, sending a message “which contained a screenshot of an email purportedly sent by a third party to Ahad”, and sending an email containing threats to himself.
After pleading guilty, Ahad was warned by a judge that “all options are open” when he is sentenced in April, meaning custody has not been ruled out.
CLLR MARTIN JUDD
Judd, 25, appeared at Manchester Minshull Street charged with downloading child pornography whilst a Labour Councillor in Oldham.
Judd faces allegations that between February 2018 and the same month last year he downloaded 15 category A (the most serious) images of children, 23 category B’s, and 48 category C’s.
The young politician pleaded not guilty to all three of the allegations.
Judd, originally from New Zealand, was elected in the local government elections in 2018 where there were two vacancies at the ward.
The former Labour politician received 1,184 votes in Hollinwood which represented 73 percent of the total.
He was elected to serve a four-year term but his departure was subtly announced on the Oldham Council website following him being charged. His profile currently states that he is not a serving councillor.
During his time on the local authority. Judd served as deputy cabinet member in economy and enterprise.
Due to delays caused by the pandemic, the trial is expected to run for three days in January next year, with Judge Maurice Greene telling him: “The trial will take place on the 17th of January, it is a long way off, ensure you keep in touch with your solicitor.”
CLLR CHAUDHARY MOHAMMED IQBAL
Iqbal, 51, told election officials that he lived in Ilford so that he could trick them into thinking he met the legal requirements to run for a seat in the constituency. In doing so, he committed electoral fraud.
Mr Chaudhary then broke the law yet again after his questionable election win in 2018, by continuing to hold that seat of office based on his lies, and to collect thousands of pounds in expenses payments.
When police began to investigate, Iqbal encouraged his tenant Kristina Stankeviciute to lie on his behalf and tell officers that he lived in a converted living room at the Ilford property.
Miss Stankeviciute has since left the country and a European warrant for her arrest was issued in December last year.
Iqbal had given multiple false addresses in his attempts to run for local office and successfully sat as a Labour councillor for more than two years, claiming more than £18,000 in expenses and allowances.
The former councillor pleaded guilty to three counts of making false statements in candidate nomination papers and one count of perverting the course of justice.
Iqbal, who has since moved to Preston, appeared at Southwark Crown Court earlier this month and was sentenced to a total of 17 months in prison.
He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £10,422.54, compensation to Redbridge Council of £10,000 for the by-election costs and compensation to Redbridge Council of £18,368 for the allowances paid to him, and will not be allowed to run for office for at least five years.
MAYOR JOE ANDERSON
Anderson, who has been the sitting mayor of Liverpool for a decade, was one of five men arrested across Merseyside in an investigation into ‘crooked’ building and development contracts in the city.
The mayor was interviewed by police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation.
A Liverpool city council spokeswoman said: “Liverpool city council is cooperating with Merseyside police in relation to its ongoing investigation. We do not comment on matters relating to individuals.”
The others arrested are: a 72-year-old man from Aigburth, on suspicion of witness intimidation; a 33-year-old man from West Derby, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation; a 46-year-old man from Ainsdale, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and witness intimidation; and a 25-year-old man from Ormskirk, on suspicion of witness intimidation.
DEREK HATTON
Far-left former Labour Militant irritant Derek Hatton, the former Deputy Council Leader of Liverpool, has been confirmed as having also been arrested in the anti-fraud police bust along with Labour Mayor, Joe Anderson.
Well-known controversial Marxist Hatton was expelled from the Labour Party in 1986 for belonging to the far-left ‘extremist group’ Militant, which had earlier been found to be in breach of the Labour Party’s constitution.
In 1993, he was accused of corruption as deputy leader of Liverpool City Council. After a lengthy trial he was found not guilty due to lack of evidence.
Hatton applied to rejoin Labour in September 2018, having his application approved in February the following year before being suspended from the party just days later after an anti-semitic tweet he had posted in 2012 came to light.
Adding to his long blunder-filled career, on Friday 4th December, Hatton – now a property developer – was arrested along with serving Labour mayor Joe Anderson in the police sting.
The two have now been rebailed while police investigate further.
LORD NAZIR AHMED
The trial of Labour Lord of Rotherham, Nazir Ahmed, continued this week – yet the jury were discharged ‘on legal grounds’.
Ahmed, 63, has denied two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16, indecent assault of a boy under 14, and raping a boy under 16.
The alleged offences were said to date from the 1970s when Mr Ahmed was 14-years-old.
One alleged female victim, now an adult, told the court that she ‘has never forgotten’ the moment Labour peer Lord Ahmed ‘tried to rape her as a girl’ in the 1970s.
She reported Nazir Ahmed to police decades after the abuse was said to have taken place, stating that she wanted revenge, but also that she had a ‘moral responsibility’ due to Ahmed currently having access to young relatives.
She recalled to police how, in the early 1970s, Ahmed allegedly held her down and attempted to rape her – the horrific abuse occurring ‘more than once’.
‘I thought I had let him do that to me and I felt dirty’ she said.
‘I have never forgotten, I have tried. I have really tried to erase that memory and I cannot do it’ she added.
Jurors were told that they were being discharged for legal reasons, with Judge Jeremy Richardson QC saying that discussions with the prosecution and defence were ongoing – leading some to speculate that a plea deal may be on the cards.
Mr Ahmed’s brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 70, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, also from Rotherham, have also been accused of the indecent assault of a boy under 14, but claim they are unfit to enter pleas.
ANTISEMITISM
Five people may yet be prosecuted over antisemitism linked to the Labour Party, Britain’s most senior police officer has revealed.
Dame Cressida Dick, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the force had arrested six people last year as part of its inquiry and that five files have been passed on to prosecutors.
“It is for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to decide,” she told LBC radio.
“It is a very complex crime type, to be honest – there is a lot for them to look at and a lot for them to consider as to whether there is either sufficient evidence to charge and whether it is in the public interest so to do.”
The investigation was prompted by an internal Labour dossier detailing antisemitic messages on social media allegedly posted by members, which was obtained by the radio station last year.
