Right, so is Wes Streeting potentially looking at losing his seat a good deal earlier than perhaps we could have ever hoped? Well it would appear that there could be some electoral irregularities having come to light that, given Streeting’s now relatively small majority, certainly has the potential to remove him should this be in relation to vote counting, not just if the count for example were incorrect, but if there were any behind the scenes shenanigans going on too.
Questions and an investigation into what exactly happened in Ilford North and the involvement of the now somewhat notorious Redbridge District Council do however seem to be somewhat serious as the nearest defeated candidate for Streeting’s seat, the Independent Leanne Mohamad, has tweeted out that legal action is in the early throes of commencing, so what exactly is going on, what exactly has Mohamad learned, because clearly it is something of significance.
Right, so of all Labour MPs and ministers that we’d cheerfully see the back of, the deeply unpliant Wes Streeting is probably near the top of many of our lists, so it’d be a delight to see him disappear sooner than later and perhaps that is on the cards as it would appear that defeated Independent candidate Leanne Mohamad has got wind of something irregular and is taking it very seriously. She tweeted out:
‘I have sent a letter of complaint this week to the Electoral Commission and Redbridge electoral services outlining serious irregularities on the night of the count on July 5th in Ilford North, raising questions regarding compliance with electoral law and guidance. I have retained Bindmans LLP and specialist King’s Counsel on this issue and have asked the Electoral Commission to examine the activities of Redbridge Council.’
Interestingly, her tweet has been quoted by the Green Party candidate for Ilford South, also overseen by Redbridge District Council, Syed Siddiqi, who added his own tuppence worth saying:
‘Leanne Mohamad is taking legal action against the Redbridge Council for anomalies on the night of the GE count, which does not come as a surprise to me. I completely agree and would be more than pleased to offer evidence if necessary.’
So what’s going on then? Unfortunately at this point we know little more than just this. We’re now in November, the election was in July, clearly Mohamad or someone close to her has learned something and something of some significance clearly, because retaining Bindman’s as her legal counsel, a big name legal firm and bringing in a specialist KC on top of that, presumably a specialist in electoral law given the involvement also of the Electoral Commission, it has to be big surely? We know from this that the irregularities, serious as they are involve the count, because Mohamad has told us this, so are we looking at some kind of fraud here? That seems to be the logical conclusion doesn’t it?
Now in normal circumstances, challenging an election result must be done within 21 days and clearly that has now passed, however there are exceptions and given the lengths Leanne Mohamad is going to at this point now, well past that 21 day deadline, it seems logical to conclude that an exception is what applies here and the governments own website, on the ‘Challenge an election result’ page clearly states:
‘A judge might let you apply after 21 days if:
· you think there have been corrupt or illegal practices, for example bribery
· your complaint is about election expenses, for example you think the winner spent more than they were allowed.’
Given that we are talking about the night of the count, I don’t think we’re talking about election expenses here, I’m leaning very much towards corrupt or illegal practices. I don’t think an expenses issue requires Bindman’s or a KC, so we’re left with what is ostensibly a quite serious accusation against Redbridge Council.
Now, it’s not the first time if this is the case, that Redbridge Council have been accused of rigging a vote.
The previous MP for Ilford South, soft leftie Sam Tarry lost a trigger ballot to retain the candidacy for that seat when supporters of his turning up to the vote were denied entry, 600 postal votes mysteriously turned up late in the proceedings and all of the evidence pertaining to this happening was dismissed by then Labour Party general Secretary David Evans as irrelevant! It left Tarry turning to lawyers himself as his defeat allowed Labour right wing favourite and pal of Wes Streeting Jas Athwal to become the then new Labour candidate for Ilford South, all despite serious sexual assault allegations against him, allegations that the independent barrister Labour had brought in over it recommending further action against Athwal, but instead Labour ditched it and the very Starmerroid right wing Labour National Executive Committee dismissed the charges, contrary to the barrister’s view, saying there was a lack of evidence.
The determination to get Athwal on the ballot there though, which did of course result in him being elected, just went on to show how awful some of the people backed by both the local and the national party are though and this just adds fuel to the fire that Redbridge Council has serious issues which Leanne Mohamad might well know of and is now taking the appropriate action over.
Athwal was until elected, the leader of Redbridge Council. He has overseen Labour Cllr’s like Shannell Johnson quit the party, as she did last December, Athwal’s leadership in her words having fostered a toxic, ego-centric culture of gaslighting at the Council, a Council, which under Athwal’s leadership refused to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, a council where people feared to question the way things were being done, failure to implement the Forde Report findings, a lack of commitment to accountability, transparency, reform, credibility, trust, with a system of cliques and silos seemingly in charge, contradictory to claims of teamwork and open dialogue and of course, we now know all about Athwal’s slum landlordism since becoming an MP, not only leaving people to live in mouldy, unhygienic, unhealthy properties, but later that he was the owner of a building occupied by a children’s home, equally unsafe and again nothing was ever done about this, he remains an MP, he never had the whip suspended, yet others did for daring to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Athwal as it turns out, wasn’t even the only former Redbridge Councillor, also a landlord, to become an MP.
Bayo Alaba was the Redbridge Council for Wanstead, now he’s the MP for Southend East and Rochford and he owns 7 properties, one of which was occupied by a mother of two whom he has just made homeless, a story covered by The Londoner, a quote from which reads:
‘A mother of two young children, she said she was terrified of being left on the street because she was being evicted from her flat. Who was behind the eviction? The flat’s owner, Labour MP Bayo Alaba.
“I don't even know what's going to happen to me,” she told The Londoner, with one of her children nearby. Technically, the woman had already been homeless for several years, and the flat had been provided to her by Redbridge Council, meaning that the same council in which Alaba served as a councillor was paying him rent for so-called ‘temporary accommodation’.
“They [the council] could move me to Birmingham, they could give me a one bedroom flat,” the tenant told us. “It’s stressful.”
Since we made our visit, the mother has been evicted – she was made to leave the flat on October 21st, just one week before Alaba posted his tweet about how “Nobody should have to spend the night on the streets.” We don’t know what has happened to her afterwards, and haven’t been given any information on her current status by the council or Alaba.’
When you take all of this into consideration, the way this council is run and you then add the likes of Wes Streeting into this mix, or even the former MP for Ilford South before Sam Tarry, the loathesome Mike Gapes, is it so hard to believe such an unpleasant collection of individuals ar4e closing ranks to protect their own? The council leader got elected, his pal Streeting did too. I’m minded to come back to a point I made earlier about 600 votes coming out of seemingly nowhere in relation to Sam Tarry losing his seat to Jas Athwal and then consider that Leanne Mohamad only lost to Wes Streeting by 528 votes and you have to wonder to yourself, did a bag of last minute votes mysteriously appear for Streeting too?
Whatever the truth of the matter, whatever Leanne Mohamad is lawyering up over, I daresay we’re going to find out in due course, it is absolutely worth paying attention to, especially if it means one of the worst Labour MPs going, could well end up going for an early bath as his parliamentary career comes to a none to soon conclusion. I can’t imagine what else frankly could explain the actions of Leanne Mohamad right here ands right now.
If you’re not familiar with Leanne, or her campaign or what she stood for, she was absolutely one of the standout candidates during the General Election, not only because she was standing against Streeting, but because she was standing as a British Palestinian against one of the worst pro Israel voices too. Check out this video recommendation here all about Leanne as your suggested next watch and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.