Nicola Sturgeon ally and SNP Councillor Shabbar Jaffri is suspended by the party as dossier alleging irregularities surrounding his personal records is handed to Police Scotland by Glasgow City Council staff, internal auditors carried out research which lasted for several months

Dear All

Yesterday, I was blogging on Nicola Sturgeon ally and SNP councillor Dr Imtiaz Majid, today it is time to blog on another Nicola Sturgeon ally and SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri.

SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri represents Ward 3 which is the Pollok ward in Glasgow, I remember him when he joined Pollok SNP as a member.

During my time at the Pollok SNP branch he was never an activist when I was there, in fact I never once saw him during my entire time as a member year in and year out turn up for any election in the SNP.

I wanted to stand as a candidate but Sturgeon ally Shabbar Jaffri was considered a ‘better’ candidate; I was failed as people know for not being able to work as part of a team, this was a great surprise to many people which some people said was a joke who knew me. I asked for evidence to justify this and was denied it in my data subject access request by Nicola Sturgeon's husband who is the SNP's Chief Executive and data controller.

But Shabbar Jaffri who never did a day in Pollok was a team player, at that point I knew that it didn't matter if you did one day or everyday as an SNP activist, it didn't matter if you contributed ideas such as I had, it counted for nothing, I didn't know at that time the SNP is a cult.

Shabbar Jaffri also doesn’t stay in the Pollok Constituency, he lives elsewhere in Glasgow, as I understand it; his son apparently was a member of Labour Party.

It now turns out that Shabbar Jaffri has questions to answer as it is now in the public domain that he has been suspended by the SNP and placed on “administrative suspension”, this means that he is now sitting as an independent.

What is interesting about this case is that Glasgow City Council has given a dossier regarding the councillor to Police Scotland into alleged irregularities surrounding his personal records.

It is understood concerns were raised around council tax by local authority staff carrying out background checks on Jaffri. You would think if there was a problem that the staff at the City Chambers would just ask for a meeting or send out a bill if they thought that money was owed.

The City Council staff didn’t do that, they decided to carry out a further investigation which led the discovery of additional suspected irregularities. Then things got jacked up as a subsequent investigation saw internal auditors carrying out their research which lasted for several months.

Shabbar Jaffri was elected in 2012; we are now at the end of 2016; so begs the question does the council carry out specific financial research with all the councillors at the chambers?

If not, was Shabbar Jaffri chosen at random or was he picked out to due to information arising from a source or a flag up on a computer or by a paper research of every document he filled in?

I would find it very odd if SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri had filled in a form wrongly not on the basis that he is a politician, but on the basis that I thought he was previously a volunteer at Pollok CAB handing out advice to people.

When the disgraceful Natalie McGarry resigned the whip, it was point out that her details were still up on the Glasgow SNP website.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14246059.Glasgow_SNP_site_still_lists_Natalie_McGarry_as_convenor/

SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri’s bio has been removed.

http://www.snp.org/shabbar_jaffri

How quick!

A Glasgow SNP group spokesman said:

“Cllr Jaffri was placed on administrative suspension as soon as the SNP was notified and this will remain the case until the outcome of the investigation is known. Given the ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment.”

SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri has said on this matter that he unclear what the issue regarding him is and denies any wrongdoing.

He added:

“Like the group, I was only notified this had been passed to police some days ago. The decision to suspend me is not untoward. It’s a normal decision. The news has come as a surprise and shock to me and I’m trying to ascertain what has been referred to the police. I can’t think of any inconsistencies in the information I provided and I look forward to contact from the police. I am very curious about this and what any investigation might be about.”

As I said SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri is an ally of Nicola Sturgeon going way back, in 2011, I did the Sturgeon campaign among others, I ended up being invited to the post celebration party.

One of the other guests at that party was Shabbar Jaffri who spent considerable time with her.

And digging through my back pictures, I found the one that accompanies this post for you to look at, it was done on a £10 digital camera which I bought off someone.

So, enjoy!

Finally at present, the situation is that SNP councillor Shabbar Jaffri and Glasgow SNP know nothing about nothing but we do know there is an investigation, we do know that Jaffri has been suspended by the SNP and we know that he attended Nicola Sturgeon’s celebration party in 2011.

So, we are waiting on Police Scotland, and given the time it takes them to investigate, one wonders if Shabbar Jaffri will be able to stand in 2017 in the redesigned Pollok Ward with SNP selection coming up.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University