Glasgow South West Labour ‘Race Row’ explodes, Labour Party bitter selection contest for Westminster turns even more nasty and squalid as Labour Scottish Executive Committee remove Anas Sarwar ally Asim Khan from the candidate list, how exactly can any reasonable person think this contest is fair and just after these antics?

Dear All

The bitter Labour Party selection contest in Glasgow South West has had a dramatic moment but not unexpected turn of events. Recently I was talking to a Labour office bearer who said to me that in their opinion, Glasgow Labour hopeful Asim Khan would be passed by the Labour Party Committee called the SEC tasked with investigating him.

I didn’t believe he would be passed by them, and as is custom, time for a quick, ‘George Laird right again’.

You know politics and how it works isn’t as hard as many people try to make out, if you sit back and watch, you will be amazed what you can see and hear.

The only way to stop Asim Khan from becoming the candidate in Glasgow South West in preference to Labour Cllr Matt Kerr was to remove him from the candidate list.

Now, it seems job done!

That was my impression from what I observed as an outsider, it seemed to me that Pollok CLP was geared up to accept Matt Kerr as the candidate. Due to the rise in the Pollok CLP membership, and sudden interest in politics by certain people, it seemed a racing certainty to me that Khan would be passed by a popular vote.

Now that Labour hopeful Asim Khan has been blocked by the Scottish Executive Committee, he intends to take legal action against the party after what he describes as a “disappointing decision”. So, it seems that the this selection contest, apparently this brings the numbers down to 3, and maybe it will be put back again.

The rejection of Asim Khan will also be a personal blow to Labour MSP Anas Sarwar who supported the candidacy of Khan. The fight was seen by some as a proxy fight between the Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard and Anas Sarwar in the ongoing power struggle for control of Scottish Labour.

Asim Khan’s plight stems from his past at a charity for abuse survivors, he was was accused of a “complete failure” to protect a female worker from harassment and victimisation by two other men. The charity was called the Roshni charity and he was the chairman which rather puts a lot of pressure on him to explain himself fully.

An employment tribunal judge recommended Khan should issue an apology to the woman over what happened to her. She was awarded over £70,000 for her treatment at the now-defunct group. The Tribunal said Khan failed to act when the woman complained to him, with the tribunal describing parts of his evidence as “evasive” and “untruthful”.

So, that rather puts him in an awkward place.

After an investigation by the Sunday Herald, ten women from Pollok CLP, his local branch wrote to party bosses complaining about his suitability as a candidate, and a female committee member allegedly filed a complaint. When I read that ten women complained, I was surprised, having done Johann Lamont’s campaign, I never saw once during the campaign for the entire short campaign saw 10 women turning up for activism. Of course Labour MSP Johann Lamont lost the seat rather badly due to an incredibly badly organised campaign which bordered on pathetic. As an experienced campaigner, I have seen good campaigns and bad campaigns, and this one was pure crap.

Glasgow South West is one of the most marginal seats in Scotland, along side Glasgow East, the SNP held it with a majority of just 60 votes in 2017, previously the majority was substantially higher for the SNP in 2015, around the 23k mark. Given that there isn’t going to be an election until 2022 for Westminster, the Labour Party aren’t looking for 61 votes in Glasgow South West to win it.  

They are looking for several thousand above the 2017 result.

If you don’t know much about politics and activism, this should help, campaigns aren’t won in the short campaign; the real work is done in what is termed the long campaign. The sad fact of life is that Pollok CLP isn’t very good at campaigning, so here are two examples. This month, there was no CLP meeting, at the previous meeting before I attended, there was no mention that the next month meeting not taking place. This is an example of bad communication. The second one to look at is a work day/ activism, this was collecting for the local foodbank, I got the text to attend this event which arrived on my phone on 23/7/2018, 09.26.03 am; for an event taking place on the 21^st.

Two days after it finished.

Back to the unhappy, regarding Asim Khan; the Scottish Labour Women’s Movement said of his removal:

“This is the right decision and shows that the Scottish Labour Party and the SEC value women’s place in the party. We should never be in a position where someone with such a terrible record on equality can put themselves forward to represent the party of Equality.”

    

So, lets remove him from a selection contest were members can decide his fate, so where was their concern about my and other Pollok CLP members’ equality and rights to cast our vote for whoever I chose?

Does Asim Khan have a ‘terrible record on equality’?

Ian Davidson, the former Labour MP for Glasgow South West said:

“Matt Kerr took Labour to within 60 votes of winning and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to deselect him as the candidate for any future election. Asim Khan has now been shown to be clearly unsuitable. Those who backed him should now get behind Matt Kerr and help to secure a Labour win in the seat.”

Firstly, Pollok CLP did nothing of note prior to the short campaign, post election that “work rate” dropped even lower.

Secondly, the Matt Kerr campaign only generated an extra 888 votes more than Ian Davidson’s result in 2015 so there wasn’t exactly a Labour revival more previous SNP voters of 2015 not turning out.

Thirdly since Labour doesn’t hold the seat, no one should have a monopoly on the candidacy, that isn’t democratic.

As to Ian Davidson’s last point,

“Those who backed him (Khan) should now get behind Matt Kerr and help to secure a Labour win in the seat.” This is what is termed wishful thinking, well; it is more like bullshit because that isn’t going to happen. ‘Those’ who Ian Davidson refers too are the presumably the Muslim members who saw their choice of candidate removed in what some describe as a ‘race row’ contest, they also saw their vote removed previously.

As an outsider watching the lead flying in both directions, I wonder if anyone will stand up at Pollok CLP and embarrass themselves by ‘calling for unity’ after what has gone on.

Finally, a bit of facts and opinion:

Westminster 2010      pre indy campaigning

Labour Co-op Ian Davidson 19,863          SNP Chris Stephens 5,1921      Labour win

Holyrood 2011

Labour Co-op Johann Lamont 10,875       SNP Chris Stephens 10.252 Labour win

Westminster 2015

Labour Co-op Ian Davidson 13,438         SNP Chris Stephens 23,388      SNP win

Holyrood 2016

Labour Co-op Johann Lamont 8,834         SNP Humza Yousaf  15,316 SNP win  

Westminster 2017

 Labour Co-op Matt Kerr  14,326             SNP Chris Stephens  14,386     SNP  win

Now then, if you look at Johann Lamont (2016) and Matt Kerr (2017), both these results look rather bad, actually they are exceptionally bad, given Holyrood precedes Westminster, this makes taking the Westminster seat so much harder for Pollok CLP.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University