Hot on the heels of the Private Eye story explaining the problems that Mayor Biggs is having recruiting Labour candidates who are, er, Labour Party people and not Aspire Party people, the Mayor with the Flat Cap is now in trouble with UK Labour HQ.
Seems the Mayor ignored Labour party procedures as well the choices Labour members had made by arranging to have three perfectly good candidates who had been selected, deselected.
Indeed they might still stand as there is an appeal process available to them until 20th March.
Seems the unlucky three were subject to unannounced interviews without explanation and have been recommended for removal (by the Mayor?) with no reason for their abrupt change in fortunes being given to them.
Mole does not have the three names (yet) but he understands they would have been standing in St Peters, Whitechapel and Blackwall and Cubitt Town wards. The candidate in Blackwall and Cubitt Town might well be Asra Anjum, who was the subject of this story in June 2021.
Maybe time to pick a different party Asra?
Labour candidates for St Peter’s Ward are Kevin Brady, Sufia Alam and Mizan Chowdhury, in Whitechapel Faroque Ahmed, Shah Suhel Amin and Farhana Zaman.
Trouble at the top
UK Labour have found out about the Mayor ignoring the rules and the wishes of local Labour Party members and they are distinctly not amused.
Distinctly not amused as in absolutely fecking furious.
Mole has been reliably informed that the Mayor was grassed up by a Tower Hamlets Labour Party member emailing UK Labour and telling Sir Keir and his comrades that Mayor Biggs was being very uncomradely indeed.
(Mole can also categorically deny that he sent the email. There is so much chaos and confusion in Tower Hamlets Labour there is no need for him to stir the pot and he has stories coming out of his ears.)
Some parts of Tower Hamlets Labour are of the view that this raises concerns of cultural insensitivity and Islamophobia.
Or to be blunt all three were deselected because they are British Bangladeshis.
The Mayor’s legacy
The weirdest part of this political cannibalism is that the reason for all this nonsense is primarily to get Tarik Khan (currently councillor for Bethnal Green West and Majority Group Whip) back onto the candidate list because, wait for it…. Biggs thinks that Tarik is key to his legacy!
Honest! That is what Moley was told by Someone Who Knows.
We shall not mention or allude to the fact that Tarik Khan’s day job is with Braeburn Estates, part of Canary Wharf Group, because that is completely irrelevant and can in no way have anything to do with Flat Cap Man wanting him back inside the Labour tent.
Something does not quite add up
Quite why Tarik gave up his promising job at the Office of National Statistics is still beyond us, apart from the fact that he never worked there.
And quite why Mayor Biggs thinks he will have any legacy to leave is a puzzle beyond the investigative abilities of even Moley.
So to recap the Mayor has managed to annoy UK Labour, annoy those Tower Hamlets Labour members who were not already annoyed with him (not many), annoy those who were already annoyed with him even more (quite a few) and potentially totally repulse a lot of Bangladeshi party members if the allegations that the deselections were motivated by race are proven.
This last fact alone would probably be terminal for the political career of Mayor Biggs and his cap might well have to take his place on the Mayoral ticket.
We will bring you an interview with the Mayor’s cap when we can.
Everything will be fine. Really.
No doubt all this anger and back-stabbing will be resolved well ahead of the May elections because if it is not everyone in Tower Hamlets Labour is going to suffer at the polls.
Not a lot you can say to all that really. Oh hang on!
Solidarity comrade Biggs! Solidarity!
