LRC statement on NEC elections and the suspension of Jo Bird and Mohammed Azam

Sky News and LabourList are reporting that Jo Bird and Mohammed Azam, candidates in the election for two vacant National Executive (CLPs section) have been suspended from membership of the Labour Party, and that their names (and nominations) have been removed from the list of candidates on the Party website. 

No details are known as to the reasons, but this is an outrageous step to take in the middle of an election. Jo Bird has over 70 nominations from CLPs, including some since her suspension became known. Jo Bird is well known as a councillor on the Wirral, and is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour. Support for her has clearly been a signal of the level of opposition to the weaponisation of allegations of antisemitism in the Party. All these nominations, together with any subsequent ones, will presumably be declared invalid, depriving those CLPs of their right to make a nomination. 

These elections have been marked by a refusal from the start of Momentum to discuss with the rest of the Left, through the usual channel of the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance, the possibility of a joint slate of two candidates. This has meant a plethora of left candidates, some backed by one or more left organisations, some standing independently. Partly because of this and assisted by a voting system which does not allow for a preferential vote, the right-wing candidates supported by Labour First (Johanna Baxter and Gurinder Singh Josan) have been getting more nominations than in recent years.

On February 6th, after nomination meetings had been held for several weeks, Momentum announced that it is promoting 2 candidates, Lauren Townsend and Leigh Drennan. Lauren Townsend has been running as an independent (having been initially rejected by Momentum). Well respected for her central role in the campaign to unionise fast food workers, she had already amassed 46 nominations. But Lauren may be being used by Momentum, especially as she is the third different candidate it has put forward in 2 weeks. The leadership of Momentum has made it clear that it will not contemplate support for any candidate who is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, preferring to cosy up to the witchhunters of the Jewish Labour Movement. 

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy reacted to the suspension of Mohammed Azam announcing they were transferring their support to Cecile Wright, while also supporting Lauren Townsend. They rightly point out that the left should not campaign to replace two BAME members of the NEC with two white candidates. However, their willingness to immediately concede that Mohammed Azam should not be nominated is worrying, particularly so in relation to opposing the witchhunt. 

The Labour Representation Committee had hoped that at the close of nominations (February 14th) the left could come together in support of the two candidates with the highest number of nominations to ensure the positions are not lost to the Right. However, this now seems unlikely. Momentum's reputation was already severely damaged on the left of the Party because of its undemocratic behaviour. This will be seen by many as the final straw.

We do not know who made the allegations that led to the suspension of Mohammed Azam and Jo Bird, or the nature of the complaints against them (although rumours are that they are flimsy). We can only say that Momentum is clearly hoping to gain by the removal of these left candidates who were frontrunners in the nominations at the time of their suspensions. But the right of the Party will also gain from this situation, already capitalising on the demoralisation and confusion following the general election defeat, now exacerbated by the witchhunt and public split in the left. 

The Labour Representation Committee urges activists to continue to make the nominations they were going to. Nominations, for instance, for Jo Bird, will show the level of opposition to the outrageous move to exclude her from the ballot. 

The Labour Representation continues to encourage supporters to nominate Jo Bird and Deborah Hobson as candidates in the CLP section. We also encourage supporters to nominate Mehmood Mirza for the vacant BAME place on the NEC. 

Even at this late stage the LRC remains open to the possibility of agreeing a joint slate with the rest of the Left.