Jo Bird for NEC – Keep the nominations coming!

Cllr Jo Bird received 116 when nominations closed at midnight on 14th February

Below is a list of the first 88 CLPs to nominate her a few days earlier when this article was originally posted.

88 CLPs had nominated Cllr Jo Bird by 15.00 on 11 February

Jo Bird received 116 when nominations closed at midnight on 14th February

This statement is endorsed by the Labour Representation Committee


Councillor Jo Bird, who is running in the ongoing Labour National Executive Committee election with the support of Jewish Voice for Labour, Labour Representation Committee and Labour Left Alliance, has been suspended from party membership. This entails her exclusion from standing for office, thus disenfranchising the 80+ constituency labour parties that have already nominated her.

The Party keeps confidential what Jo, the only Jewish candidate standing for the NEC, has been suspended for. Given previous events, we have to assume that it is because of allegations of antisemitism. This is borne out by publication in the Jewish Chronicle at the weekend of an article linking her suspension to a short video she made in the JustJews series, explaining her support for the party in the face of multiple antisemitism charges. By no stretch of the imagination is there anything antisemitic in this video.

Jo is the leading left candidate running for the NEC so the timing of her suspension is deeply suspicious. It has the hallmarks of a deliberate attempt to undermine party democracy and the wishes of thousands of party members, in the 86 CLPs that have already nominated her, [listed below and shown in the map above], as well as many more who cast their votes in her favour in other constituencies and yet more who still wish to do so.

Jo’s suspension should be lifted and her candidacy must continue to be considered at CLP nominating meetings until nominations close on Friday February 14. We must continue to nominate the strongest left candidate! If this is prevented, we urge local party organisations to consider protesting at the misuse of our complaints processes to secure partisan advantage in internal elections.

Suspension before investigation is an extreme measure and the Party must show to all members why they have taken such a step in the middle of an election process.

Following the devastating defeat of December 12, we understand that many members are distraught at this latest attempt to silence committed left-wing campaigners. We urge members not to succumb to despair but to stand firm and join fellow activists in rebuilding our Labour Party.

Here is the full list of 88 CLPs that had nominated Cllr Jo Bird by 1500 on Tuesday February 11.

1. Ashfield
2. Bath
3. Bermondsey and Old Southwark
4. Berwick on Tweed
5. Birkenhead
6. Bolton West
7. Bootle
8. Bournemouth East
9. Bournemouth West
10. Brecon and Radnorshire
11. Brent Central
12. Brighton Kemptown
13. Brighton Pavillion
14. Bristol North West
15. Bromley and Chislehurst
16. Cambridge
17. Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
18. Chelmsford
19. Cheltenham
20. Chingford & Wood Green
21. Colne Valley
22. Croydon Central
23. Croydon South
24. Dartford
25. Daventry
26. Dulwich and West Norwood
27. Ealing Southall
28. East Ham
29. Erith and Thamesmead
30. Fylde
31. Gravesham
32. Hastings and Rye
33. Hemel Hemstead
34. Hexham
35. Heywood and Middleton
36. Hornsey and Wood Green
37. Huddersfield
38. Hyndburn
39. Isle of Wight
40. Kingswood
41. Leeds Central
42. Leeds East
43. Leeds North East
44. Leeds West
45. Liverpool Riverside
46. Liverpool West Derby
47. Macclesfield
48. Manchester Gorton
49. Mid Sussex
50. Montgomeryshire
51. Newark
52. Newcastle Central
53. North East Fife
54. North Herefordshire
55. North Thanet
56. Northern Ireland
57. Nuneaton
58. Oxford East
59. Oxford West and Abingdon
60. Pendle
61. Penrith and the Border
62. Peterborough
63. Reading East
64. Ribble Valley
65. Rochester and Strood
66. Rushcliffe
67. Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
68. Sleaford and North Hykeham
69. South East Cornwall
70. South Thanet
71. South Warwickshire
72. South West Hertfordshire
73. St Austell and Newquay
74. St Helen’s South
75. Stockton South
76. Stratford on Avon
77. Streatham
78. Streford and Urmston
79. Tewskesbury
80. Tunbridge Wells
81. Wallasey
82. Warwick and Leamington Spa
83. Wells
84. West Derby
85. West Ham
86. Wirral South
87. Wirral West
88. Ynys Mon

 

Comments (19)

  • David Pike says:

    I strongly suspect that this is a trial run..if they can remove a high profile left winger as easy as this than the rank and file left wing stand no chance whatsoever.

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  • Philip Inglesant says:

    I am truly shocked. Presumably all of these 88 CLPs will now be under investigation too. As far as I can see, the “campaign against antisemitism” has the main effect of suspending or expelling many Jews from the Labour Party. In fact I have often considered whether I wish to remain a member of a party that treats the majority of its Jewish members so appallingly. I’m not Jewish but I stand shoulder to shoulder with my Jewish comrades, as well as with all ethnic minorities.

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  • David Hawkins says:

    Labour means nothing at all as a political movement unless we express our total disgust at all racism.Racism against Jews, Palestinians or anyone else. Supporters of Israel need to be confronted with a simple question ” is ethnic cleansing ever a justified means of achieving a political objective ?” If the answer is “no” then we need to ask why a Palestinian Right of Return to Israel is not supported. If you don’t support a Palestinian Right of Return you are saying that Ethnic cleansing is OK.
    Labour’s ambiguity about racism is a cancer that is eating away at the soul of the Labour Party. And that’s precisely why we need Jo Bird on the NEC. Jo isn’t “the left wing candidate” Jo is the moral candidate a good, kind, principled, Jewish Woman who is guaranteed to always stand up for justice and equality for all. If Labour can’t elect Jo Bird to the NEC it means Labour is morally bankrupt.

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  • John Bowley says:

    Internal elections should be suspended whilst any candidates are suspended.

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  • Dr Clive Perrett says:

    Suspension without investigation and without any mention of allegations is quite clearly a dictatorial process which makes a mockery of Labour’s claim to be a democratic socialist party. I am political education and policy officer for Chelmsford CLP. We nominated Jo Bird for the NEC. Now it seems our vote is null and void so we have been disenfranchised. I have myself experienced the absurdity of these fake allegations of anti semitism because I was myself placed “under investigation” by the party for nine months because someone had notified the disciplinary team of facebook posts of mine one of which said that if these false allegations of institutional anti semitism succeeded in bringing Corbyn down the Tories would be laughing all the way to the ballot box (and the bank). I was asked to explain what I meant by “laughing all the way to the bank” – as if this was some sort of anti semitic trope. The absurdity of all this is blatant. The investigation was eventually dropped but I was told that my details would be kept “on file”. I never received, nor has my executive ever received, any reply to our enquiries or any explanation of all this. This is all intolerable.

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  • Edward Hill says:

    The Jewish Chronicle story headed ” ‘Jew process’ Labour councillor suspended for second time amid bid for election to governing body” (8th February) is perhaps best read in conjunction with the same journal’s article of 9th February, “Lisa Nandy unveils sweeping action plan for eradicating antisemitism in Labour”, which introduces her “Tackling Antisemitism” document. Nandy declares “The crisis of antisemitism in Labour is a crisis in the soul of our Party….I want to lead our Party out of this shameful period in our history.” Her analysis of the situation is: “We have faced an antisemitism crisis because there are fringe elements of the left who hold deeply pernicious or ignorant views about Jewish people, and there was a failure or refusal to act when those people reared their heads in our Party. A factionalised response, defensive and lacking in empathy, generated a culture of denial that is in itself antisemitic in the way it contested the complaints of our Jewish members, refusing to allow them to define the very prejudice they face.”
    Here we see what follows acceptance of the Board of Deputies “10 Pledges” by a leadership candidate (and where one goes, the others surely follow?) If anyone from the ‘response faction’ (JVL?) says, as Jo Bird did in her ‘Just Jews’ video, “Some people say antisemitism is really widespread in the Labour Party, and that’s not an experience I have”, such a statement amounts to denial of crisis, which, like Holocaust Denial, is antisemitic.
    It doesn’t look likely that there will be much room in the post-Corbyn era for “natural justice and due process”.

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  • Colette says:

    What is happening to our nation’s democracy? The one party that had any chance of holding the current government to account, for the sake of the many, is imploding. If there is such an erosion of democracy and natural justice within our own party, how can we have any pretence at holding the moral high ground. Heartbreaking.

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  • David Epstein says:

    Kenilworth&Southam CLP held its nominations meeting last night. I proposed Jo Bird for NEC, and hers was one of the two nominations supported by those present. Please add our CLP to your list.

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  • RH says:

    It’s ironic that the anniversary of George Orwell’s death has been marked recently. Listening again to his writing on the Beeb has been a reminder of how far the Labour Party has regressed in terms of meanindful language and action in this new era of ‘EngSoc’.

    Previous comments eloquently express the falsity and profound contradictions of the cowardly submission to the pretended advocates of the Jewish community who use the victims of the Holocaust as cover for their venal politics. ‘Disgust’ is too mild a word for their betrayal of anti-racism and truth-telling.

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  • jim mckenny says:

    The right wing and bureaucrats must have been worried about her winning.

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  • Harry Law says:

    Edward Hill, after reading Dr Clive Perrett’s comment above about the Tories “Laughing all the way to the bank’ [a possible trope] and that this will be kept on file.
    In view of your apparent sympathy for Jo Bird, I must report you to the compliance unit because of this expression “Natural Justice and Due process”. This is obviously a synonym for ‘Jew process’ and will not be tolerated, if you complain, that is proof positive that you are an evil antisemite; you could lose your job and be ostracized from the community for life. I aim to assemble a team to trawl through all your social media posts for the past 10 years and hope to find other evidence. You have been warned.
    PS: The Labour Party also give the accused the Samaritans phone number, you could not make it up.

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  • Barry Wesson says:

    It’s as if Watson never went away, the Centrist non democratic cynics driven by the Tory_lites doing what they’ve always donry since Kinnock Snr.

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  • Essie says:

    On another forum that I am part of, the idea was made of CLPs ”going on strike” in support of Cllr Bird and against all this perniciousness. The LP has lost its soul.

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  • Jon Grunewald says:

    You can add Ruislip Northwood Pinner, after last night.

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  • John Bowley says:

    I am proud to report that on Wednesday evening South West Wiltshire CLP voted overwhelmingly to propose Jo Bird for the NEC.

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  • Dave Hansell says:

    Penistone and Stocksbridge CLP nominated Jo Bird for the NEC last night, 13th February.

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  • Tom Loeffler says:

    My CLP has agreed the Emergency Motion reproduced below and sent it to the General Secretary for immediate consideration by the NEC. Silence on this matter would be tantamount to acquiescence.
    ======
    EMERGENCY MOTION

    We condemn the reported suspensions of the candidates for CLP representatives on the NEC, Jo Bird and Mohammed Azam, as being unjust and damaging to the Party, and call upon the NEC to rescind the suspensions without delay.

    We note that:
    – the candidate for the position of CLP representative on the NEC nominated by this CLP, Jo Bird, has been suspended from the Party, making her ineligible to stand;
    – another candidate, Mohammed Azam, has also been suspended;
    – the suspension of Party members before investigation is contrary to the cardinal principle of justice that accused persons are deemed innocent until proven guilty;
    – suspension of candidates at this stage in the elections seriously damages the choice available to members, and raises questions about the motivation for the suspensions;
    – there has been an increasing number of cases where Party members have been suspended in this manner;
    these actions of the NEC are bringing the Party into disrepute, and risk the possibility of a legal challenge by an aggrieved member.

    We call on the NEC:
    – If reports of the suspensions are correct, to rescind the suspension of Jo Bird and Mohammed Azam without delay, and freeze the investigations into the allegations against them, until after the elections for the NEC are over;
    – to inform all CLPs about this decision and confirm that these two candidates may stand for election;
    – to desist from suspending members from the Party while claims made against them are investigated;
    – to consult within the Party, and seek legal advice from experts, on ways of reforming disciplinary procedures so that they fully conform to the principles of natural justice.

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  • Essie says:

    Skwawkbox has been reporting from yesterday that Cllr Bird has been reinstated as a result of NCC scrutiny – scrutiny which would be denied by all 4 leadership candidates who signed the Pledge.

    In the comments section of Independent –

    ”I thought that any ”antisemitism” minnow thrown to the Media would create a frenzy but why aren’t they biting this time? Inconvenient, perhaps, not in ”the script”? A Jewish councillor with tremendous support for the NEC executive elections is suddenly suspended and her candidature cancelled. Over 91 nominations nevertheless received including several made after the suspension. The grassroots are in revolt. Many high profile Jewish members of the LP self-refer themselves to the Complaints Unit as ”antisemitic”. When the NCC looks into the allegations, they find they are ”spurious” and Cllr Jo Bird is reinstated. And what of the nasty piece of work who made the vexatious claim against Bird? What happens to him or her? How many other vexatious claims did they make?
    https://skwawkbox.org/2020/02/15/bird-reinstated-to-nec-by-election/#comments

    And what of poor Pauline Hammerton who might also be exonerated? Too late for her, she died shortly after being left distraught by her suspension. Dame Hodge was responsible for hundreds of claims of antisemitism the vast majority of which were found to be unrelated to LP members. […] utter craven cowardice from the LP leadership contenders. By the way one of the pledges they have signed up to is that the NCC should be scraped and the Bof JD determines who is guilty of AS (IE everyone who criticises Israel but not one RW e.g. Sir K Starmer who questioned IHRA from the legal point of view when he was not trying to climb the greasy poll). The LP machinery’s ability to plumb new depths of crass inhumanity knows no bounds but so does the MSM.”

    https://skwawkbox.org/2020/02/15/excl-ncc-forced-to-reject-up-to-90-of-antisemitism-evidence-as-unfit-multiple-deaths-follow-expulsions/

    https://twitter.com/LauraCatriona/status/1228711075505459200

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  • Edward Hill says:

    Skwawkbox has reported that Jo Bird’s suspension has been lifted; as the next stage in supporting Jo, I have voted for her on Skwawkbox’s ‘Poll of candidates to back on left ‘slate’ in NEC by-election, and suggest others do the same.

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