ZARAH NO COMMENT

Zarah Sultana is whipping up a mob against Reform UK

Zarah Sultana is not normally shy.  Her almost screeching tones can be heard regularly on the floor of the Commons, usually involving rhetoric around Palestine and immigrants.  However, it seems that Coventry's finest can dish it out, but she cannot take return fire.

Zarah is presently involved in organising a demonstration in Birmingham at the end of this month.  Her protest appears to be aimed at silencing Labour's political opponents in Reform UK.  In various social media posts and an official event page hosted by a far left group, Zarah declares that Reform's 'division' must be rejected.  'Join the fightback', she wrote in multiple posts on both Facebook and X, while she compared Reform to the BNP and National Front in a post on Instagram.  The venue for this event is less than two miles away from what is billed as Reform's largest conference yet.  Zarah's get together - which will include speeches from her fellow currently suspended Labour comrades Apsana Begum and John McDonnell - takes place in the evening, presumably after the Reform event has been picketed by the mob.

While Zarah is not a Birmingham MP, it is her home town, and she appears dead set on organising as big a crowd as possible to intimidate and disrupt Reform's conference.  Her Coventry constituency includes the university and a large Muslim population, so she will undoubtedly be bringing a significant number of her constituents along for the short journey between the two Midland cities.  Then of course there is Birmingham's own student population, in addition to its much larger Muslim population, from which Ms Sultana hails.  She is clearly hoping to emulate the mob that turned up at a Reform conference in Cornwall last month, in which attendees had to run the gauntlet of masked thugs who were screaming insults and fighting with police.  Many Reform members turned back, fearing for their safety, essentially giving in to the primary aim of the mob.

Sultana's post on Instagram

Shortly after announcing her vanity project last month, Zarah saw fit to extinguish even more voices.  She joined a long list of Labour politicians and activists to have disabled comments on their social media.  There is only one reason they take such draconian action, and that is pushback received.  If she had expected Reform activists and voters to sit back and merely accept her fascistic approach towards them, she was clearly mistaken.  Prominent X users waded in on her anti-democratic posts, including then Reform MP Rupert Lowe.

Instead of ignoring or perhaps engaging with her detractors, many of whom drew on traditional working class concerns such as rape gangs, mass immigration and Islamism, Zarah decided to pull the plug altogether on X user comments.  Her block remains in place at the time of the writing, although her Facebook and Instagram pages remain open to comments (for now).

Poor Zarah, she can hand out insults to millions of voters, but she cannot take it when they answer back!

WHIP RESTORED TO FOUR REBELS

Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain

Four of the seven hard left MPs suspended from Labour have now been readmitted.  The seven members of the Socialist Campaign Group had the party whip removed last July as Keir Starmer sought to take a hard line against backbench rebels at the first opportunity.  That chance arose when the seven voted in favour of an SNP proposal to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The four restored are Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby), Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford), Richard Burgon (Leeds East) and Imran Hussain (Bradford East).  The hierarchy was clearly in no rush to readmit the rebels as the initial six month suspension had already overrun, while it remains unclear when or if the remaining three will regain the party whip.

Those not readmitted at this stage are Apsana Begum (Poplar & Limehouse), John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington) and Zarah Sultana (Coventry South).  The trio are particularly vocal on the question of Palestine, alluded to in a post by Sultana on X.  Begum and McDonnell also responded to their continued suspensions on X.

Sultana had posted twice leading up to the news, both of which were attacks on the UK in relation to Gaza.  On Wednesday morning she accused the UK and other Western nations of being complicit in 'genocide'.  Late on Tuesday she challenged the UK government to condemn President Trump's proposals to resettle Palestinians outside of Gaza, which she quite correctly described as 'ethnic cleansing'.

It's a shame Zarah cannot represent the majority of her constituents, who are more concerned with what's in their wage packets and being able to walk the streets safely - than events taking place thousands of miles away.

Her comrade Apsana Begum chose to dial down the Palestine cause in her response.  She repeated her opposition to the two-child benefit cap, but her post garnered a strong backlash with many users critical of benefits culture: "Have fewer children so you can afford to feed them" was one such comment.

Begum was the focus of a protracted effort to remove her as a Labour candidate in the years prior to the last election.  The precise motives for specifically wanting her out were never clear, but in the end it came to nothing as she was re-selected and then re-elected in July, albeit with a majority slashed by more than half.  For whatever reason, the Labour leadership want Begum out.

The case for McDonnell's continued suspension is more cut and dried, as he (and his pal Corbyn) were recently interviewed by Met Police in light of a police confrontation with pro-Palestine protesters.  The pair were accused of being part of a group that allegedly pushed through police lines during a demonstration in the capital last month.  Both men deny that version of events, but McDonnell appears to be content with his extended suspension as he awaits news of potential police charges.

McDonnell will be well aware that as a close friend and comrade of Jeremy Corbyn, he does not have to step too far outside of the line for Starmer to expel him permanently.  McDonnell would find it much harder to get re-elected as an independent, a feat achieved with relative ease by Corbyn last year.

STARMER CRACKS THE WHIP

Top: Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell, Zarah Sultana and Richard Burgon
Bottom: Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Ian Byrne

Keir Starmer sent a clear message on Tuesday that he will not tolerate dissidents, suspending the party whip from seven hard left MPs following a minor rebellion in the Commons.  The seven were all from the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs.  Of course, when you have a 174 seat majority, one can afford to suspend a fair number - in fact Starmer could have suspended the entire Socialist Campaign Group of 24 MPs if they had all voted accordingly.  The seven, who include the likes of John McDonnell and Rebecca Long-Bailey, will remain suspended for six months and sit as independents during that time.

It was an SNP-backed amendment that led to the first rebellion of Starmer's premiership.  The amendment demanded an end to the two child benefit cap, introduced by the Tories in 2017.  Naturally, those on the left favour a never-ending flow of state handouts to families, regardless of the size and ability to earn a living.

The government won the vote 363-103.  The Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid and all the Northern Ireland parties supported the SNP motion.  The Conservatives abstained, while 41 Labour MPs abstained or were absent, including eight members of the Socialist Campaign Group - Diane Abbott, Mary Foy, Kim Johnson, Ian Lavery, Andy McDonald, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Jon Trickett and Nadia Whittome.  The remainder of the SCG voted with the government, one of whom tried to con her way out of her 'scabby' vote...

Dawn Butler declared on X that she supported an end to the two child benefit cap, publishing a letter she had written to Liz Kendall, who is now Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.  The BBC even erroneously reported that Butler had abstained on the vote.  She didn't, her vote is recorded with the noes, alongside SCG comrades (or scabs, as the left might say) Tahir Ali, Olivia Blake, Marsha de Cordova, Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Grahame Morris, Kate Osamor and Kate Osborne.  None of these others tried to weasel their way out like Butler tried (and failed, judging by the comments on her post).

This significant three-way split for Labour's hard left will no doubt please centrists like Starmer.

When Starmer won the Labour leadership in 2020, it soon became clear that the hard left - under which he had served as a shadow minister - were going to feel the squeeze.  Former front bench comrades such as Corbyn, Abbott, McDonnell and co were going to the sword at the first opportunity.  Corbyn was felled, but got his revenge earlier this month by robbing Starmer of Islington North.  Abbott was felled, then she was readmitted.  McDonnell kept his head down and kept his seat.  Others who were suspended, expelled and/or deselected were Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Sam Tarry and Claudia Webbe.

RAYNER'S LOVER DESELECTED

The hard left MP for Ilford South has been deselected as the Labour candidate for the next general election.  Sam Tarry has only been an MP since 2019, after being selected to succeed Mike Gapes, who had quit Labour to co-found Change UK.  Tarry was selected in controversial circumstances, with his closest rival having been conveniently suspended from the party the day before the vote.  The suspended candidate was Jas Athwal, the leader of Redbridge Council.  He was later cleared of wrongdoing and went up against Tarry for a rerun in Monday's reselection battle.  Athwal defeated Tarry 499 votes to 361, despite a spirited campaign by the incumbent.

Tarry, who is the lover of Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, was supported by several MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group including Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Jon Trickett and Apsana Begum.  The latter is also facing a reselection contest, although the process was delayed after she signed off sick for three months.

Sam Tarry pictured centre alongside fellow MP Apsana Begum, who is also facing
reselection.  Bell Ribeiro-Addy can be see on the far left of the picture.

Ilford South is a sought-after seat for prospective Labour MPs as it has been a safe seat since 1997 and the party's majority has only dipped below 10,000 once in that time (2005).

The issue of trigger ballots - the process by which Labour MPs face reselection - has been a controversial issue in recent years.  Neil Kinnock introduced them in 1990, but the required threshold was reduced under Jeremy Corbyn in 2018.  Labour members voted overwhelmingly in favour of reducing the threshold from 50 per cent to 33 per cent.  Therein lies the irony in Tarry's deselection.

In 2018 Labour moderates had feared that the lowering of the threshold would lead to a purge by the hard left.  The following year Labour's Socialist Campaign Group more than doubled its number of MPs, with newcomers such as Zarah Sultana, Claudia Webbe, Nadia Whittome and Tarry himself.  However, no MPs were deselected for that election - the sitting MPs either won the reselection vote or stood down.  This makes Sam Tarry the first Labour MP to be deselected since Anne Moffatt in 2010.  His hard left comrade Apsana Begum could follow suit, meaning that a process purportedly intended to purge moderates ends up claiming two members of the Socialist Campaign Group!

Tarry was one of the few Corbyn loyalists to serve on Keir Starmer's front bench, but was sacked after he appeared on a picket line in July this year.  The reselection process was triggered the following month.  Tarry's response to the news was to accuse the party of a witch-hunt, alleging 'voter fraud' in the trigger ballot.  He stopped short of repeating those allegations in a statement released on Tuesday, but he did question the 'integrity' of Monday's reselection vote and said it 'did not reflect the feeling on the ground'.

Tarry's full statement can be seen below.

LABOUR'S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN

An event took place in north London on Saturday entitled 'Conference for the Black Child'.  The title was inspired by 'Child Q', a black schoolgirl reportedly strip-searched by Met officers who were called in after teachers claimed to smell cannabis on her.  The Child Q story forms the basis for much of the event, which claims there is institutional racism 'at the heart of the British establishment', primarily in education.  The conference is chaired by none other than Diane Abbott (quelle surprise?) with contributions from Labour colleagues including Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Apsana Begum and Baroness Chakrabarti.  Presumably Dawn Butler and Dave Lammy were unavailable.

The full itinerary can be found below.

As you can see, there is an obsession with perceived 'institutional racism' against children.  However, there is no mention of child grooming for sex.  Whereas they talk about 'Child Q' - a singular case - there have been tens of thousands of British schoolchildren groomed by gangs, many of whom at the school gates.  We know the reason they don't mention it and it is, ironically, their own institutional racism.  From council authorities and social services to the police, grooming gangs were allowed to operate for years with impunity because the perpetrators were Asian.  Labour politicians, including its current leader, have stonewalled the victims - who are overwhelmingly white.

Racism cuts both ways Diane Abbott and co.

BEGUM CLEARED

Far left Labour MP Apsana Begum has been acquitted on all three counts of housing fraud as her trial reached its conclusion on Friday.  The MP for Poplar and Limehouse was accused of making three fraudulent housing applications between 2013 and 2016, before she became an MP.  Much of her defence appears to have relied on her relationship with her husband, which it was said was 'controlling and coercive' and there were fears she may become the victim of 'honour violence'.

Begum's comrades in the Socialist Campaign Group were quick to congratulate her on the decision, including Burgon, Butler and Corbyn.  John McDonnell had even given her a personal character reference in court.  Many on the left criticised the decision of Tower Hamlets Council in bringing the prosecution, including Begum's comrade Grahame Morris who called it 'a malicious, politically motivated prosecution'.  That would be a strange accusation to throw around considering that Tower Hamlets is run by their own party, but perhaps this belies the deep divisions that course through Labour.  The current leader of the council is a centrist.

Following Begum's acquittal there was no comment from Labour leader Keir Starmer and a deafening silence from the moderates - not even Dave Lammy had anything to say.  This is a deeply divided party.

Apsana Begum pictured with far left colleague Claudia Webbe.  Webbe goes on trial
in September on a charge of harassment

THE LEFT UNLEASH THE COLUMN

Labour's Zarah Sultana addresses a protest in Coventry

The viral video of a convoy of cars blaring out vile anti-Semitic abuse in Jewish neighbourhoods of London yesterday has been widely condemned across the political spectrum - apart from those on the far left, naturally.  While Johnson, Starmer and their front bench colleagues were tweeting words of condemnation, there was silence from the likes of Corbyn, McDonnell, Burgon and Abbott.

Many MPs on the hard left participated directly in the protests over the weekend.  They gave passionate speeches, whipping up the mob into a frenzy of hate and fury.  If President Trump was responsible for the Capitol riot, these firebrand leftists are responsible for the flag-burning and missile throwing outside the Israeli embassy.

Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Zarah Sultana and Apsana Begum at the
London protest

Zarah Sultana was a busy girl in particular and addressed two protests - one in Coventry on Saturday and one in London on Sunday.  Her brief London speech consisted of a four minute rant, during which she screeched so loudly she almost lost her voice (watch below).

It was quite a performance from the young MP, but one wonders how her constituents feel about her efforts.  It's a safe bet that most of them are more concerned about their own employment prospects, the economy, holidays and travel.  Screaming about solidarity with besieged Palestinians is not exactly 'standing up for Coventry South' and the voters are likely to respond appropriately at the next election.

Also addressing pro-Palestine/anti-Israel protests over the weekend were Sultana's colleagues Diane Abbott, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Nadia Whittome and Beth Winter.  Jeremy Corbyn has been greeted by adoring crowds at several demos in the past week, as far north as Oxford no less.  While he talks about 'peace', the response from the crowd is anything but peaceful.  The flag burning and violence rarely begins before the speeches, but it flows directly from the emotive words of these far left speakers.  Likewise, protesters didn't march to the Israeli embassy as a first port of call - that decision was made after the speeches had finished.  It's no coincidence.

The silence from these speakers after whipping up an angry mob says it all.

FAR LEFT ON THE MARCH

The media have done a sterling job of manipulating events yet again.  The suspected murder of Sarah Everard has been whipped up beyond all proportion and storm clouds are gathering as a direct result.  Despite all its work in brow-beating the population into lockdown after lockdown, the media is now effectively declaring that lockdown is over.

The absurdly drawn-out process of exiting lockdown was always going to invite social unrest heading into the warmer months of spring.  Anti-lockdown protests are planned for this coming weekend and if this last weekend of protest is anything to go by, they will not go away regardless of how they are policed.

Just a small number of arrests at Saturday night's 'vigil' only served to inflame tensions and has led to two days of protests, with more planned.  Images of some of those arrests were beamed around the world, with lurid stories of how male police officers had gone in heavy-handed against poor defenceless women.  The media is intent on whipping up hate and division, just as it had done throughout last summer as BLM went on the rampage.

Incidentally, what may have began as a genuine virtue signalling and fairly innocuous feminist action on Saturday evening, has now turned into something else altogether.  While there were some dubious placards present on Saturday night, they were isolated.  By Monday evening a scattering of 'defund the police' placards had turned into official BLM placards and chants of 'no justice, no peace'.  There were also Extinction Rebellion symbols on display too.

We've trawled through pictures of the protests and uncovered plenty of evidence to show that protesters are not there entirely with women's safety in mind...

13.03.21 - Anti-police banner at the original Clapham Common 'vigil'

14.03.21 - 'Defund the Police' placard outside New Scotland Yard

14.03.21 - Two more 'Defund the Police' placards outside New Scotland Yard,
plus an 'Abolish the Police' placard

14.03.21 - 'All Cops Are Bastards' placard in Parliament Square

14.03.21 - A Socialist Party poster in Birmingham blames capitalism for sexism

15.03.21 - 'Defund the Police' placard on Westminster Bridge

15.03.21 - 'All Cops Are Bastards' placard on Westminster Bridge

15.03.21 - On Westminster Bridge, the individual in the baseball cap is wearing a
'Abolish the Police' face covering.  The girl on the left is wearing a Socialist Appeal
beanie hat, while the girl on the right is holding a Socialist Appeal pamphlet.
Socialist Appeal is a Marxist group aligned to the hard left of the Labour Party

15.03.21 - Extinction Rebellion flag in Cardiff

15.03.21 - BLM posters held up outside Parliament

In a particularly telling move, police formed a ring of defence around the Churchill statue during Sunday night's protest in Parliament Square.

14.03.21 - Police guarding the Churchill statue

Despite voting for every lockdown over the course of the last year, a number of hard left Labour MPs also joined the protests on Monday.  Apsana Begum (Poplar & Limehouse), Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham), Zarah Sultana (Coventry South) and Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) each addressed the crowd.  All four are members of Labour's Socialist Campaign Group.

In Whittome's speech she rattled off a list of women's names, beginning with Sarah Everard.  However, the second name was Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed by Kentucky police a year ago - further evidence that the hard left are merely hijacking a feminist movement for their own motives.

15.03.21 - Labour MPs in Parliament Square (from l-r) Nadia Whittome,
Zarah Sultana, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Apsana Begum

BEGUM TO STAND TRIAL

Labour's Apsana Begum will stand trial next month on three charges of housing fraud.  The Poplar and Limehouse MP appeared before Westminster magistrates on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty.  She is accused of lying about her housing status in order to obtain a council flat in Tower Hamlets, reportedly leapfrogging 18,000 others to the front of the waiting list.  She will now be tried by jury, with her next court appearance on January 5 at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Remarkably, Begum still retains both her party membership and the party whip.  This is at odds with the treatment of her hard left colleague Claudia Webbe who faces trial in March.  Webbe was stripped of the party whip upon being charged with harassment.  Why the double standard Sir Keir?

THE WEBBE-BEGUM CONTRADICTION

Claudia Webbe and Apsana Begum

Labour's Claudia Webbe and Apsana Begum share a lot in common.  They're both hard left Corbyn loyalists elected in 2019, having replaced long-standing moderates.  Both their selections were mired in controversy and they have both faced allegations of anti-Semitism.  They are also both due to appear before magistrates this side of Christmas.  Webbe (Leicester East) is due to appear on November 11 charged with harassment.  Begum (Poplar & Limehouse) is due to appear on December 10 charged with housing fraud.  Both deny the charges, but only one of them has been suspended as an MP.

Webbe had the party whip withdrawn with immediate effect when she was charged in September.  She retains party membership pending the outcome.  However, almost a week after Begum was charged she is still a Labour MP.  It's an odd disparity given they are both essentially backbench dissidents and even more so given the Great Leader's suspension.  Perhaps it's something to do with the fact Begum's case involves the Third World banana republic of Tower Hamlets and why she was inexplicably put to the front of an 18,000 long waiting list for housing.

Tower Hamlets Borough Council is most famous for the corruption and electoral fraud that led to the removal and conviction of its mayor Lutfur Rahman in 2015.  Begum has links to Rahman, who like her is of Bangladeshi origin.  During last year's general election the Tories accused her of being a proxy for Rahman, who she had previously worked for, although she denied those claims.  Rahman is currently barred from seeking elected office.

Begum's surgeries are advertised in both English and Bengali

Begum tweeted her support for Jeremy Corbyn yesterday, so she may well end up outside the Labour Party regardless of her court hearing.  A Labour split remains a very real prospect.

LABOUR SELECTION CHAOS

“A skirmish almost broke out when a man tried to take his wife’s ballot and fill it out, but she opposed".

(Poplar & Limehouse selection meeting)

Labour selections and reselections are currently taking place across the country for the general election that Labour is desperately trying to block.  It sounds bizarre, but then this is Labour.  In the last two days police have been called to two separate selection meetings, for Nottingham East and Poplar & Limehouse.  The ballot paper for both seats was dominated by Muslim candidates and both winning candidates are dead certs to hold these safe Labour seats.

Nadia Whittome selected as Chris Leslie's replacement in Nottingham East

Apsana Begum selected as Jim Fitzpatrick's replacement in Poplar and Limehouse

The Poplar selection took place in the banana republic of Tower Hamlets amid chaotic scenes.  Photo ID was required to get into the meeting, but this hurdle did not appear to 'disenfranchise' those attending (more Labour hypocrisy) as more than 500 mostly Muslim men crammed into the meeting hall.  Laughably, these all-female shortlists were supposed to be about equality, yet the turnout at this meeting reflected nothing of the sort.  The winning candidate congratulated "strong BAME women" for the campaign and then posed for a photo in which you can count the women present on one hand.  There was no mention of the LGBT candidate, funny that.

We know how her supporters want to "transform society" and "seize it".  The second paragraph is clearly aimed at her supporters (or dare we say, handlers).  When she speaks of "radicalism" she is not necessarily referring to socialism.  So much for feminism.  This is the future of our nation under a Labour direction.

Nottingham East general election 2017

Chris Leslie (Lab) 28,102 (71.5%) +16.9%
Simon Murray (Con) 8,512 (21.6%) +0.9%
Barry Holliday (Lib Dem) 1,003 (2.6%) -1.6%
Robert Hall-Palmer (UKIP) 817 (2.1%) -7.9%
Kat Boettge (Green) 698 (1.8%) -8.1%
David Bishop (Elvis) 195 (0.5%) New

Chris Leslie was one of the Labour MPs who left to form 'Change UK'.

Poplar & Limehouse general election 2017

Jim Fitzpatrick (Lab) 39,558 (67.3%) +8.7%
Chris Wilford (Con) 11,846 (20.1%) -5.3%
Elaine Bagshaw (Lib Dem) 3,959 (6.7%) +2.5%
Oliur Rahman (Ind) 1,477 (2.5%) New
Bethan Lant (Green) 989 (1.7%) -3.1%
Nicholas McQueen (UKIP) 849 (1.4%) -4.7%
David Barker (Ind) 136 (0.2%) New

Jim Fitzpatrick is not standing in the next election.