Labour self-destruct in Slough

Slough was one of the very few good stories for Labour on the night of 1st May.  Labour councillors were being ousted all over the country but in Slough, Labour bucked the trend and took control of the local council.  Labour MP for Slough, Fiona Mactaggart was on Radio 4's Week in Westminster on Saturday explaining why this had happened.  She pointed to a listening exercise that the party had held in the constituency.  It doesn't appear, however, that the new Labour councillors are capable of listening to each other.  Following a row over leadership of the Labour group, enough councillors have defected to put the Conservatives back in control with one local group of independents.

Diana Coad, our candidate for the seat, told the Slough Observer that "we have enough councillors to take control. I can’t confirm how many new members we have because numbers are rising."

Conservative blogger Tony Sharp finds the situation baffling and is unimpressed by the defection of councillors just days after they were elected under Labour colours.  ConservativeHome is getting unconfirmed reports that one of the defectors has been made Deputy Leader of the Tory group.

We hope to have more later today.

Comments

[johnC]

Good news about Slough. I don't care why Labour councillors are defecting - we should welcome them with open arms. Perhaps we should set up an organised induction programme for the many defecting councillors. We held Slough Council in the late 1970's and had a Conservative MP from 1983-97 so it should definitely be on our target list.

[Oberon Houston]

So Labour are indeed extinct in the Southeast then? Sounds like the Labour Party wagon is in the ditch. Under Brown things are imploding. Bizzare.

[John Pickworth]

"Perhaps we should set up an organised induction programme for the many defecting councillors?"

Won't that cost millions? I mean they'll be so many of them surely? ;-)

Sorry. While I hate the Labour brand in the national sense, I do have a lot of respect for many of their councillors, who are in the main decent ordinary folk who want to do well for their communities. We should of course hold the door open to those who have something to offer and welcome them into our family.

[peterbuss]

Didn't Slough buck the national trend because there was a local Tory scandal - something to do with dodgy postal voting?
Sure it was something like that i.e specific local issues rather than anything else>

[Ric]

The opposite has happened in Hartlepool where the Labour Party lost control of the council but have retained it because the Conservative group are supporting them.

[Chris Paul]

What was it Betjeman said about Slough?

[GT]

This is a great credit to the dynamism of Diana Coad and her team in Slough. In the elections, on May 1, Slough Conservatives gained a seat from Labour that Labour had not lost since the 1970's. The Labour leadership is loathed and arrogant and clearly cannot carry elected councillors.

[Xavier]

What rubbish GT. The Tories lost Slough. It's no credit to them that Labour have self-destructed on ethnic lines.

[DN]

Actually Xavier, the Tories did not lose Slough, we lost two seats because of postal vote fraud (all those involved have been suspended from the Party), and then gained two more, in Langley St Mary's (off an Independent) and in Chalvey (off Labour) - all because of the arrogance of the local Labour Party.

We sadly lost the Leader, Dexter Smith, because of a lack of help from a certain constituency that are responsible for his ward, and because of possible postal vote fraud by Labour this time! It is time the rules for postal votes were changed...

[Paul Cummins]

I am a Conservative supporter in Manchester.

I think that any elected Councillor or MP who defects to another party should face a bye-election. They were elected by people in good faith for the party they defected from.

[Felixstowe Fiddler]

Paul Cummins writes "I think that any elected Councillor or MP who defects to another party should face a bye-election. They were elected by people in good faith for the party they defected from."

I couldn't agree more. I suggest that an amendment be made to either the Representation of the People Act or the legilsation covering elections and referendums that when a person, elcted under a party label to either the Commons or a local authority, defects to another group, then that person should be compelled to resign and fight a by-election. If I vote for a Tory MP who later defects to Labour, I have been cheated out of my choice of representative.

[Lord Sid of Slough]

I think that Diana Coad may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

"TWO councillors, who left Labour to join the Conservatives, have gone back to their original party in a dramatic twist.

News of the dramatic u-turn was confirmed exclusively to The Observer by Slough Labour Party chairman, Safdar Ali, this afternoon.

He said both politicians had emailed Slough Borough Council’s chief executive Ruth Bagley today (Tuesday) to confirm their political status.

He added: “There was an internal misunderstanding and certain people tried to exploit that. Once it is all over they party needs to look at what happened and how it can be rectified for the future.”

This now means, as it presently stands that Labour is back in power as it has 22 seats while the remaining parties have 19. Cllr Pervez Choudry, who led a breakaway yesterday (Monday) is still in Conservative ranks having switched from Labour.

The make-up of the council will be officially confirmed at the mayor making on Thursday evening at Slough Town Hall."

http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/articles/1/2752

[Lord Sid of Slough]

Gosh, its gone very quiet on this thread all of a sudden, I wonder why?

I also wonder why this blog managed to miss out on reporting the Slough postal voting fraud carried out by local Conservative councillors?

Just so you are fully aware of what went on in Slough, here is a link to the Judge's findings. Its a cracking read as the Judge has a definite sense of humour.

http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/slough_x007e_judgment.doc

[Lord Sid of Slough]

libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/
slough_x007e_judgment.doc

[Lord Churchill of Slough]

This latest and deeply embarrassing Conservative disaster, whose chief architect is said to be Conservative PPC Diana Dale-Gough (a.k.a. Diana Coad) which so closes follows the High Court hearing into Tory voting fraud in Slough, the announced 10 week criminal trial in January 2009 at Reading Crown Court with likely prison sentences, plus the total absence of a party office in Slough for the so-called Slough Conservatives who fled in some disarray to Windsor's offices, is surely a prima facie example of an utterly unfit Slough constituency organisation.

The current High Court case where Slough's PPC Diana Dale-Gough is suing 2 old aged pensioners for £50,000 for defamation is yet another reason for long overdue Central Office intervention.

Do Conservatives really want Labour's existing MP to be re-elected or are they sufficiently determined to scrap the Slough Conservative Association and rebuild it before the general election ?

Time is fast running-out to sort-out Slough before the Party becomes a national spectacle of total derision.

[Mal]

GT The Labour Leader in Slough is so loathed and arrogant that the voters increased his vote from 1061 to 1279 giving him a majority over the Conservative candidate of 823, in 2004 it was 560.

DN You are right the Conservatives did not lose Slough, they were a minority party in a coalition of Liberals, LibDems, UKIP and various strains of independents. You did however lose 3 seatts including Dexter Smith who was not as loved as you suggest. He brought ridicule on the town with his arrogant pronouncements and by a ludicrous radio interview he gave.

By the way he was the Election Agent in the electoral fraud scandal.

He now seems to have been replaced by Diana
Coad.....eager to give the press worthless exclusives.

[Lord Churchill of Slough]

Young Malcontent illustrates the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the Slough PPC.

http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/articles/1/2745

"Cllr Diana Coad, the Tory parliamentary candidate for Slough, has
confirmed enough Labour councillors had defected to her party on Sunday
to take control with the BILLD group when councillors next meet on
Thursday at the mayor-making ceremony.

"Speaking exclusively to the Midweek, she said: “Let’s put it this way,
we have enough councillors to take control. I can’t confirm how many new
members we have because numbers are rising. We will work with the BILLD
group because we have worked well together for a number of years.”"

[Lord Gibbon of Slough]

As my noble friends so accurately recall, Dexter Smith, the ex-Tory leader in Slough, brought regional humiliation on himself and his party by giving the most appalling radio interview to LBC last year:
http://www.eventsandstuff.co.uk/audio/dex_smith.html

in it he demonstrated to a wider audience what he had until then been a private affair - a thirst for publicity unmatched by any grasp of the facts or ability to speak

The Slough Tory party is in ruins - they no longer have a base in Slough (over the river in Windsor), their last general election campaign was a fiasco (the first candidate was deselected because of a picture of him posing with an array of firearms in a seedy bedsit, the next for calling the Pope the anti-christ or something. The final replacment, Shiela Gunn, certainly won my respect, if not vote, for being a real trouper. Hi Sheila!)

On 19th Nov 2004, a meeting took place between a faction of the local Pakistan Welfare Association and the local Tory party, leading to a sudden interest in the ideals of Conservatism in the local Kashmiri community.

The Kashmiri-Tory campaigns in Slough have been noticable for incidences of electoral fraud and voter intimidation, especially in Central Ward where I live. When the Deputy Mayor, a Kashmiri Tory, is charged with vote rigging, removed from the party and still stands for election as if nothing had happened, you know something is wrong.

The local Tory think they can benefit from this support, but don't give the Kashmiris any leadership positions and deny all knowledge when everything goes pear-shaped.

They're riding on the back of a tiger ...

[DN]

Lord Sid, Churchill and Gibbonm, may I ask
how well the Slough Party performed in the local elections? I would be interested to see the % vote of the Slough Party in comparison to the % vote for the Conservative Party - I think it would make happy reading for all Conservatives in Slough...

[Lord Gibbon of Slough]

Slough Party?

who are they?

Did you mean Slough Labour Party, or something else?

They're not the ones hanging around polling stations with bouncers, having 19 people voting from derelict houses, whole families coming in from Ilford for the day to vote- that'll be the Slough Tory Party. If you don't know about these things, then you're not spending much time in Slough Central. It's Conservatism, but not as we know it ...

Oh, Slough Party. Ex-Cllr Janik's mob. If you're pleased that you got more votes than him, then things are in a far worse state than I imagined

Good luck with your latest recruit, Cllr Chaudry. It seems only the other week that he was lambasting the Slough Tories in the council chamber for their incompetence and corruption because --- it *was* the other week!

[Lord Churchill of Slough]

My Noble Lords,

It is a matter of public record the Labour Party of Slough put before your Lordship's Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer Steven Quayle 92 separate allegations of suspicious entries on your Lordship's Slough Electoral Register for Chalvey ward.

The Conservative lead administration of the Borough of Slough, with Conservative Commissioner Cllr Dexter Smith responsible for law and order and all election matters, received those 92 complaints in May 2007.

The Conservative lead council then delayed investigating those 92 allegations of suspicious and likely unlawful activity until January 2008.

Much to the consternation of the Slough populous, 86 were found to be unlawful on the register. Police investigations were prevented because the Conservative lead council had unlawfully destroyed all relevant election records in December 2007.

My lords, this avoidable and disgraceful scandal of a Conservative run council is a slur on the good name of democracy.

[Lord Churchill of Slough]

My Lords,

The High Court election petition and Report to the High Court is available on the Internet at

http://simmons.slough.info/

My Lords, I must refer to another matter of less significance. My typing difficulties which unfortunately resulted in misplaced apostrophes. I ask for your Lordships' indulgence.

[Lord Churchill of Slough]

My Lords,

Lord Gibbon wrote about Sheila Gunn.

I have met this immensely sweet and wonderfully charming lady who kindly wrote an entry in my guest book.

My Lords it will probably come as no surprise to many of your Lordships that I would prefer as the Slough PPC Sheila Gunn and not the incumbent candidate Diana Dale-Gough/Diana Coad.

With your Lordships' permission I will telephone Ms Gunn on the numbers she kindly provided to me and invite her to be our superior Conservative PPC.

In these tragic times anything replacement is better that the Dale-Goughs or Coads, which my Lords rhymns with Toads.

It is my feeling Slough needs quality rather than pitiful and embarrassing ineptitude.

I urge your Lordships to overthrown the existing defective Conservative organisation that lurks in the dark shadows of Slough.

[Lord Sid of Slough]

My Lords, my noble friend is of course right when he points out that Slough's local Conservative Party is defective.

It was defective when it selected cllr. Aziz as a candidate, even though he was deeply implicated in a team found to have committed not only electoral fraud, but had also, according to the judge, involved itself in perjury and witness intimidation.

It was defective in the recent local elections when it contested only 8 of the 14 wards up for election, publicly endorsing Liberal and UKIP candidates, the UKIP candidate standing in a ward which the Conservatives won last time.

It was defective when it underwrote the defence costs (indemnity costs, perhaps as high as £500,000) for the election fraudsters in Slough for a defence that the judge commented on as being unsophisticated perjury.

It was defective when it promised, 2 weeks after the election fraud case that it had 'Cleaned up its act', only for a week later to withdraw a candidate who was not eligable, two weeks later to suspend a candidate who was charged with election fraud, and 3 weeks later to vote to keep the same person on as deputy Mayor.

And finally it was defective if it thought that presiding over that shambles, it had a snowballs chance in hell of winning the election.

I am sure that my noble colleagues will kindly remind me if I have overlooked any defects.