Labour frontbencher smears the Government as wanting to clear central London of black and ethnic minority women

By Jonathan Isaby

Ever since the announcement was made last year, Labour have refused to accept that capping housing benefit at £20,000 per year is reasonable - despite the fact that people earning far less than that are currently paying their taxes to fund payments of housing benefit in excess of that amount.

And whilst Labour have been spreading all sorts of myths about the Government's intentions and motives, on Saturday the shadow Work and Pensions Minister, Karen Buck (pictured), hit a new low.

Not satisfied with having accused the Government of "social cleansing" last July, as she spoke alongside fellow Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry at a public meeting in Islington at the weekend, this evolved into ethnic cleansing.

Here's exactly what she had to say:

"The agenda of the Government is one that is deeply hostile to middle and lower income women having children... When you hear it... the Tories speaking in Parliament, there is an arrogance and an ignorance that I have never known in my thirteen years in Parliament - basically thinking that anyone whose income is probably below the top rate of tax shouldn't have children."

"Housing benefit is being cut by nearly £2 billion. And in central London - whole swathes of the city - nobody will be able to rent anything in the private rented sector and that includes large chunks of Islington, all of Westminster, all of Wandsworth, almost all of Camden, chunks of Barnet, Brent, Tower Hamlets. It's not just Knightsbridge.  This is virtually the whole of central London.  And this is a clear political message: they do not want lower income women, families - not just women, but families - children and above all, let us be very clear, because we also know where the impact is hitting, they don't want black women and they don't want ethnic minority women and they don't want Muslim women living in central London. They just don't!"

Click here to listen to her words for yourself.

A disgusted Conservative Party Co-Chairman, Baroness Warsi, has responded by concluding that  "reactionary politics is alive and well in the Labour Party" and calling on ed Miliband to sack her from his frontbench:

"For Karen Buck to use race, religion and class for political point-scoring is deeply offensive and irresponsible. It seriously questions Ed Miliband's judgement if he thinks that Karen Buck is the right person for this important role."

This morning's Independent carries the story and Buck is standing by the substance of her remarks, which quoted her as saying:

"I am very, very concerned about the impact of these cuts on black, Muslim and ethnic minority households, in particular. In the passion of a political meeting I was wrong to imply motive on behalf of Government ministers. I can't say what their intention and motives are. I can only say my concern is about the impact that these cuts will have."

Shadow Justice Secretary accuses David Cameron of "writing propaganda for the English Defence League"

By Jonathan Isaby

We have already covered David Cameron's speech on multiculturalism this morning (ToryDiary and video clip) but one who was opining in advance of it being delivered was Labour MP Sadiq Khan.

The Tooting MP and shadow justice secretary told this morning's Daily Mirror that the Prime Minister was "writing propaganda for the English Defence League" - the extremist organisation which is this afternoon holding one of its demonstrations in Luton.

Conservative Party co-chairman Baroness Warsi has now called on Khan to apologise for the smear in the following statement just released:

"For Sadiq Khan to smear the Prime Minister as a right wing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible. David Cameron has made it clear he wants to unite Britain around our common values, and he has done so in measured language. It is right that we make it clear: extremism and Islam are not the same thing.

"And as David said, it’s important to stress that terrorism is not linked exclusively to any one religion or ethnic group. Mr Khan is Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary and ran Ed Miliband's leadership campaign. He must apologise, and Mr Miliband needs urgently to disown his colleague's baseless accusation."

 

"David Cameron used the death of his disabled son to detoxify the Tory brand"

By Jonathan Isaby

I have only just clocked a piece written by Simon Carr in yesterday's Independent, which refers to a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party which took place earlier this week and was addressed by shadow health secretary, John Healey.

He wrote:

John Healey (Health) gave the MPs a speech that must have been devised or at least approved by the three of them [Healey, Miliband and Balls]. He told his colleagues, in terms, that David Cameron had used the death of his disabled son to detoxify the Tory brand and to validate his party's position on the NHS.

To the credit of Labour MPs present, this was thought to be lower than the mould which grows on the scum that covers the waste that snakes leave behind them in the night. It shows that Ed Balls has moved on from Damian McBride – but in the wrong direction.

Healey's spokesman is saying that what was an unscripted speech (which was, he adds, not discussed with anyone before being made) has been misrepresented, and that he wants the paper to publish a clarification:

"John said that for the Conservatives, the NHS – both in opposition and now in government - was about politics rather than health policy or the interests of patients; and that David Cameron had used the NHS to define himself to help detoxify the Conservative Party in the eyes of the electorate. This was reflected in the commitment made both at the election and in the Coalition Agreement to increase NHS funding. John also said that when David Cameron spoke about the support his family has received from frontline NHS staff, people wanted to believe in his promise to protect the NHS.  With this promise now broken on both the funding and reorganisation fronts, it is clear that they cannot."

As far as I am aware, Carr is standing by his story.

Ed Milband's spokesman accuses David Cameron of "pimping himself" in Zurich

By Jonathan Isaby

As the world awaits the verdict of FIFA from Switzerland this afternoon, Ed Miliband's spokesman, Katie Myler, has broken the cross party consensus praising David Cameron's efforts on behalf of the bid in Zurich, as her comments on Twitter (reproduced below courtesy of PoliticsHome) demonstrate:

She has since issued the following statement: "I wholeheartedly apologise for the remarks. They are no reflection whatsoever of Ed's views. Of course, it goes without saying that I fully back the England bid."

I gather she is about to leave his employ anyway, so calls for her sacking would amount to nought. But I doubt we'll be seeing "LadyMyler" near any genuine ermine any time soon...

Labour leadership contender says he would like to revisit the 1980s and "assassinate Thatcher"

Tuesday lunchtime update:

The BBC reports that 24 hours later, McDonnell has apologised for his "joke" about Margaret Thatcher:

"In that audience everyone took it as a joke and in that atmosphere and that audience it was just a normal joke .. but I can understand, if people have taken offence I can understand. I'm not the sort of person that would want to upset people."

--- 

LabourList reports the disgusting remarks at a hustings of John McDonnell, the Left-wing candidate for the Labour leadership, who is unlikely to reach the ballot paper due to lack of support:

John McDonnell says he was on the GLC - and that if he could go back in time and do one thing, he would visit the 1980s and "assassinate Thatcher".

LabourLists's Alex Smith says "the wisdom of such a statement really has to be questioned".

McDonnell's statement is utterly despicable and I hope that his rivals will condemn him for it.

Jonathan Isaby

Wednesday 7am: The Scotsman reports an apology from Mr McDonnell: "I'm sorry if I have caused offence to anyone. It was a joke."

Lib Dem activist arrested and held over alleged vandalism of Conservative election posters in Eastbourne

The BBC has more details of the story:

"A man believed to a volunteer for the Liberal Democrats has been arrested by police investigating vandalism and theft of Conservative election posters. The 38-year-old from Eastbourne, East Sussex, is being held by Sussex Police on suspicion of theft and harassment. He surrendered himself to officers in the company of his solicitor just after 1800 BST on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said he would no longer be helping them with their election campaign. He added: "A Liberal Democrat volunteer did attend the police station this afternoon. He will be playing no further part in our election campaign." The man is not a candidate for the party.

"A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Police are investigating the vandalism and theft of political campaigning election signs from locations across Eastbourne. "They have this evening arrested a man on suspicion of theft and vandalism. He is currently in custody and will be questioned this evening."

Jonathan Isaby

Labour councillor allegedly threatens shopkeeper with boycott unless he backs Labour

Today's South Wales Echo carries a story about how a Labour councillor in the Cardiff West constituency allegedly threatened a shopkeeper with a boycott by Labour members if he refused to display the party's leaflets on his counter.

Cllr Ramesh Patel has said that he did ask hardware store owner Russell Cotty to display the leaflets, but denies threatening him, although admits that he said that he would "have to let Labour Party members know".

Mr Cotty said:

“Mr Patel came into the shop and asked if he could put some leaflets on the counter. I said ‘No, I am voting for the other side.’ He just looked at me and said he would be telling his members not to shop in here any more. I have been running my shop right through the recession and even though things are getting better the last thing I need is people having a go at my business.”

Full story in the South Wales Echo.

Jonathan Isaby

Labour candidate who gave Nazi salute now smears Gillian Duffy

Last month I introduced you to Daniel Zeichner, the Labour candidate for Cambridge, who gave a Nazi salute at the Cambridge Union as he smeared Conservative allies in Europe.

Now the Old Holborn blog has exposed that Zeichner entered the fray over Gordon Brown's attack on 65-year-old Gillian Duffy yesterday by defending the Prime Minister's description of her as "bigoted".

Zeichner firstly used his Twitter feed to comment on the story when he tweeted:

"these eastern European what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" - either she's bigoted or she has a very poor grasp of geography

Later, in response to a comment from Old Holborn, he tweeted again:

I deeply regret that the BNP have been successful in making xenophobic attitudes like hers popularly acceptable

Presumably he thought he was being helpful to his leader, but Zeichner's Twitter account has now  mysteriously been deleted (although Old Holborn has screengrabs of the offending tweets).

Jonathan Isaby

Police investigating Tory claims of postal vote fraud in Derby

The story is in today's Derby Telegraph:

"Allegations of postal vote fraud are being investigated by police in Derby. A complaint has been sent by the Conservative party to Derbyshire police about suspected fraud in the Sinfin ward in the Derby City Council local elections – which will be held on May 6, the same day as the General Election.

"The complaint involves concerns that a voter was approached by men requesting her to fill in and sign three postal voting forms in favour of the Labour party... Chief Superintendent Andy Hough said the matter would be investigated. He added that he had received more than one report of irregularities with postal voting."

"Councillor Harvey Jennings, leader of the Conservative group in Derby, said: "I am aware that a serious complaint has been made to the police with regards to three men intimidating a resident in Sinfin into ensuring that postal vote forms were completed in favour of the Labour party. It is quite shocking and I trust that the police will conduct a thorough investigation."

"The letter of complaint was sent to the police by Philip Hickson, election agent for the local Conservative group."

Full story here.

Jonathan Isaby

Labour candidate exposed as having posed offensive messages online and been expelled from the Lib Dems for sending sexual emails

Nominations have already closed for the general election, else I doubt whether John Cowan would still be Labour's candidate challenging James Paice in South East Cambridgeshire this morning.

Several days ago, the Cambridge News exposed the former glamour model manager as having been expelled from the Lib Dems in 2004 for sending “sexual emails to a number of political female figures”.

The Sunday Telegraph has now picked up the story and in investigating him has exposed that in posts on online forums he has, among other things:

• Boasted of his sexual exploits in graphic detail
• Advertised for people to pose nude for his photographic portfolio
• Speculated about the death of Margaret Thatcher

More in the Sunday Telegraph.

10.45pm update:

The Red Rag blog is suggesting that Cowan has been sacked as a Labour candidate.

This is of course not technically possible since he has already been nominated as a Labour candidate and as far as I know he will have to appear as such on the ballot paper.

However, his name has been removed from the list of Labour candidates on the party's official website and the link to what was the page about him has been disabled.

Below is a screen grab of the cache of what it did say - and the link to that constituency website is also broken.

Jonathan Isaby