Labour candidate suspended for 'transphobia'

[Imnobody4]

Labour’s London region has suspended the party’s candidate for a closely-contested council by-election in Hackney following allegations of “transphobia“.
Party members were told by email early this morning by Hackney’s borough organiser that “all planned campaign sessions” in the Cazenove ward had been cancelled, including those that were to have taken place today.
A Labour source has confirmed that the candidate, Laura Pascal (front right in photo), has been “administratively suspended”, which means a complaint has been made about her by another party member and a decision taken to investigate it.
The timing of the suspension means there is not enough time to nominate a different candidate in time for the by-election, which will be held next Thursday. This means that if Pascal wins, she will sit as an independent councillor. The source confirmed that Labour will do no further campaigning for her.

https://www.onlondon.co.uk/hackney-labour-cazenove-candidate-for-council-by-election-suspended/

About time KS got a grip.

The SDP have a broad manifesto I could get behind - including on women's rights and protections and the importance of recognising biological sex - alas they don't field many candidates. If they did field a candidate in my ward I'd vote for the candidate. They seem to be focusing on Lib -Dem/Tory marginals.

I live in a lib.dem/tory marginal! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I was wondering about the SDP but they also pledge to withdraw from the 1951 refugee convention and the ECHR which, amongst other things, I couldn't support.

https://sdp.org.uk/policies/immigration/

So I'm still politically homeless....

blimey, i can't support that.

Bugger!

She hasn't acknowledged her gender critical views themselves are wrong, just apologised very specifically the liking of "tweets that caused offence and a great deal of hurt".

No this is the most appalling you do this and we will stop the complaint process.

I dont think they went through the complaint process that just got her to grovel.

How many posts from TRAs that have "hurt" women's feelings have ever been apologised for.

This just deepens my view that not only is Labour untrustworthy but they operate an internal system of heavy handed centralised bullshit.

Sorry Laura, your choice of course, but I am not buying it.

Sorry meant to add (but dont want to derail this thread there is an existing one) the complaint against Diane Abbott had still not been dealt with and that is now many months ago.

So not saying I support DA but another example where the process is the punishment.

There seems to be no part of Labour you cant trust. Not only do they swop policies around to get good MSM coverage, but operate some sort of Kafkaesque internal system that leaves most members as empty cyphers.

Except Rosie and a few others

Was the Labour MP who didn’t just like a tweet but posted ‘block all terfs’ investigated?

I can imagine this episode also having a chilling affect on candidates in the general election, especially on any standing for the first time who won't have had the opportunity to build up any loyalty from their constituents.

Have just seen that reddit are calling it a fake apology - https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/199dcwr/cazenove_hackney_labour_candidate_issues_a_fake/ which I suspect most TRAs and even the "be kind" brigade also think.

And in the Morning Star

LABOUR has been accused of corruption after barring a left-wing union rep from standing for election to Hackney council over her support for the local MP Diane Abbott.

Regional party organisers have meanwhile unsuspended their preferred candidate Laura Pascal after five days, after she apologised for having liked tweets described as “grossly offensive” by the local Green Party.

The by-election follows Hackney’s elected Mayor Philip Glanville’s resignation for lying over his dealings with former councillor and now-convicted paedophile Tom Dewey, revealed by the Morning Star.
It comes as a report which found an overly close culture between elected members and officials in the wake of the Dewey scandal is to be discussed at an extraordinary council meeting next week.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-corruption-left-wing-union-rep-barred-election-supporting-diane-abbott

And by the way I doubt that the Tories or any other party behave any better in terms of using their internal systems to get the outcomes the leadership wants rather than operating a fair and balanced system.

There is a valid view that the refugee convention is in need of reform - given the very different situation the world now faces, compared to the conditions it was meant to alleviate when it was originally drafted; likewise the ECHR. Both were drafted in the early 1950's.

I think this is likely to happen. It’ll be messy as we get closer but we’ll be in a very different place to 1951 and voters will demand change in the end. They might not get why change is frustrated but they’ll still want it

Hackney Citizen Cazenove by-election count, the postal votes are still being tallied, but turnout has just been announced: 31.92%.

Only two of the four candidates are here as the vote totals are being finalised: Labour’s Laura Pascal and Tamara Micner for the Greens.

Were Conservative candidate Ian Sharer here, he would most likely be pleased, as it looks like he took a considerable number of votes with him when he switched parties from Lib Dems.

Ian Sharer has won the Cazenove by-election for the Conservative Party on 53.6% of the vote.
Labour candidate Laura Pascal placed second with 30.9% and Green candidate Tamara Micner third with 12.8%. Liberal Democrat Dave Raval took last place with 2.4%. the Tory candidate, Ian Sharer, represented the ward as a Liberal Democrat between 2002 and 2018,

Thanks for the update.

I suppose we will never know the real reason why the vote went that way.

Would love to know what voters were thinking.

Ian Sharer it seems is prominent in the local Jewish community which makes up 24% of the electorate including various kinds of orthodox Jews who are very reliable voters. He came 4th in the 2022 Local election so that seems important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cazenove_(ward)

Sharer "His defection to the Tories is said to have been over the issue of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which Hackney Council is very keen on but some local residents, including members of north Hackney’s famous ultra-Orthodox or Charedi Jewish community, are not."

The turnout was 9% down. So it maybe local and religious issues played a big part here.

I suspect that the Low Traffic issue will be a huge one. I think it will surprise Labour and the LDs and there will be a significant vote of very unhappy people that it was pushed through the way it was. Obviously in the impacted zones and maybe just at council elections although in those electorates it may filter into general election too.

That's s surprise result.

Can't imagine Labour helped themselves by stopping all campaigning for 5 days. Idiots.

31.9% turnout apparently high for a by-election.

Surprised by that result for a Hackney area

Lib Dems wiped out...

I imagine you need to know the local area to really understand the result so I won't try and analyse it.

What I will say, based on my memories of a particular type of Labour activist, is that there will almost certainly be Labour Party members who will regard this result as a victory.

I can confirm you are correct, @Floisme

Apparently the Tory winner is a former LibDem (and Labour in a 1994 election) and is very popular locally.

So the result may not mean that much.

Friends in Hackney highlighted the Low Traffic scheme as almost entirely to blame.
Well done Khan