by Chris McLaughlin
SCOTLAND Yard has been called on to mount a criminal investigation following the collapse of attempts to select a candidate for the safe Labour seat of Erith and Thamesmead.
MP John Austin, who is to stand down at the next election, is demanding the inquiry after the discovery of a tampered postal ballot box at Labour Party headquarters forced the dramatic cancellation of the final selection meeting last weekend.
The meeting in the south east London constituency was hurriedly cancelled on the previous evening after the ballot box was found to have been tampered with and some ballot papers had been torn.
Mr Austin, who held the seat with a majority of 11,500 at the last election is said to be “furious” and has called on Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson to open a criminal inquiry.
Mr Austin, who has accused national party officers of hijacking the selection of his successor, claims his earlier concerns over postal vote irregularities, expressed in writing to general secretary Ray Collins, “were ignored”.
Two other members of the constituency party, whose ballot papers were in the box and were possibly damaged, have filed separate complaints to local police over the ballot box incident.
An inquiry has been launched by the party’s National Executive Committee amid controversy over whether an independent inquiry is more suitable. The final hustings meeting has been re-arranged for May 16. The re-issuing of postal votes to those who submitted them in the original process has sparked further rancour, with some members arguing that those wanting postal votes should apply again since the reason for demanding one last time may no longer be valid a second time around.
The furore follows a running controversy over claims that Georgia Gould, 22-year-old daughter of Tony Blair’s former polling guru Philip (Lord) Gould, was being “parachuted” into the seat with a well-financed campaign backed by influential Blairite party figures such as former general secretary Margaret McDonagh.
Following a spate of claims and questions on the LabourHome website that a consultancy in which she has a third share was involved in
co-ordinating the campaign, and a list of questions emailed to Baronness McDonagh from Tribune, the company, bbm consultants, issued a statement saying: “Our company does not undertake this type of work, and I can categorically state that we are not being paid for helping Georgia Gould… Bbm consultants has played no part in Labour selections, anywhere….there are some employees of bbm who are friends of Georgia Gould and they have offered her advice regarding her selection, in a private and personal capacity”.
