Why did Labour lose two of the three seats in Leicester in the middle of a landslide?

Leicester was an exception at last year's general election. Labour lost two of the city's three seats - one to the Conservatives and one to an Independent.

Alistair Jones. associate professor in politics at De Montfort University, looks at those results and at Leicester politics in general in the current issue of Liberator:

All three Leicester parliamentary constituencies have been treated akin to personal fiefdoms by previous Labour MPs, going back to the 1980s and 1990s. Consequently, the central and regional party had held little sway. In 2023 and 2024, the central Labour Party decided to reassert its authority, regardless of the short-term electoral cost. 

Leicester may be one city but it has three parliamentary constituencies which rarely communicate with each other, even – or is it especially – when all three MPs come from the same party. That local infighting has left a rather nasty legacy for the Labour Party, which is being exploited and exacerbated with allegations of racism. 

To read his article, download the current Liberator (issue 427) from the magazine's website - there's no charge.

I'm far too modest to point out that, in November 2023, I wrote:

The Conservatives have been gaining ground in local elections in this part of the city, which means that the seat [Leicester East] is less safe for Labour than it looks on paper. And that means the question of whether Vaz, Webbe or both of them will stand as an Independent at the next election really matters.

De Montfort University expert tips Lib Dems to win Leicester East

If there is a seat where anything could happen on Thursday, it's Leicester East. There, two former Labour MPs for the patch (Keith Vaz and Claudia Webbe) are taking on the party's official candidate, while the Conservatives, after recent promising local election results, seem to have blown things by selecting an unimpressive candidate at the last minute.

But, quoted in a comprehensive feature about the contest on the Great Central Gazette site, Alistair Jones, associate professor in politics at De Montfort University, says:

This constituency will be tight. There are ten candidates, including two ex-Labour MPs for Leicester East, the actual Labour candidate, a Conservative and an ex-Conservative standing, as well as Reform UK. 

This fight is not just Labour vs Conservative, but it is also about Keith Vaz and his desire to return to frontline politics. The result is likely to be too close to call. Expect demand for recounts. Zuffar Haq, Liberal Democrats, will squeak through on a minuscule majority.

And it could happen. Zuffar is an experienced candidate with a strong record of campaigning across the city.

Reece Stafferton wrote a Liberal England guest post about the plans for the Great Central Gazette a couple of years ago.

Peter Soulsby fears Labour could lose Leicester East to Keith Vaz

Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester's elected Labour mayor, is not happy, reports the Guardian:

Keith Vaz could be re-elected as an MP because Labour is failing to highlight that he was disgraced in office amid drug and sex allegations, the Labour mayor of Leicester has said.

Peter Soulsby said he was “disappointed and frustrated” by his party’s complacency, which could allow the former Europe minister to win back his former seat of Leicester East.

Vaz, 67, is running a well-publicised and slick campaign as a One Leicester candidate to retake his old seat on 4 July in a multicultural area which is still reeling from Hindu-Muslim riots in 2022.

This weekend, Shilpa Shetty, a former Celebrity Big Brother winner and Bollywood actor, attracted a small crowd when she accompanied Vaz in an open-top Mercedes on a tour of local shops selling south Asian products.

If you want to know why the return of Keith Vaz would be unwelcome to many, I recommend the Controversies section of his Wikipedia entry.

Keith Vaz returns under the One Leicester banner

To no one's great surprise, Keith Vaz has announced he is to fight his old seat of Leicester East at the general election.

Vaz represented Leicester East from 1987 to 2019. but lost the Labour whip and was suspended from the Commons for six months following a scandal involving male prostitutes cocaine and industrial washing machines. He did not stand at the 2019 general election.

If you have a free evening, it's worth reading the Controversies section of Vaz's Wikipedia entry.

Vaz will stand under the One Leicester banner, which is used by dissident Labour people protesting against the hegemony in the city of the elected mayor Peter Soulsby. Vaz's candidacy will do nothing for their credibility.

Vaz will be one of two former Labour members for the seat fighting Leicester East this time. Claudia Webbe, a Corbynite who was parachuted in following Vaz's demise and elected in 2019, was later convicted of harassment and no longer has the Labour whip herself. She will stand as an Independent.

This is an area where the Conservatives made gains in the city council elections last time, but they have only just selected a candidate. And do not underestimate the excellent Liberal Democrat candidate, Zuffar Haq.

Zuffar Haq to fight Leicester East for the Lib Dems

Britain's wackiest seat is probably Leicester East. It's represented by Claudia Webbe, who was parachuted in by the Corbynite high command in time for the 2019 election and then thrown out of the party after being convicted of harassment.

It's rumoured that both she and another dosgraced former Labour MP for the seat, Keith Vaz, will stand here at the next election.

Labour will be counting on retaking Leicester East, yet its constituency party was suspended last year and it has started losing council by-elections to the Conservatives here.

At least Leicester East now has one credible candidate. Zuffar Haq, who has stood here in Harborough four times, has been adopted by the Liberal Democrats. He won one of the seats in the Evington ward, which is in Leicester East, from Labour at the last council elections.

Talking to the Leicester Mercury, Zuffar said:

"For as long as I’ve lived in Leicester, we’ve been a community that works together and stands together. I, like many of us, have friends and colleagues of different faiths and backgrounds. I want to bring our communities back together again.

"We’ve been taken for granted for too long. Both Labour in the Town Hall and the Conservatives in Westminster have failed Leicester time and time again. Whether it’s supporting the local NHS or dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, I want to offer Leicester residents a chance of real change."

New Labour candidate for Leicester East stands down as a deputy mayor in London

Labour have chosen Rajesh Agrawal, one of Sadiq Khan's deputy mayors in London, to fight Leicester East at the next general election.

This is the seat currently represented by Claudia Webbe as an Independent. She was elected for Labour but removed from the Labour Party after being convicted of harassment.

Both Webbe and Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East before her, are thought to be considering standing in the constituency as Independents next time round.

Today comes the inevitable news that Agrawal has stood down as Sadiq Khan's deputy mayor for business.

In the Leicester East selection, Rishi Madlani, a Camden councillor and the only other name on the shortlist, made much of his connections with Leicester. I've not heard any such claims made on Agrawal's behalf.

Labour names short list of two London politicians for troubled Leicester East seat

Leicester East has not been lucky in its choice of Labour MPs, as the disgraced Keith Vaz gave way to the disgraced Claudia Webbe.

Now, reports the Leicester Mercury, the party has named a short list of two from which its candidate at the next election.

The two are Rajesh Agrawal, who is is the deputy mayor of London for business under Sadiq Khan, and Rishi Madlani, a Camden councillor who claims strong links to Leicester.

The Conservatives have been gaining ground in local elections in this part of the city, which means that the seat is less safe for Labour than it looks on paper. And that means the question of whether Vaz, Webbe or both of them will stand as an Independent at the next election really matters.

Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester's elected mayor, was quoted in the Guardian the other day as saying he expected both to stand against the official Labour candidate:

"We could well have two disgraced former Labour party candidates standing in the seat. People are saying that this is a real possibility and it might split the vote and let the Tories in. We as a party need to have a good and credible candidate in place as soon as possible,” he said.

"Keith has been a cancer in the political body of Leicester for decades and like many others in the Labour party in the city I am relieved that the party has realised and has had the courage to cut him out.

"It has been obvious for months that he is planning to put himself up as an independent candidate at the next general election. Although he lives in Stanmore, he has had himself installed as the so-called honorary president [of the CLP] and has continued to exercise absolute control over the party in that part of the city."

Questioned by the Mercury, Vaz talked about standing as mayor of Leicester after Soulsby retires, but made it sound like a dig at him.

And Webbe left the door to standing as an Independent so wide open - "I will never abandon my home community and constituency of Leicester East" - that it makes you shiver in the draught.

Labour suspends its Leicester East party and a councillor resigns

Yesterday I blogged about the emergence of a new political party in Leicester. So what's been happening today?

Here's the Leicester Mercury (or Leicestershire Live, as it calls itself online):

The Labour Party has suspended its entire Leicester East branch. The national executive (NEC) is investigating the troubled constituency Labour party (CLP) over concerns around its operation, according to an email seen by Leicestershire Live.

All branch and constituency Labour party meetings will be stopped 'until further notice' and all CLP and branch officers have been 'relieved of their positions and duties' while an internal investigation takes place, the email says. It has not been confirmed specifically what prompted the suspension.

A Labour Party source said in reaction: "The NEC has a duty to safeguard the integrity of CLPs, to ensure that they are properly run in line with the party’s rules and procedures and can operate fully, inclusively and democratically."

Leicester East is the seat Keith Vaz represented for many years, and it's fair to say it became something of a personal fiefdom. Who knows what the national party has found there?

Its current MP is Claudia Webbe, who was elected in 2019 after being parachuted in by Labour's then Corbynite leadership. She has sat as an Independent since November 2021, when she was suspended by and then expelled from the Labour Party after being convicted of harassment.

Also today came news, again in the Mercury, that the Leicester Labour councillor Diane Cank has left the party and will sit as an Independent. 

In what the paper describes as a letter 'to Labour', she wrote:

This is the second time that the Regional Office has unilaterally trampled on the democratic rights of party members in just four months. The last time Labour suffered its most catastrophic loss of seats ever.

From having just one seat, the Tories now have 17, thanks to Mr Oliver and the Regional Party. There was never any inquiry into what actually happened, what is the point of paying for your membership when you have no rights of decision-making and accountability? ....

Mr Oliver should resign. As with the decision in April to remove 19 Labour councillors and impose others, this will have severe consequences across the city.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of these affairs, it's clear Leicester Labour is not a happy ship.

Leicester has a new political party: One Leicester

The former senior Leicester Labour Rita Patel has announced the formation of a new political party: One Leicester.

Patel was one of the Labour elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby's assistant mayors until March of this year, but left Labour after being suspended by the party for questioning whether the city should continue with the mayoral system.

She then stood against Soulsby on a platform of abolishing the post of elected mayor in May's election for that role, but failed to prevent his winning a fourth term.

Patel told BBC News:

"Our politics, not just in Leicester, but in the rest of the country is broken. Recently one of Westminster's youngest MPs quit politics because she said parliament was toxic.

"I can tell you, this isn't just unique to parliament. Coming from different political strands we believe that it is important that we should have a new approach to politics in the city, one that is not party political based or structured in class-based ideology, and not opposing everything that the others do.

"But one that is based on local issues designed to help local people. I believe very passionately that this is the way forward for our city." 

Though Labour still runs the city council as well as having the elected mayor, the party in Leicester has been demoralised by the control freakery of first Soulsby and then Keir Starmer. Before this May's council election 19 sitting Labour councillors were barred from standing again by the national party.

And the Conservatives are making a comeback in the city by targeting the Hindu vote - some claim even at the cost of widening religious divisions. Commentators even see the Tories as favourites to win Keith Vaz's old seat of Leicester East at the next election.

Add in a modest revival for the Liberal Democrats, and a new party that may attract its voters is the last thing Labour needs.

I welcome more organised opposition to the city having an elected mayor. The best traditions of local government are collegiate, and the wish for a single leader who will bang heads together to get things done goes against them.

National Labour Party takes charge of council candidate selection in Leicester

The Guardian reports that Labour's national executive committee - will in future choose council candidates in Leicester instead of local members:

The move has provoked anger among Labour’s 49 city councillors, 37 of whom have signed a document demanding the proposals are urgently withdrawn for being undemocratic.

But the move has also been praised by some local activists as the first step towards wresting control of Leicester East Labour party away from [Keith] Vaz who represented the constituency for 32 years.

My sympathies are instinctively with the 37 councillors, but the Guardian, of course, has talked to unnamed 'constituency sources' who told them

Vaz had maintained control over the constituency and worked closely with a cadre of councillors. They claim he could still attempt to stand for parliament again or handpick another candidate for the next general election.

Keith Vaz is quoted as denying any ambition of returning to the Commons.

Labour HQ may also have been spooked by a recent by-election deep in Vaz's former constituency Leicester East. Labour fielded a candidate seen as being strongly pro Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and presumably lost moderate and Muslim voters as a result.

Not that imposing candidates from the centre has a happy history in Leicester. Claudia Webbe who took over from Vaz as Labour candidate in 2019 and held the seat, was a favourite of the Corbynites and many in Leicester felt she had been wished upon the local party.

In October 2021 she was found guilty of harassment, with the judge describing her evidence as "untruthful" and her defence "as "vague, incoherent and at times illogical".

She now sits as an Independent.

Independent panel says Keith Vaz should be ashamed of his behaviour towards Commons clerk

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Because of the background of his victim, the Belfast Telegraph has the fullest report of today's findings against Keith Vaz, the former Labour MP for Leicester East.

The newspaper says:

A former MP bullied a member of parliamentary staff in a “hostile, sustained, (and) harmful” way, a report has found.

An independent panel said former Labour MP for Leicester East MP Keith Vaz bullied and harassed Northern Ireland woman Jenny McCullough, who has waived her right to anonymity, to such an extent that she left her career in the House of Commons.

And the panel said Mr Vaz should be “ashamed” of his behaviour as it ruled he should never again be allowed to hold a parliamentary pass.

Mr Vaz had likened Ms McCullough to a prostitute, told her she could not do her job because she was not a mother, and threatened to take photographs of her drinking alcohol to show to her boss.

Sir Stephen Irwin, chair of the Independent Expert Panel (IEP), which decided on the sanctions to be levelled against Mr Vaz, said his actions had a “real and enduring psychological impact”. 

The IEP was appointed after the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards concluded that Vaz had, on several occasions between July 2007 and October 2008, breached the bullying and harassment policy in his interactions with Jenny McCullough, the second clerk of the Commons committee for which Vaz was chairman.

You can read the full report on the parliament website.

And you can read Keith Vaz's response, which appears to deal with matters of process rather than contest the truth of the findings against him, on Twitter.

If you find yourself on a train journey and at a loss for some sensational reading, try the Wikipedia entry on Keith Vaz or his label on this blog.

Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe charged with harassment

Claudia Webbe, the Labour MP for Leicester East, has been charged with harassment, reports the Leicester Mercury.

She was charged after the Metropolitan Police passed a file of evidence was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Webbe, who replaced Keith Vaz as MP for the seat at last year's general election and remains a councillor in Islington, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 11 November.

Later. The Evening Standard says Claudia Webbe has been suspended from the Labour Party.

Vazectomy? Leicester East Labour Party to rerun vote for new chair

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Last week came news that Keith Vaz had turned up as the chair of his old constituency Leicester East.

Today the Leicester Mercury reports that the position will be voted on again 'in the coming weeks'.

The East Midlands Labour Party says this was always the plan.

Others will be struck by the Mercury's account of the meeting where the first vote was held:

Some Labour members have claimed they were barred from attending the vote, and one reported being assaulted at the meeting. 

Current MP Claudia Webbe was not present at the constituency Labour party ... meeting which was held on a Tuesday night when she was in Westminster. She told LeicestershireLive she only became aware of it on the night it was held

Keith Vaz is the new chair of Leicester East Constituency Labour Party as police investigate alleged assault

If you thought you had heard the last of former Labour MP and part-time washing machine salesman Keith Vaz you were wrong.

This evening he was elected chair of the constituency party in his old seat of Leicester East.

If you want to know why this may cause some disquiet, have a read of Vaz's Wikipedia entry.

And there's more.

The Leicester Mercury reports:

A woman has claimed she was assaulted when she was barred from entering a meeting in which Keith Vaz was elected chairman of the Leicester East Constituency Labour Party. 

The Labour activist says she suffered an injury to her right wrist as she attempted to get into the meeting at Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre, in Belgrave, Leicester, on Tuesday night.

She told LeicestershireLive she visited a police station and a walk-in centre to get treatment after the meeting. 

Leicestershire Police has confirmed it is investigating the allegation.

Just another day in Leicester politics.

Chair of Leicester East constituency quits the Labour Party

Today's resignation from Councillor John Thomas, formerly Keith Vaz's agent.

Standards committee recommends six-month ban for Keith Vaz

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The Commons standards committee has published its report on the conduct of Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Labour East.

To cut to the chase:

We have found that Mr Vaz acted in breach of paragraph 16 of the 2015 House of Commons Code of Conduct. By expressing willingness to purchase a Class A drug, cocaine, for others to use, thereby showing disregard for the law, and by failing to co-operate fully with the inquiry process, thereby showing disrespect for the House’s standards system, he has caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole. 

This is a very serious breach of the Code. We recommend that the House should suspend Mr Vaz from its service for six months. 

We note that this suspension, if agreed by the House, will trigger the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015 and require a recall petition to be opened in Mr Vaz’s constituency.

The report as a whole is damning. Try this:

At the heart of this case is whether the Commissioner’s conclusion that Mr Vaz’s account of the events of 27 August 2016 is “incredible” can be accepted. In our view Mr Vaz has done himself no favours by his inability to provide a single, consistent, plausible account of those events. 

At various times he has claimed that (a) the media report bore no relation to what actually happened, (b) he has no recollection of what actually happened, (c) the meeting was set up to discuss interior decoration and no sexual activity took place, (d) a spiked drink was administered to him (with the implication that this affected his conversation and behaviour), and (e) even if sexual activity had taken place it would have been part of his private and personal life and therefore not subject to the Code of Conduct. 

It is difficult, to put it mildly, to see how all these separate defences could simultaneously be true.

Keith Vaz vs Andrew Bridgen: The battle continues

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One of the more entertaining aspects of Leicestershire politics is the mutual antipathy between Keith Vaz (Labour MP for Leicester East) and Andrew Bridgen (Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire).

The latest manoeuver in the battle is reported by the Sun:

Counter-fraud cops last night confirmed they were looking into allegations against shamed Labour MP Keith Vaz. 

The National Crime Agency said it was taking questions over his unexplained £4million wealth “very seriously”. 

They made the revelation to Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who has demanded a probe into how Mr Vaz has amassed such a large property empire on an average annual earnings of just £90,000.

In a separate report the Sun suggests that Mr Vaz was rather busy during the period when the parliamentary investigation into his was suspended because of his poor health.

Round 94 of Andrew Bridgen vs Keith Vaz

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It is no secret that Andrew Bridgen (Conservative MP for Leicestershire North West) and Keith Vaz (Labour MP for Leicester East) do not get on, much as it was no secret that relations were a little strained between the Montagues and Capulets.

The latest round in their long bout can be found in a Mail Online article from last week.

Pow!

Andrew Bridgen wants the National Crime Agency to use new powers created to crackdown on crime gangs to investigate the Labour MP. 

Mr Bridgen claimed in a letter that Mr Vaz owns eight homes in the UK, more property in India and sends his children to fee-paying schools on his MP salary of £74,962. 

Mr Vaz received an extra £15,025 a year during his time as chairman of the home affairs committee until he resigned in September 2016 amid a rent boy scandal. 

Mr Bridgen said in the letter this income did not justify the expenditure and called for an 'Unexplained Wealth Order investigation'.

Zap!

Mr Vaz referred MailOnline to Carter Ruck. A spokesman said: "Mr Vaz considers Mr Bridgen's cowardly actions in peddling malicious, highly defamatory and utterly false allegations in this way to be wholly reprehensible, albeit unsurprising given Mr Bridgen's track record. 

"Mr Vaz will be considering appropriate legal action against Mr Bridgen and also ask the NCA or other relevant authorities to investigate Mr Bridgen for wasting public resources by pressuring them into investigating his vexatious and malicious 'complaints''."

Keith Vaz's health appears to be recovering

In December the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards suspended his inquiry into Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East, citing medical reasons.

But this week both Guido Fawkes and the Leicester Mercury have noticed that Mr Vaz has been rather active of late.

As the Mercury puts it:

Some six weeks later Mr Vaz has been making a series of public engagements including a planning committee, a public meeting for Belgrave traders and the re-opening of a Leicester leisure centre.

Let us hope this is a sign that Mr Vaz will soon be restored to rude health and the inquiry will be able to progress,

Labour's only councillor in Oadby and Wigston resigns

The Leicester Mercury reports:

A Labour councillor has quit after being deemed not a fit and proper person to drive a taxi by his own authority. 

Gurpal Atwal has resigned as the member for the Uplands Ward on Oadby and Wigston Borough Council.

The resignation followed the failure of Atwal's court appeal against his council's own finding.

You can read the allegations made against him, all of which Atwal denies, in an earlier Mercury report.

Atwal blames a former business partner for those allegations and, in a statement issued today, blamed others for his resignation too:

"Oadby and Wigston Council officers and one or two local councillors have taken positions in this matter that impact on my ability to concentrate on working effectively as a councillor on behalf of the Uplands Ward constituents. 

"On that basis, I resign my seat as a Borough Councillor for Oadby Uplands Ward forthwith."

Intriguingly, though he doesn't give a source for it, Guido Fawkes claims:

A witness claimed in a statement that Atwal once boasted of having “Keith Vaz in my right pocket”.

Elected in 2015, Gurpal Atwal was the first Labour councillor to win a seat on the Liberal Democrat run authority for some 30 years.