Another hold up with the Lib Dem selection in Sutton and Cheam

There's news of a further hold up in the attempt to find a Liberal Democrat candidate for the eminently winnable seat of Sutton and Cheam.

Early yesterday Michael Crick tweeted:

🟠 SUTTON & CHEAM: one source says the hustings have been postponed because two comp
laints were received, and the source suggests John Sweeney and Trish Fivey may now have been added to the shortlist. Can anyone confirm or deny any or all of this? https://t.co/CVJdQbVwZK

— @Tomorrow'sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) April 21, 2024

According to Inside Croydon, the original shortlist for the meeting had only two names on it: former London mayoral candidate Luisa Porritt and Sutton councillor Luke Taylor.

Radical Bulletin in the latest Liberator (issue 422) reported after the original call for applicants was issued:

This presumably means that Sutton & Cheam’s former prospective parliamentary candidate David Campanale has finally been ousted from that role after an interminable series of appeals that began last summer when the constituency first sought to remove him.

Although Campanale was originally a Liberal Democrat he left to join the highly socially conservative Christian People’s Alliance and rose to be its leader and author of its 2010 general election manifesto. Some of this was unexceptionable but it also said: “A new hierarchy of rights has put the needs of sexual minorities above religious freedom” and inveighed against “sex in view of families enjoying parks and open spaces” (Liberator 416).

He stood as a Lib Dem candidate in Spelthorne in 2019 - though few outside the area appear to have noticed - but Sutton & Cheam is a rather more serious proposition as the party held it from 1997 to 2015.

Some Sutton members felt they should have been better acquainted with Campanale's past by the party before the original selection meeting and were unimpressed to be told they should have looked on Google.

The current Conservative member for Sutton and Cheam, Paul Scully will not stand at the coming general election. In 2019 he had a majority of 8351.

As Liberator says, the seat was held for the Lib Dems, in the person of Paul Burstow, between 1997 and 2015.

Luisa Porritt: The police should be a service not a force

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The website Left Foot Forward reports on the plans of Luisa Porritt, the Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate, to give London safer streets:

She is calling for a shift in policing in the capital, following the heavy-handed policing of the vigil for Sarah Everard last month, as well as long-standing concerns over racist policing in the capital.

Under Porritt’s plans for the capital, London would see:

• A return to 'community policing', including doubling the number of dedicated ward officers. There has been growing concern about officers being ‘parachuted in’ from Scotland Yard to situations that should be handled locally
• A 'London Youth Service' established to help coordinate andimprove access to activities foryoung people after school.
• An end to the use of Section 60 'suspicionless' stop and search – which disproportionately hits black communities – and blocking the rollout of facial recognition technology.
• "Effectively deciminalising the possession of cannabis" – Liberal Democrats will encourage the Metropolitan Police to use the discretion it has available to stop arrests for cannabis posession, and campaign for a legal, regulated market for the drug. Sadiq Khan has pledged to set up a commission to look at legalising cannabis (a power he does not hold), but has not come out in favour of legalisation.

All good stuff, and I hope to see these ideas implemented far beyond London soon.

Luisa Porritt talks to the Ham & High

Tomorrow's Hampstead & Highgate Express has an interview with Luisa Porritt, who is certain to be named as the new Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral election:

The Lib Dem has spent most of her life in London. She was born at the Royal Free Hospital and grew up in Camden. While she will inherit part of the manifesto that Ms Benita was set to run on, she refers to her experiences in London that underpins her initial pitch to voters. 

She hits out at the "kleptocracy" behind empty homes in the capital and says Sadiq Khan hasn’t done enough to protect free travel for under-18s in the recent government bailout of Transport for London. There’s also perhaps a glimpse of a potential campaign slogan, returning to themes that London needs to be "safer, fairer, and greener".

"That encapsulates the key challenge we’re facing," the 33-year-old said. "Whether we’re tackling air pollution or making young people in London feel safe. It is utterly tragic, and I don’t want to keep opening a newspaper and hearing about another young person who has died unnecessarily. Sadiq Khan has a poor record on that."

Film emerges of antisemitic campaigning by Lib Dem shortlisted as London mayoral candidate

From PoliticsHome today:

The Lib Dems have shortlisted a candidate who was seen launching an antisemitic campaign against her election rival during an unsuccessful effort to become an MP.

PoliticsHome has seen footage of Geeta Sidhu-Robb using a megaphone to urge Muslim voters not to vote for her Labour opponent, Jack Straw, because he is Jewish.

The Lib Dems announced on Tuesday that Ms Sidhu-Robb, a former corporate lawyer turned health food entrepreneur, would go head-to-head with councillor Luisa Porrit for the party's nomination for London mayor, with the winner due to be announced on 13 October.

But in footage from the 1997 election campaign, Ms Sidhu-Robb, who was at the time standing as the Conservative candidate for Blackburn, was filmed saying she planned to inform voters about Mr Straw's faith, adding "how is a Muslim going to vote for someone who is Jewish?”

You can see the footage in question above.

It's clear that Geeta Sidhu-Robb should never have been shortlisted. Besides this antisemitic outburst she has some strange and silly opinions.

An earlier PoliticsHome article quoted a London Liberal Democrat activist as saying:

"I am astonished Ms Sidhu-Robb has been shortlisted as our potential candidate. An out-of-touch millionaire who flogs juice detoxes to celebrities is not someone we should be asked to consider.

"We want to be back out there talking about the issues that matter to Londoners, but instead we have shot ourselves in the foot with this baffling selection."

Later. A statement from London Liberal Democrats says Geeta Sidhu-Robb has been suspended from the party.