Ian Reilly,
West Midlands Regional Organiser
The Labour Party
West Midlands Region
Thomas Street
West Bromwich
West Midlands
B70 6NT

Dear Mr Reilly,

Resignation from the Labour Party M/ship A074957

I am resigning from the Labour Party and enclose my party card. I am just one of a number of long-standing members who have left over the last few years after putting up with contemptuous treatment from paid officials. Many members of Handsworth Wood Ward are angry after being invited to say if they wanted a selection for the Labour Candidate for Handsworth Wood Ward. Your ruling stated that if 20% wanted it, then it would happen.

It is extraordinary that it was thought necessary to ask for a selection process in the first place, since it is to be expected that in a normal functioning democracy it would happen as a matter of course. Only exceptional circumstances would call for an imposition. Unfortunately it appears that paid officers take decision more and more frequently: decisions that should properly be taken by members of the party. As I am on record as saying many decisions taken by paid officers have turned into disaster. In Birmingham you have presided over postal vote fraud. One of Handsworth Wood’s new Labour Councillors crossed the floor to the Tories within 2 years of being elected! This was after you had been warned of his dubious activities. No one has taken responsibility.

However there are other matters in the national arena such as David Blunkett. It is reported that he is now on the payroll of a company bidding for a contract on ID cards, for which he had responsibility at the Home Office. Other senior figures are involved with Tesco’s land grab, and so on.

The privatisation of public services is continually being shown to be returning more to investors than users. Even prisons, overcrowded and full of those who have health needs requiring urgent treatment, are not exempt. That was beyond Thatcher’s wildest dream. It’s certainly beyond mine.

Yours sincerely,

John Tyrrell

A copy of a petition (incomplete) to the National Executive of the Labour Party was also enclosed. It reads:

Petition to the La West Midlands and National Executive Labour Party.

We, the undersigned, are members of the Handsworth Wood Ward who were invited to say if we wanted a selection for the candidate for the local council elections in Birmingham in May. We understand around 80 people replied out of 130 eligible to vote. Now we are told that a candidate has been imposed. It was the Regional Office that made the 20% ruling which we understood to apply to members eligible to vote. To say that all members should be counted, including those who couldn’t vote is sheer nonsense. We also understand that about half the requests for a selection were discounted. The criteria for this is not known.

We demand our rights within the Labour Party, which we joined as a democratic party, to be able to choose the best candidate. We have absolutely no objection to the favoured candidate standing for selection, rather we are seeking a return to democratic practices and procedures which are fundamental to the Labour Party.