TMP Online

The selection contest to become Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in the Hornsey and Wood Green (’H&WG’) constituency is hotting up.  Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP, snatched the seat from Labour’s Barbara Roche with a slim 2,395 majority in May 2005.  The seat will be high on Labour’s hit list next time round.  Eight of the thirteen who have put themselves forward are ethnic minority candidates.

There is a strong and diverse field for members to choose from.  TMP sources hear that Jan Etienne and Claudia Webbe, in particular, impressed at a recent hustings.  The front runner appears to be the ever popular Leader of Islington Labour Group, Catherine West.  Other notable candidates include the former head of the Department for Work and Pensions’ Ethnic Minority Employment Division, Afsana Shukur.

Four of the ten H&WG Labour Party branches will be nominating today; three more will be nominating on 9, 10 and 13 May respectively, with the last three nominating on 14 May.  The shortlisting will take place on Friday 18 May.

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In the first of his monthly columns, Murad Qureshi AM, gives his personal view on remittances. following on from Jon Cruddas MP’s article on the subject last week. 

Surprise surprise, this week we learn that since the G8 nations met in Gleneagles in 2005, the richest nations are backsliding on their promises of aid to Africa, except for the honourable exception of the UK government with record levels of development aid.

Only £1bn of the £ 12.5 bn aid pledged at Gleneagles by 2010 has been given so far; so much for the grand standing of politicians at Gleneagles, the tax dodging of celebs like Bono and business’ erratic investment in the developing world. But, as Jon Cruddas MP pointed out last week, there is one group you can rely on - migrant workers.

Migrants workers send money back to their families, many of whom belong to the UK’s minority ethnic communities and are often the cleaners, mini-cab drivers and waiters serving the developed world’s economies. Many of them are New Commonwealth immigrants - like my parents - who have been sending money back home to Bangladesh for two decades. More recent arrivals from Eastern Europe, like my Polish cleaner, are doing the same. These “remittances” have only recently been acknowledged by the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DfID); they have been ignored by the British international NGOs.

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The Black Socialist Society (“BSS”) will be holding a Labour deputy leadership election hustings for its members on Monday 21 May. The BSS has over 4000 members and is the main national, representative body of ethnic minority members of the Labour Party, to which it is affiliated.

Commenting on the event, Ahmad Shahzad, Chair of the BSS, said:
“We are holding this deputy leadership election hustings to give our members the chance to ask the various contenders what they intend to do for our members and the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.”

It is estimated that over 20% of the Labour Party’s membership is made up of ethnic minorities and therefore candidates will be looking to garner as many BSS members’ votes as possible.

The event will take place at a Westminster location from 6pm. Further details will be provided on this site in due course.