I sit opposite John Biggs at full Assembly meetings and it is not unknown for us to give each other a hard time, it would be fair to say that John and I are not friends. That said I think that the Labour party has acted disgracefully with respect to John.
The Labour party in Tower Hamlets is a joke. “Incompetent” is probably the kindest word that could be used to describe the party and council leadership there. If you have any doubt about how rubbish they are just have a look this debacle over the selection of their candidate to be the borough’s first directly elected mayor here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh and here.
So what has all this got to do with John Biggs? Well, having been initially selected to be their candidate, his selection was overturned, he then came second in the selection re-run and when the winner of that selection was deselected by the party he was overlooked when a replacement was appointed. I believe that John Biggs has been the victim of racism within the Labour party at both local and national level.
I don’t chuck the R word around very much but I struggle to think of any other explanation for these actions. It seems that Labour feel that he is the wrong colour/religion to win in Tower Hamlets with it’s large Bangladeshi community. If anyone else can offer up a different explanation I’d be happy to listen.
All this messing about will highlight to voters the futility of voting Labour this Autumn and will help the person who would really help turn the borough around, Neil King, the Conservative candidate.
You could well be right about this.