Sheila Scoular (centre) with Helen Watson, Chair of Church End & Monkhams ward, and fellow Labour Party campaigners in Ilford North constituency. Trainee NHS radiographer Syed Siddiqi, aged 30, is an east London lad with Bengali parents. 62 year old Sheila Scoular, a former computer professional, suffers from multiple sclerosis along with cognitive and other impairments. Glyn Secker is a white-bearded Jew in his seventies who captained the Jewish Boat to Gaza in 2010. Three very different people with two things in common – they have fallen foul of the Labour Party's bureaucratic discipline machine and they are leftwing supporters of party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Labour Party members are currently either suspended or under investigation for what seem to be largely concocted misdemeanours. There is no audit of the work of the Governance Unit which prosecutes cases. Activists suspect allegations originate from a small pool of anonymous accusers. Since no accusers are named and no charges published or even made known to those complained about at the time of their suspensions, it is difficult to be sure of anything. It’s an unedifying spectacle.
Syed Siddiqi (right) with fellow NHS campaigners in the London Borough of Redbridge.What is it that makes a popular young Muslim trade unionist and party activist like Syed Siddiqi so great a threat that he has to be referred to the National Constitutional Committee for possible expulsion? A host of breaches of party rules, according to the dossier presented to National Executive Committee members by party staff on Tuesday (March 6), including “intimidating, threatening and disrespectful” behaviour. Daring to be chosen to stand as a candidate in local council elections in May, according to his fellow party activists.
