‘Corbyn Cabbie’ gets fast ride on to candidates list
... and look who his partner was cosy with
A LONDON taxi driver dubbed Corbyn’s cabbie and backed by the far-left Momentum group has been ‘shoehorned’ on to a parliamentary candidates shortlist to the fury of local activists.
Mike Hedges heads the Cabbies For Corbyn group within the Unite union – closely linked to Momentum, Jeremy Corbyn’s band of hardline loyalists.
Mr Hedges, 57, used his cab to drive Corbyn around during his 2015 leadership campaign and also during this year’s Election. Now, against the wishes of activists in Watford – a marginal seat won by the Tories by just 2,000 seats in June – Hedges has been added to a shortlist for the next Election.
He had earlier been on a longlist of eight but, when whittled down to four, he was the first to go, having performed worse than anyone else in interviews, according to Labour sources in the Hertfordshire constituency. However, Labour’s National Executive Committee – where Unite exerts strong influence – imposed Hedges as a fifth candidate. One will now be selected by Watford’s Labour members on December 14 amid fears Mr Hedges will win as Unite and other unions mobilise their members. Watford Labour’s Selection Committee has written to the NEC, saying they are ‘deeply worried the democratic processes of our party are being undermined’ but a Labour spokesman said: ‘The shortlist was decided in line with Labour’s procedures.’
Mr Hedges’s partner Jayne Fisher was a Jeremy Corbyn aide until March, having previously worked for Sinn Fein, once being photographed at Westminster alongside Corbyn and the late Sinn Fein boss Martin McGuinness.