UGLY RACE ROW LANDS LABOUR IN COURT
Conflict over selection for Westminster seat
SCOTTISH Labour are locked in a bitter race row with an Asian candidate who claims his supporters have been blocked from voting for him.
Asim Khan is taking the party to court over their “illegal and irrational” decision.
SCOTTISH Labour are being taken to court after a Westminster selection battle descended into an ugly race row, the Daily Record can reveal.
An Asian candidate yesterday launched legal action in the Court of Session after dozens of his supporters were denied the chance to have a say over who will fight the Glasgow South West seat for the party.
Asim Khan wants a judicial review of a decision by Labour’s governing Scottish Executive Committee to stop members recruited during last year’s leadership contest – most of whom are from an ethnic minority background – getting a vote in the internal contest.
The damaging row is a major headache for party leader Richard Leonard, who has already faced several racism scandals during his brief period in charge.
The leadership battle between Leonard and Anas Sarwar saw a surge in new members between September and October.
Leonard was helped by trade unionists enrolling to take part in the contest, while Sarwar signed up thousands of new members from the Asian community.
The process was beset by controversy, with both sides claiming the other was abusing the system.
Now the bitter row has spilled over to the selection process for the Westminster election and ended up in court.
Glasgow South West is considered a key target for Labour as the SNP’s Chris Stephens only clung on by 60 votes at last year’s snap general election. Khan, an employment lawyer who backed Sarwar, put his name forward for the seat.
He is being challenged by Glasgow councillor Matt Kerr, whose dad is Andy Kerr, the chairman of UK Labour’s national executive committee.
The row centres on the “freeze date” for the contest which, once agreed, gives all those who have at least six months’ continuous membership a vote.
There was confusion over whether a March 21 meeting of the local constituency party in Pollok officially triggered the freeze date or whether this happened at a meeting on April 4, attended by the Scottish Labour general secretary Brian Roy.
The two-week difference is significant as the earlier date means more than 80 members who signed up last year, the overwhelming majority of whom are Asian, will not get a vote.
After lobbying from both Sarwar, who is backing Khan, and the Communications Workers Union, who are backing Kerr, the decision was taken to make March 21 the cut off.
Khan’s petition lodged at the Court of Session yesterday brands the decision “irrational, unreasonable, illegal and ultra vires” and is seeking an interdict to prevent the contest going ahead.
And his supporters say the decision to interfere by party HQ has “racist undertones” and is a stitch-up to help Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred candidate.
One Scottish Labour source who is backing Khan said: “At its heart, the action taken by the party establishment has clear racist undertones.
“It’s no coincidence that nearly all the new members unfairly excluded from voting by this arbitrary decision have Asian backgrounds.”
One of the Asian members stripped of a vote added: “We have clearly been discriminated against because we have Asian sounding names.”
But another Labour insider dismissed the allegations.
They said: “This has nothing to do with race, religion or gender and anyone who says different is simply trying to manufacture a row.”
Kerr last night said he was getting on with the contest, while Khan declined to comment.
The action taken has racist undertones LABOUR SOURCE ON ROW OVER CANDIDATE