Will Miliband dare expel Ken Livingstone?
Ken Livingstone has presented Ed Miliband with a major problem.
91Èȱ¬ London has caught him on camera campaigning for Lutfur Rahman, the independent candidate who is running for mayor of Tower Hamlets.
Mr Rahman was expelled from the Labour Party by the party's National Executive Committee last month over "serious allegations" against him, after he'd been picked by local Labour members as their mayoral nominee.
And Labour selected another official candidate, Helal Uddin Abbas.
Labour's rules on this are very clear and have been rigorously applied for many years now.
They state: "A member of the party who supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate shall automatically be ineligible to be, or remain, a party member."
Labour has already suspended eight local Labour councillors for supporting Mr Rahman, so why not Mr Livingstone?
Indeed, one might even interpret that rule as meaning Mr Livingstone no longer belongs to the Labour Party already.
Surely the party won't apply one rule for famous big names, and another for obscurities?
If Mr Livingstone is allowed to remain a party member, and Labour's nominee for Mayor of London, shouldn't all those who've been expelled under this rule over the years now be reinstated?
They include the former Labour peer Chris Haskins who was expelled in 2005 for giving £2,500 to the parliamentary campaign of the Liberal Democrat MP (and now Chief Secretary) Danny Alexander.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 19th Oct 2010, Sarah wrote:This is the usual from good of Ken.
There are people who just by being there give the organisations they belong to a hard time, ken seems to be one of those people - though he does give me a laugh a lot.
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Comment number 2.
At 19th Oct 2010, Chris McCray wrote:If the party's default stance is that he is automatically out, do they need to do anything further with Ken? They'd have to put up an official candidate in the mayoral election, who would almost certainly have less chance of winning than Ken or Boris. Is Frank Dobson free?
Ken continues to campaign for mayor as an independent leftie. Any stigma of association with the old Labour government is wiped away. As mayor he'd be able to fight London's corner with central government regardless whether the coalition lasts or it collapses and Labour or the Tories get in at a subsequent general election.
In the mayoral election, either Boris wins (so no problem apart from BoJo getting a second term), or Ken wins and after two years or so Labour invite him back into the fold. It's not like we've been here before with Ken running as an independent, have we?
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Comment number 3.
At 19th Oct 2010, JunkkMale wrote:'Surely the party won't apply one rule for famous big names, and another for obscurities?'
Tricky things, precedents.
As are promises.
You heard it hear fir... maybe.. eventually.
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Comment number 4.
At 20th Oct 2010, stevie wrote:he wouldn't dare sack Ken, after his dismal performance in the commons he needs all the friends he can get!
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Comment number 5.
At 25th Oct 2010, PERSIAN CAT wrote:Ed Miliband didn't think twice about shafting his brother in the Labour Leadership race so why the silence on Livingstone? Livingstone has got form on many fronts. One of which is his association with the Ahmadinejad Broadcasting Company (Press TV). Come on Ed, you know Livingstone is not part of the 'a new generation for change' - get rid before it's too late.
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