The controversy was raised at Labour’s NEC, which also saw a rare setback for the leadership on the reorganisation of the party’s BAME structures.

Four Labour-affiliated unions have written to the Party’s General Secretary, David Evans, expressing “grave doubts” over the continued use of the Anonyvoter system in the Party’s selections and internal elections.

Last week, Labour Hub reported on a bombshell report which alleged that the selection contests for the Party’s parliamentary candidates may have been systematically rigged by supporters of Keir Starmer.

Now four union General Secretaries have called for the controversial voting system to be abandoned unless their concerns are met. The signatories are ASLEF’s Mick Whelan, Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union, Maryam Eslamdoust of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and Matt Wrack, of the Fire Brigades Union. Mick Whelan is also the Chair of the trade union-Labour Party liaison body TULO.

Both Sam Tarry MP and Beth Winter MP believe that it was the abuse of the Anonyvoter system that forced them out of Parliament. Beth Winter argues that, “Labour should end its use of Anonyvoter and commission a trusted independent balloting administrator, whose ballots stand up to scrutiny.”

Sam Tarry tweeted: “I want to be absolutely clear – the Anonyvoter system was used to deselect me, rigged to change the result against the wishes of my local Labour Party.”

In an explanatory twitter thread, Angus Satow, Head of Communications at Momentum, explains the background to Anonyvoter, which is owned by two right-leaning Labour councillors in Croydon.

Labour’s General Secretary David Evans, whose background is also in Croydon Labour politics, awarded the contract for Labour’s selections  to Anonyvoter without tender.

“Most of Labour’s parliamentary selections have been conducted at least partially online, via Anonyvoter,” explains Satow. “The ballot is conducted by Labour staffers.”

Anonyvoter allows for independent ‘tellers’ who can review votes and see the breakdown. But it has not been allowed for almost all parliamentary selections. There is no external scrutiny at all.

“This matters because it is astonishingly easy to tamper with votes,” says Satow. “Admins can add votes without trouble – even during the process or after the advertised end of the poll. They can also see who’s voted – and who hasn’t.”

Nor does Labour publish the voting results in parliamentary selections. In one selection, a candidate received 90% of the votes in the room. But when the online votes were added in via Anonyvoter, his opponent, who was favoured by the leadership, was bolstered by 62% of the votes.

Would Labour officials fiddle the system to favour a preferred candidate? Since Keir Starmer’s election as leader, we have seen many left wing candidates – including former MPs – left off shortlists. In Croydon, membership lists were tampered with to favour a particular candidate. Scotland Yard are now investigating.

At this week’s National Executive Committee, General Secretary Evans was asked about Anonyvoter and Croydon and why results breakdowns are not provided. Evans responded, saying that the publicity around Anonyvoter was misplaced and misdirected and it was false and fake news to suggest the Croydon East investigation had anything to do with it. He didn’t respond as to why results breakdowns aren’t provided.

To date, over 3,000 people have signed Momentum’s petition for an independent, KC-led investigation.

Leadership rebuffed on BAME structurees

Mish Rahman gives a fuller breakdown of the main issues at this week’s NEC here.  Two significant takeaways stand out.

First, supporters of the leadership suffered a rare defeat. Proposals to reconfigure the Party’s BAME structures were rejected as key unions and the left joined forces to vote them down.

“BAME members cannot afford another pocket organisation,” tweeted Mish Rahman, who voted to defer a paper brought by supporters of Keir Starmer, which would have effectively given them control of the BAME wing of the Party.

Ahead of the vote, it was clear that the leadership’s supporters  were reneging on their commitment to implement previously agreed democratic structures. Its plans, tabled at this week’s meeting, were denounced by Momentum as “another slap in the face to Labour’s BAME members.”

Kim Johnson, Co-Chair of the BAME Parliamentary Labour Party, said: “BAME Labour isn’t fit for purpose, and hasn’t been for decades. Members knew this when they voted for rule changes that would put power back in the hand of BAME members of the Labour Party, to provide spaces for us to collectivise and to elect our own directly accountable representatives – just as young and women members of the Party do.

“It is deeply concerning that these rule changes have been disregarded, and that decisions are being taken by a predominantly white NEC with no consultation with BAME members or MPs. It is just another example of how BAME members are undermined in the Party. Any agreement on next steps must be in line with the existing rule changes, or come as a result as a wider consultation with BAME members.”

Momentum are running a petition calling for the establishment of rulebook-mandated democratic structures for BAME Labour members.

The second takeaway from the NEC is that Labour have suffered another steep drop in Party membership, down 25,000 in the last two months. This is not good news for the Party on the eve of what will be a bitterly fought general election campaign.

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