Battersea Labour Party’s 2019 Annual Report

CHAIR         Sara Apps

Last year, I stated that: “2019 is forecast to be a very special year …. There are no elections planned!” Well, we all know how that turned out.

Congratulations to Marsha de Cordova, and to Battersea residents for re-electing their Labour MP with a justly increased majority. But commiserations to all of us too, because the country has just elected one of the most virulently right-wing governments we’ve ever seen. It is essential that we all take responsibility for this catastrophic loss and not only elect the best leader possible to help ensure that we win next time, but do everything we can to help ensure a Labour Government is elected.

Of course, Marsha’s victory was due to many factors. The most important was Marsha’s consistent championing of the views of Battersea’s communities in Parliament. But also important was Battersea Labour’s superb campaign, led by Carmel Pollen and Amy Merrigan, with Tony Belton doing much hard work as agent. With the support of all of us, they ran one of the biggest and best constituency campaigns I have ever seen.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Amy for leading our campaigns over many years, demonstrating considerable wisdom on such young shoulders. She is now moving to a job in theatre management, where I am sure that she has a great future; but I am sure she will stay in touch with us.

I am very grateful to all of the executive for their efforts, particularly Matteo Tiratelli, who has undertaken all of the (very many, very great) demands of CLP secretary with a full-time job; and to the political education officers who’ve organised brilliant debates at our All Member Meetings. Thank you to all the executive members for their important contributions.

This year we successfully re-selected Sadiq Khan as our mayoral candidate and Leonie Cooper as our constituency London Assembly Member. Now we must ensure that they are re-elected! Sadiq has been an effective and rightly popular mayor, important at a time when London is facing many challenges. Leonie has done an incredible job representing a vast and diverse constituency – and it is vital that we ensure that they are both able to continue their important work for London.

I won’t be around for most of the May election campaign as I will be working in the Highlands of Scotland until the end of October! I will be around to do all I can to help the campaigning outside of those months, but it will be down to my successor, as Chair, to take the lead.

What will be the big decisions this year?  Preparing for and winning the London Elections must take centre stage. But there will also be preparing for local government boundary changes and making sure that we have a diverse range of able candidates ready to stand. And thinking about how we ensure we have an effective, working Battersea Labour HQ.

SECRETARY

Matteo Tiratelli

2019 was a year that ended in tragedy with the disastrous General Election result on the 12th of December. Marsha de Cordova did a fantastic job here in Battersea and we should be proud of the amazing campaign we ran. But, the bigger picture is that, after a period of hope around 2017, Labour has now joined the rest of the European and North American centre-left by collapsing in the face of right-wing nationalism. There are no easy answers and precious few examples of successful, modern centre-left parties to draw on for inspiration (maybe Spain’s Socialist-Podemos coalition government?). But the struggle will go on and we have a huge job to do rebuilding over the next five years.

In our local CLP, we had a productive year. Our Chair, Sara, and I, together with the rest of the EC, have continued to try to reshape our local meetings, dropping a lot of the boring procedural nonsense and focusing on political education and member-led discussions (including our own set of ‘Indicative Votes’ about Brexit!). Members continue to express their preference for these kinds of active, participatory meetings and I hope that we will continue in this vein going forward.

Much of my summer was taken up with running the Trigger Ballot Process, which gave all local members a say in who Labour’s candidate for Battersea should be in the next General Election. This current system is a bit of a fudge: members are invited to vote on whether they think the current MP should be automatically re-selected, or if we should move to a full open selection. This makes it impossible to run a positive campaign where multiple candidates can throw their hats in the ring and campaign on their own merits. Instead, you have to campaign negatively, against the incumbent – hardly an attractive proposition. This fudge meant that not a single new candidate was produced through this system (in Battersea not a single vote was cast, anywhere in the CLP, in favour of opening the selection up – a great vote of confidence for our wonderful MP, Marsha). But, given the huge amount of organisational work that goes into running a Trigger Ballot, this makes them seem like a bit of a waste of time. If we are serious about being a member-led party which is open to new talent and new ideas, then this system clearly needs to be reformed. I hope that whoever our next leader is takes this seriously.

VICE-CHAIR FUND-RAISING

Matt Valentine

2019 was an eventful where the political calendar played havoc with our best laid plans for fundraising.  We had some successes though. Battersea Labour sent two teams to work the bars at Glastonbury for Battersea & Wandsworth Trade Union Council. One made up of members and the other from Marsha’s office. This is a brilliant way of raising funds for the party whilst having a great time. It would be excellent if we could get more member involvement in 2020 and hopefully send some more teams. Unfortunately, the European and General Elections meant that a comedy night, Battersea’s Got Talent and a Junction Jazz evening all had to be postponed.

VICE-CHAIR MEMBERSHIP

Faruk Patel

The highlight of 2019 was undoubtedly our MP, Marsha De Cordova, retaining her seat with an increased majority (one of the rare success stories on the night for us as a Party). The campaigning effort locally was nothing short of heroic, as scores of people, from varying backgrounds, braved the cold and rainy weather to communicate the message on the doorsteps and get the vote out. Huge congratulations to everyone that was involved with this, including everyone at HQ who co-ordinated and organised this mammoth effort!

On the membership front we started the year with 1,141 members. For much of the year there was a steady churn, with our lowest level reaching 1,068 in October 2019. Many of the leavers were citing Labour’s perceived ambiguous Brexit position and leadership as being key reasons for their decision. There was a slight uplift in our membership during the GE campaign as we reached 1,089 members on the eve of the election.

However, since the General Election (GE) our membership has increased substantially. At the time of writing, our membership stands at 1,509. This represents a 39% increase since the GE! Many new members (with some being re-joiners) no doubt feel emboldened by the opportunity to vote in the Leadership and Deputy Leadership elections and a chance to play their part in the next chapter of the Labour Party.

Labour Battersea is now one of the largest Constituency Labour Parties nationally and this should be viewed as a welcome challenge. We must continue our efforts from the last couple of years actively to integrate new members to the local scene and to make our events interesting and inclusive. It has been refreshing to see a warm, comradely atmosphere. Long may this continue!

WOMEN’S OFFICERS

Lynne Jackson & Carole Maddern

We have both been busy throughout the year, supporting Marsha de Cordova, and actively campaigning during both the European and General elections. Two of our main focuses this year have been on the NHS and violence against women. We have attended and supported many events. Here are a few highlights:

A phenomenal NHS defender, Harry Leslie Smith, author of Harry’s last Stand, sadly passed away at the age of 95 – many will remember his passionate speech to Conference in 2014. There was a moving commemoration service honouring Harry at Conway Hall in February, attended by many of the Labour front bench including the leader of the party, Jeremy Corbyn.

To mark International Women’s Day (March 8) we organised a panel of speakers at the House of Commons, on the subject of violence against women. Marsha and her team kindly helped arrange this, and offered a tour of the House of Commons, with special access to St Mary Undercroft and the broom cupboard where Emily Wilding Davison hid, at the time of the 1911 census, in order to declare her residence as the House of Commons.

In the summer, we attended a number of important events. They included a screening of Witchhunt, a documentary about Jackie Walker’s experience of being expelled from the party on accusations of anti-semitism; and a day-long conference in Putney, Wandsworth Transformed which brought together hundreds of people for a huge variety of talks and panels covering everything from austerity to the climate crisis. Carole was on kitchen duty alongside Vennella Boyalla (BAME Officer) – quenching the thirst of the many! In October Black History Month was fittingly marked by a brilliant day of music, speakers and stalls with special guests including Marsha de Cordova and Maurice McLeod – both of whom also featured prominently in a special display at Battersea Library.

Later in the year, women members were invited to a performance of a new play, No Bad Women: Rape on Trial – a powerful piece based on a rape trial which made history in 1991, when, for the first time ever, a rapist was convicted for attacking sex workers. Those of us who saw the play were profoundly moved by the testimony of one of the original complainants and part of the team who took the case to court.

The snap General Election side-lined our plans for a film night and a period poverty/menstruation event in collaboration with our Environment Officers. We hope to hold these in the new year. Amidst the amazing efforts and energies of the election campaign was a visit from sisters in Peckham for a women-only canvass. And, gratifyingly, our hard work as a constituency paid off with the re-election of Marsha with an increased majority – congratulations to her and thanks to everyone who helped.

TREASURER

Tony Belton

In 2019 BLP income and expenditure almost exactly matched at £89,000. However, we started the year with outstanding debts of £19,000 in the form of loans, which was reduced to £5,000 by year end, despite the un-anticipated General Election spending.

Income (Tab 1, row 15, column 3) was £20,000 above budget, mainly thanks to £13,000 of donations, £11,000 of loans from members compensating for £3,000 less from fundraising activity. The main elements of the income were:

• £47,000 from rental income
• £14,000 from fund raising and donations
• £11,000 loans from members and the Wandsworth Labour Group
• £13,000 from standing orders, ward levies and membership subscriptions.

Expenditure (row 45) exceeded predicted budget by £39,000 – mainly because of expenditure on the General Election (GE) and reducing the debt (£19,000). Extra GE spending included £13,000 on print costs, and £8,000 on various consumables and expenses.

Context of 2020 budget assessment:

Rental income (£42,000) on the three flats at 177 Lavender Hill is, as ever, the core of our funding, with standing order contributions from members between £10-12,000 a year continuing to be our second largest and most secure income. Fund-raising income in 2019 was disappointing at just over £1,000.

But, with tight control of our expenditure prior to the General Election, we have been able to manage with taking only £5,000 in loans from members and the Labour Group.

Consequently, we enter 2020 almost exactly in balance (< £1,000) and with debts of only £5,000, which, all other things being equal, I plan to clear by 31^st March 2020.

The budget for the next six months (to 30 June 2020) does NOT allow us to employ an organiser for May’s GLA election. This puts considerable pressure on our volunteers to organise any level of campaign, but current polling suggests that in London the Tories do not pose any great threat to either the Mayor or our GLA member.

My current estimate is that, with tight control over spending this year and no great surprises, we should be in a position to employ an agent/organiser for the twelve months leading up to the Borough Election in May, 2022.

Four Year Projection: BLP will be in the black by

1st April, 2020. The current mode of operation produces a surplus of approximately £25,000 a year; NOT enough to afford a fulltime organiser and the extra expenditure that an organiser tends to generate. We need to boost income or cut expenditure by at least £10,000 p.a. to do that. We can, however, afford a full-time organiser for 2 or 3 years in the normal 4 year-cycle.

Balance Sheet:

The balance sheet shows that BLP has capital assets of over £1.5 million, based almost entirely on Featherstone Leigh’s informal desk top valuation (7th January 2019) of 177 Lavender Hill.

Audit

These figures have been audited by Chris Callaghan and Tony Tuck (auditors).

Recommendations:

• That the AGM approves this report;
• That both income and expenditure remain closely monitored by the EC.

Treasurer’s Report: TABLE 1.

Income & Expenditure 2019 against estimates and four-year projection of budgets from 2020 to 2023

Part 1: Income

Part 2: Expenditure

Note: overall financial assets of the Battersea Labour Party do not merit a formal Balance Sheet; suffice to say that Battersea Labour Party’s assets consist almost entirely of its property, 177 Lavender Hill, SW11 5TE, which was informally valued at £1.5 million some two years ago; the Riso printer, current value maybe £3,000; and of course the immeasurable knowledge and enthusiasm of its members.

ORGANISER Amy Merrigan

I’ve had more relaxing evenings than the night of the 29th October, the day we knew an election was going to be called. Carmel Pollen, Alba Kapoor and I (with the help of Martin Linton and Sara Apps who kindly hosted us once we were kicked out of the PCS building in the evening) began to put in motion the start of Marsha’s re-election campaign.

The next few days we had an influx of Battersea Labour stalwarts who came to help. Sara started planning canvassing sessions, Kate Stock spent more time on Contact Creator then I care to think about, Pete Lyons and Brian Cairns led the first of what must have amounted to a thousand canvassing teams, Tony Belton and our candidate and sitting MP Marsha de Cordova spent a day making fundraising calls to members, Jane Eades organised and reorganised the office, Alex Wolfers began a relentless campaign of recruiting new members and Joe Shipman and Sharon Palmer gradually decanted the useful campaigning equipment from 177 into our new office space at PCS.  Before we knew it, we were set up and running.

Over the 6 weeks campaign, we had around 20,000 doorstep conversations. Hundreds of BLP activists delivered thousands of leaflets and letters. We knocked on virtually every door and leafleted every school and train station.

We received numerous compliments from visiting CLPs about how smoothly our large weekend campaigning sessions ran.  Volunteers gave up their Friday night every week to come into PCS and, fuelled by pizza and beer, methodically prepared everything that was needed to make our massive weekend campaign days a success. Each Saturday and Sunday with the help of a number of key BLP members, we marshalled 100s of activists into prepped and briefed canvassing teams.

The long and the short of it all was is that the campaign was driven by the generosity, kindness, knowledge and skills of BLP members. There are too many people to name – but thanks to everyone who helped us achieve a resounding Labour hold with a more than doubled majority.

POLITICAL EDUCATION OFFICERS Thom Corbett & Michael Stone

We are grateful to Battersea CLP for electing us to serve a second term as Political Education Officers.

We have sought to be true to the wishes of members expressed in the survey we ran, and in subsequent dialogue, for meetings to encourage discussion of national and local issues in a comradely manner with all views respected; and that meetings should not be dominated by procedural points, which leave most of us disengaged.

We believe we have played our part in developing the inclusive and welcoming style of AMMs, though we wish also to record our thanks to Sara Apps, who has been a magnificent Chair, and deserves much credit for the friendly tone of AMMs; and the increasing presence of new members who come along to a meeting and feel sufficiently welcomed to come again.

Matters outside of our control like the unexpected Euro Elections, the General Election and the vacancies for the positions of Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and subsequent opportunity to nominate our chosen candidates, have restricted our ability to organise the number of discussions we had planned during the year. However, we were pleased to organise:

• An expert appraisal of the Brexit deal from Labour’s Head of International Trade Policy, Jon Hilary, followed by a constructive discussion about Labour’s position on the topic.
• A discussion on Local Housing Policy and the Future of National Policy at which we heard from Councillor Paul White and local activist, Hannah Stanislaus, who told us about the campaign she is involved with to force the Council to address the problems experienced by council home residents in Nightingale Square, whose living conditions are nothing short of a disgrace.
• A discussion on the Climate Change Crisis at which we heard from our Assembly Member, Leonie Cooper, our Co-Environment Officer Dr. Sheila Ochugboju and Tony Hay from Extinction Rebellion, the organisation that has done so much to bring this crisis to public attention.

At each debate, we heard many contributions from members, and many useful thoughts and ideas about how to move forward were generated.

Two meetings we had planned which were postponed due to the various elections that have arisen were on the subject of Taxation – What is the Fairest and Most Electorally Advantageous Means of Raising the Revenue We Need? and Youth Policy – What is Life Like for Young People (Particularly Those Most Disadvantaged Economically) In Tory Britain? If re-elected, we hope to stage both those meetings in the first half of 2020.

Two excellent meetings also took place in the year for which we deserve no credit. John McDonnell spoke to us about Labour’s Economic Policy and showed us all how well-prepared Labour was for Government and what a tragedy it is that he is not Chancellor of the Exchequer today. At another meeting, our Policy Officer, Maha Younes, spoke about working in the NHS and helped shape an excellent resolution to the National Policy Forum. Maha also planned a debate on Palestine, which was postponed due to the election and will, we hope, happen in the next few months.

The local party has agreed that when there is time for a debate, it will last not less than an hour, be the first item on the agenda and involve breaking into small groups after hearing from speakers, to ensure that everyone can feel comfortable expressing a view. We look forward to more stimulating debates in the year ahead.

YOUTH OFFICER

Ben Morgan

writes re Wandsworth Transformed

Given the rise of fake news and political misinformation, it has become increasingly difficult to trust the media that we consume. The need for participatory political education has never been more important, especially for young people. Facing an increasingly partisan media landscape where stories are often fed to us through bite-sized messaging on social media, it is easy to become pessimistic and cynical about the possibility of real change.

In response, it should be one of our tasks as a local Labour party to provide engaging, interactive and inspiring political education to empower our members. This is why I and a small group of members from Battersea, Tooting and Putney came together to organise the inaugural Wandsworth Transformed event; a day festival of panel discussions, debates and workshops with local people, experts and activists. The event joins a network of other local ‘transformed’ events springing up across the country, modelled on The World Transformed festival which happens alongside Labour Conference each year.

Held at the Community Church Putney, the discussions throughout the day ranged from climate change and the green new deal, the housing crisis, media reform, extreme inequality, racism to precarious and insecure work. The event was a huge success with over 250 people attending, including many young people. One young member at the event who had only recently started getting involved with the Labour party told me that seeing so many committed activists in one place discussing radical ideas to change society had truly inspired them to become more engaged.

Events like Wandsworth Transformed enable us to recognise how many enthusiastic and active people there are in our communities, who share in our socialist principles. We plan to continue Wandsworth Transformed into the future making it an annual event. However, this is not enough. There is much scope for continuing to build transformative political education projects in our party and communities on a much more regular basis and with an emphasis on strategy and collective action. As a party we must provide our members with the skills and tools to become more than an army of canvassers come election time, but to become active organisers in communities and workplaces.

ENVIRONMENT OFFICER

Maureen Cooper

2019 was a significant year for environment actions in Battersea. Internationally the Friday School Strikes inspired by Greta Thunberg and the national mobilisation of Extinction Rebellion. Wandsworth Borough Council took notice when environment groups in the borough, together with the newly appointed shadow spokesperson for the environment Cllr. Paula Walker, presented to a full committee meeting, a demand that a climate emergency be declared. In the face of the numbers of signatures on the petition and the crowd present outside and inside the meeting chamber – the council agreed.

As your officers we and Cllr Walker then formed a working party for organisations in the borough to come together and work to push for swift implementation of actions. The working party, which is cross borough, met at the Town Hall and with the input of Cllrs. Walker, Anderson, Denfield, McKinney and others to identify actions and ways forward. The assistance given by Beth Foster-Ogg, our organiser assigned by the Party, was invaluable. She also facilitated our public meeting at All Saints on Prince of Wales Drive, addressing the topic of Labour’s Green New Deal with Labour’s Shadow Spokesperson.

We attended a workshop at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) on Financing an Inclusive and Just Transition to a Net Zero Economy, which brought home to us the complexity of what was needed for the massive job which lies ahead to achieve anything like justice in this area. The main focus was on countries in Africa which is Sheila Ochugboju’s specialist field.

Fairfield branch held an environment stall on Garratt Lane opposite Southside on the borders of Tooting and Putney to engage with local people on WBC’s response to the Climate Emergency, and I have continued to work with the energy group CREW in supporting people to get the best value for their energy bill payments through Energy Cafes. All in all, it has been an exhausting but fruitful year.

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

Marsha de Cordova

Overview: What a year! One General Election, almost 60 constituency surgeries and drop in events (including one in Latchmere attended by over 60 people), action taken on c.8,000 pieces of casework. and countless Brexit votes. I thank all who made this year possible – the incredible activists who campaigned for me, my fantastic team and the people of Battersea.

In Battersea: Throughout the year I have been proud to work alongside faith organisations, community groups and charities on important local issues. This included holding a Battersea Community Forum, attended by young people, faith and community leaders and the police, following a number of tragic fatalities. I will continue to fight for adequate funding for our police and vital youth services, as well as work with our community to end this crisis.

I visited and spoke at a number of local school assemblies, including at Bolingbroke, Belleville, Ark John Archer (ex-Hearnville) school and St Francis Xavier’s Sixth Form College.

We also had a number of successful local campaigns including our work to save the Route 19 bus service and saving ‘stay and play’ in the York Gardens Children’s Centre. It’s impossible to list everything, suffice to say, but one essential campaign is concerned to ensure better air quality on Battersea Park Road.

Throughout the year, I also worked with trade unions, CWU, GNB and BWTUC, to call for a decent living wage and fairer working terms and conditions for workers – including at McDonalds and for cleaners at a local hospital.

In Parliament: The Brexit crisis dominated over everything. I did all I could to oppose this Government’s damaging and delusional plans, proudly voting against both Theresa May and Boris Johnson’s catastrophic deals.

I made one hundred spoken contributions in Parliament in 2019. I was successful in the draw for three Prime Minister Questions (PMQs) including on the devastating impact of a no-deal Brexit; the failure of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and slamming the Work and Pensions’ Department’s misleading advertising campaign promoting Universal Credit, which has driven so many constituents to debt and despair.

As Shadow Minister for Disabled People, I asked regular Departmental Questions; and I also replied to Westminster Hall Debates on behalf of the Labour frontbench. Above all, I am proud to support the Labour Party’s Disabled People’s manifesto – Breaking Down Barriers, with its vision for a society that treats disabled people with dignity and respect, according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRPD).

The Snap General Election: Thanks to thousands of Labour members and activists, we ran a brilliant campaign in Battersea. In total, we had some 20,000 doorstep conversations; delivered thousands of letters and leaflets; made hundreds of phone calls; and more than doubled our majority in Battersea.

Needless to say, nationally we did not get the result that we wanted. Rest assured that in opposition I will do all that I can to hold this wretched Conservative government to account. And I am sure that MPs and members will work together in unity to deliver a progressive and radical vision, which will promote Labour’s pathway back to power.   

GREATER LONDON ASSEMBLY MEMBER

Leonie Cooper

2019 was a year when London, the Mayor and the Assembly took a back seat to Brexit, an unexpected May European election – and an equally unexpected December General Election. As the Greater London Authority Act specifies the number of Mayor’s Question Time and full Assembly plenary session that must be held, the General Election led to the moving of numerous meetings scheduled for November and December, but not their cancellation. This has impeded the ability of the Assembly to hold the Mayor to account during 2019 on progress on his Mayoral Transport Strategy, the Mayoral Environment and Housing Strategies – but has not completely stopped scrutiny.

From January-May 2019, the Examination in Public (EiP) of the draft London Plan took place – this looked in great detail, across many 3-hour sessions, at housing targets, support for town centres and high streets, good growth, healthy neighbourhoods and low emission neighbourhoods, to name but a few areas looked at. The draft London Plan is still draft, but is now there for the Mayor and the City Hall planning team to use when considering larger planning applications. This has already borne fruit in many applications, where the percentage of social rented housing, bicycle parking and solar panels has been increased at City Hall’s insistence.

Setting up the Violence Reduction Unit, to complement the Knife Crime Strategy, has not as yet fully borne fruit. 2019, like 2018, saw a high level of murders across London, unfortunately including, once again, in Battersea. Tory unwillingness properly to fund both the police and Councils has seen crime rise everywhere, although they have taken every opportunity to try and blame the rise in crime in London on the Mayor. The Tories have refused to give the Metropolitan Police the money to cover all the additional responsibilities associated with national demonstrations, protecting Parliament and MPs, plus the Queen and the Royal family, so the Mayoral element of Council Tax has had to rise significantly to cover these unfunded costs.

Senior officers and police stations have been cut to try and keep bobbies on the beat – but police numbers have not really been at the right levels to tackle crime across London.   Despite the Prime Minister going on about a further 20,000 police officers, only an extra 1,369 officers have been allocated; and so far there have been no new recruits in Wandsworth.

Crossrail continues to be a huge problem, with delays on its opening now looking to stretch to 2021, not 2020.

However, 2019 did see the launch of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in April – this has built on the T-Charge, and is already being attacked by the Tories, despite the current 9,000 deaths a year caused by air pollution. As it is the poorest Londoners, who are worst affected by poor air quality, it would seem the Tories usual callous approach extends to their lack of interest in improving Londoners’ health – and attacks on progress in this area continue. However, compliance has been excellent and London’s air quality is much improved. More still needs to be done to clean up London’s air, so the re-election of a Labour Mayor and Labour-dominated Assembly in 2020 is essential.

WANDSWORTH LABOUR COUNCILLORS

Simon Hogg, Leader

Together, your Labour councillors:

* Helped to elect three great Labour MPs in Battersea, Putney and Tooting

* Declared a Climate Emergency and committed the Council to be carbon neutral by 2030

* Ran excellent campaigns that have improved lives – on children’s centres, recycling, private renters, school cuts, car free day, Living Wage, adult care, food poverty, air pollution, Black History Month, sprinklers, Brexit, cycle hangars, Taxicards, homelessness and much more.

* Secured Sadiq Khan’s support for our vision of improved estate regeneration with more council homes

* Got a set of boundaries that are fair to Labour from the Boundary Review process

* Supported workers when they were badly treated – from traffic wardens and SEND drivers to staff at St George’s Hospital. We worked closely with trade unions to secure a good pay deal for all Wandsworth staff – finally ending senior staff bonuses and Dickensian sick pay practices

None of this would have been possible without Battersea Labour Party members’, your, commitment and passion. We can be proud of what we’ve achieved in 2019, and I know our councillors have enjoyed working alongside local volunteers through the highs and lows.

We’ve come a long way since 2010. Wandsworth Labour started the decade with just 9 councillors and one MP – we ended it with 26 councillors and 3 MPs. Our best is yet to come.  So it’s on to the continuing challenges and new opportunities: to make a difference, to help local people, and to create a fairer Wandsworth.

LATCHMERE COUNCILLORS

Tony Belton, Simon Hogg & Kate Stock 

Tony writes: Latchmere ward might very well disappear from the map very shortly. It was created in 1964 when Wandsworth and Battersea Metropolitan Councils were merged into the one London Borough of Wandsworth. Labour has held it at every election ever fought here, which I think is a record for any ward or any party in the Borough.

Simon Hogg has spent many house working to ensure that the new boundaries, due to be implemented in 2022, create a fairer distribution of seats. There have been two occasions, in 1986 and 2018, when Labour won more votes than the Tories but still had fewer councillors, and thus did not win control of the Council. The end-result of his work, along with others, appears in the Boundary Commissioners Report, which clearly states that many of its recommendations were based on the Labour Councillors’ (means Simon’s, really) submission.

The outcome will split Latchmere essentially into the new wards of Falconbrook and Battersea Park, with a small section going into Shaftesbury. So here is a proud historical record of all Labour councillors who have represented the ward since 1964: Brian Prichard; John Dunning; Les Goodwin; Alex McLaughlin; Fred Shaw; Bernard Dwyer; Maurice Lawson; Elsie Hoadley; Fred Wells; Michael Barley; Alan McGarvey; Christine Cox; Maurice Johnson; Tony Tuck; Samantha Heath; Bhavna Joshi; Leonie Cooper; Wendy Speck; Simon Hogg; Kate Stock; and Tony Belton.

QUEENSTOWN COUNCILLORS

Aydin Dikerdem, Maurice McLeod & Paula Walker

In May, tragedy struck the Doddington Estate, yet again as Brazilian delivery driver, Iderval da Silva, was murdered by youths trying to steal his motorbike.

The murder happened very close to where Ian Tomlins was killed just a few months earlier and residents were understandably upset. Queenstown Councillors were on the scene within hours of the murder to help police and reassure residents and we conducted a door-to-door canvas the next weekend to give residents an opportunity to share their concerns.

Following conversations with residents in the wake of Mr da Silva’s death, we embarked on a campaign to encourage the Council to put more community space on to the estate. There are a lot of young people on the estate who seem to have nowhere to go. The old community space under Arthur Court has been closed for years, following a series of leaks and the Queenstown Councillors are arguing that this space or something similar should be invested in and opened up for the benefit of the estate.

In the summer we held a listening exercise with residents, Labour Party members and community groups. This culminated in a fantastic event at All Saint’s Church to share ideas on how to improve our environment in Battersea, in line with Labour’s Green New Deal policy. These ideas have been incorporated in Labour’s participation in the Climate Emergency declaration and resulting action plan in Wandsworth.

In July, the Council opened a new building on the Savona Estate. Edward Foster Court was opened to great fanfare and will provide desperately needed social homes. Unfortunately, however, this property was still sitting empty at the end of the year. Only one family moved in just after Christmas and there had been some vandalism. Queenstown Councillors have been pursuing the Council for answers as to why it has taken so long to provide this much needed housing.

In August, all residents of Cromwell House had to be evacuated in the middle of the night after the contractors used the wrong paint! Queenstown Cllrs were on the scene the next day to help residents and support community volunteers, residents and council staff. We then demanded answers from the Council about the incident.

Following a campaign by Labour Cllrs and Marsha de Cordova, Black History Month came back to Wandsworth in October. The Council rebranded it as ‘Diversity Month’ but Labour argued that this diluted the focus on black communities. Battersea Labour held a very successful event in Broomwood Methodist Church with live performances, talks from Marsha de Cordova, cultural stalls and a panel of expert speakers.

In 2017, Wandsworth Council decided to install sprinklers in all of its tall buildings. The move would have seen the Council retrofit the sprinklers in a blanket approach and the borough’s 2600 leaseholders, including many on the Doddington Estate, would have picked up a £4k bill. Wandsworth Councillors supported residents in coming together to oppose these charges and to find legal representation. Just after Christmas after more than a year of legal wrangles, the First Tier Tribunal struck out the Council’s case. This has been a massive waste of residents’ time and money.

ST. MARY PARK COUNCILLOR

Emily Wintle

 Battersea Election 2019 Analysis

After a hard-fought battle, and one of the best campaigns in the country, despite a sad night for Labour, we were thrilled with the Battersea result. As well as the overall result, sampling at the count gives us a huge amount of data about how people voted across the constituency. These insights are incredibly helpful in understanding where the labour vote is and help shape future campaigning. A big

Turnout caveat is that this is “sampling” data and, while it is likely to be pretty accurate, it is not official data and therefore needs to be used with usual caution.

Overall, this was a high turnout election compared to 2017, with overall turnout at 76% compared to 71%. Projected turnout shows highest turnout in Northcote and Balham with lowest turnout in our Labour wards of Latchmere and Queenstown.

Result

Labour share was 46% of the overall vote and Conservative was 36%. Labour votes share was also 46% in 2017 and Conservative was 42%. Labour held on to its vote share with Conservatives losing votes to Lib Dem and Green.

Projected Result by Ward

Sampling data suggests that we won every ward, with the biggest majorities in our core Labour Wards of Latchmere and Queenstown, and with the slimmest win in Northcote. (The editor adds: Emily Wintle sat analysing the data during the count on the night of 12/12/19 and was asked to produce this overview report especially for Battersea Labour – and she has done a great job).

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Brighton

Sarah Apps, Lynne Jackson, Carole Maddern and Sonya Davis

Carole Maddern writes: Labour Conference is surprisingly gripping. There is no gentle snoozing. Even when the motions are sure to be passed overwhelmingly, the speeches are really interesting – from delegates across the UK, with all accents imaginable. There is a real feeling that people are talking from, often painful or inspiring, personal experience. So, speeches from rank-and-file trade union delegates bring home the reality of working-class life in Tory Britain.

Conference is fantastically diverse, with women in particular playing a central role in every debate. And the atmosphere is buzzing.

Sadly, the Deputy Leader’s speech had to be cancelled to make way for the Leader’s speech so that he could return to London and deal with the legal judgement against Parliament’s prorogation, which was announced in the middle of the Conference. In these circumstances, Jeremy Corbyn’s speech was inspiring, as ever.

Battersea’s motion – integrate private schools: Carole found it “a real privilege” to present Battersea’s motion – though when she agreed to do this, she had “no idea that she would be presenting to the whole conference ….”

The motion was wrongly presented in the media as a proposal to abolish private schools. In fact, however, it was actually to amalgamate private schools with state schools, pooling resources, and providing equal access for education to all children and young people.

Clause Four: The National Executive Committee proposed a review process of the aims and objectives of the Party (i.e. Clause 4 on membership cards). On that basis, the attempt to restore the old Clause Four was defeated, although about 60% of the Constituency Labour Party delegates supported this move.

National Constitutional Committee membership: the Battersea delegates voted for Stephen Marks, Gary Heather, and Jabran Hussain. All three were successful. Conference Arrangements Committee (Disabled Members Rep) – the Battersea delegates voted for Andy Thompson, who was sadly unsuccessful, defeated by Katrina Murray (nominated by USDAW and UNISON)

Democracy review: All the new detailed regulations for these sections were passed convincingly by conference. They should now be implemented in each CLP this year.

Brexit: From the vantage point of delegates in the hall, Composite 13, which sought to commit the Party to a “remain” position (i.e. even against a deal Labour had negotiated) was clearly lost on a show of hands. In fact, a card vote would have been wise on such a contentious issue, but that is all history now. The Battersea delegation voted for the NEC policy statement and Composite 14, both of which were overwhelmingly carried.

Green New Deal: All the media pundits were feverishly predicting splits and trade union backwardness but they were all disappointed as the motion on the Socialist Green New Deal was passed overwhelmingly by both CLP and Trade Union delegates. It commits the party to net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and a range of exciting policies to achieve these urgent priorities.

Immigration: The “controversial” motion on immigration, which promised to “maintain and extend free movement rights” and “Close all detention centres”, was in the event passed overwhelmingly by CLPs and Unions alike.

National Policy Forum document and references back: Some members may have witnessed the humiliating, televised chaos of the first voting session on various references back of sections of the NPF document as presented to Conference. Some CLPs are now really taking this right very seriously. Indeed, one CLP, Brighton Kemptown, moved dozens of them. Some references back from various branches were on substantive points of policy, while others were much more suggestions of improved drafting and emphasis.

On that first day, delegates were asked to vote on references back on individual paragraphs of a huge document, which had not been seen. It was all very confusing and the chair was as confused as were the delegates. It was all avoidable, moreover, as the next day the Conference Arrangements Committee document contained all the wordings of that day’s references back, allowing delegates to vote in a sensible fashion. This issue needs to be urgently looked at, as it eats up a huge amount of conference time. In fact, the whole National Policy Forum concept needs root-and-branch reform.

Trail, mail, water renationalisation; £1.8 billion for battery production factories; and the Green New Deal. Finally, Conference agreed on Labour’s strategy for stopping a no-deal Brexit – a policy that is now obsolete.

Obituaries

Samantha Louise Heath
6 June 1960 – 28 March 2019

By Sara Apps

Samantha Heath never reached five feet tall, but she was tall for her height and her impact on the environment immediately around her and for the whole of London was and is profound.

Samantha trained as a Civil Engineer at Heriot-Watt University – then as now a rare choice for a woman. After graduation, she worked for 10 years for Robert McAlpine Ltd and lectured at Greenwich University from 1992.

Alongside her University role, she developed her political career and her involvement in environmental issues. She was elected as a Wandsworth Councillor in 1994 and in 2000 was elected as one of 25 London Assembly Members.

Samantha played a significant role as both the Deputy Chair of the Assembly 2003-04 and also as the first Chair of the London Assembly Environment Committee 2000-04, pushing forward many of the strategies to deal with urgent issues with which London and other global cities are still grappling today.

Samantha also worked hard on ensuring that an Energy Strategy was developed that focused on renewable energy. She was instrumental in getting the London Energy Partnership off the ground – a body which brought together a range of private, public and academic representatives. She became its first chair when it was launched in 2004; and welded it into a dynamic force.

Samantha also chaired the London Sustainable Development Commission, where she was the Mayor’s representative on its Energy Taskforce. Here she was successful in seeing the GLA adopt a Carbon Emission Reduction Target, making London one of the first cities to adopt such a target.

Subsequently, Samantha became the Chief Executive of the London Sustainability Exchange, where she worked until 2018. LSx works with many local groups, particularly on air quality Citizen Science projects, leading local groups to demand further improvements in cleaning up London’s air.

Living with cancer for a number of years, Samantha was determined to get every last ounce out of life. Most people with secondary cancer would not dream of standing for the local council, but in 2018 Samantha threw everything she had at it and very nearly won.

To mark our admiration of Samantha, Battersea Labour Party donated two trees presented to her family at the moving memorial event, held at Battersea Arts Centre.

We continue to be inspired by Samantha, who set high standards for herself and for the Labour Party that she loved. We send our love to her son, Eliot; her partner David; her father Harvey Heath; her brothers and sister; and the wider family.

Samantha is much missed and cherished.

 Peter Taylor

4 February 1980 – 14 September 2019

By Martin Linton

We were all shocked and saddened to hear of the death of former Battersea Labour Party secretary Peter Taylor, at the age of 39.  He held various positions in Battersea and Wandsworth Labour parties. He was chair of the Wandsworth Local Campaigns Forum. He missed becoming a Wandsworth councillor by just 62 votes in Queenstown in 2014 – the year when we finally regained our first seat there.

But that doesn’t really do justice to the role Peter played in Battersea.  Every party has one or two members who are dedicated but naively idealistic and totally unrealistic.  As a counterweight every party needs someone like Peter who is deeply sceptical, almost to the point of cynicism, and brutally realistic. Peter was all of these, but was always able to clothe differences of opinion in a cocoon of humour. He had good political judgment, never carried away in fits of enthusiasm. He kept all our feet on the ground.

Rising rents in Battersea and missing out in the elections forced Peter to move to Croydon – like so many activists before him – which was a tragedy for us as well as for him as he could have (and in time would have) been an excellent councillor and given great service to his community.

At his funeral, there was a brilliant eulogy given by his contemporary Nigel Fletcher, now a Tory councillor in Greenwich, with whom he maintained a life-long friendship. It ranged across all of Peter’s many interests, debating, cricket, classical music, London Zoo, Australian politics and many more.

He was brought up on Hayling Island, near Portsmouth, and studied at the London School of Economics, where he was heavily engaged in student politics, serving for a time on the National Union of Students executive, leading on to a career as a student union and university administrator, working for an eclectic range of organisations from Battersea’s Royal Academy of Dance to the General Dental Council.

I passed on written tributes from people who could not attend. “He had such a brilliant, and thoughtful, sense of humour,” – Rex Osborn. “A wryly witty person of great kindness. We’ll miss his jokes and his commitment.” – Penny Corfield. “Peter was a giant of a man – intellectual, interesting and incredibly thoughtful – held back, in the 15 years I knew him, by health issues and money worries. He was the best councillor (and indeed, council leader) we never had.” – Will Martindale. (The editor adds: And Peter was an efficient Secretary of Battersea Labour Party.)

These tributes would be echoed by the many councillors and party members from Battersea and other parts of Wandsworth who came to Portsmouth for the funeral

Danny Truell

Born 1963 – d. 29 September 2019

By Will Martindale

A Labour member throughout his life, including many years here in Battersea, Danny Truell died in September 2019, aged 55.

Some would say that Danny was atypical for a Labour activist. Danny was a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, Chief Investment Officer of the Wellcome Trust, and the founder of a multi-billion dollar insurance fund.

But even if Danny did see the contradiction, he didn’t care. He wanted good, efficient, radical Labour government. “Go digital”, Danny said at a Labour meeting in the basement office of 177 Lavender Hill. “Be the first fully digital council”. This was in 2006, years before councils did indeed go digital.

That’s not to say that Danny would shy away from who he was. A rich banker, with a privileged upbringing. But Labour was his party. And when the Party asked for his help, Danny would say yes (and very generously, Ed.).

Danny wasn’t flash. His ground-floor flat in Clapham Junction was nice, but not extraordinary. He enjoyed the sunshine, sitting in his south west-facing garden, with a glass of wine, a strong cigar, and a point to make.

Later in his life, the glass of wine would be balanced precariously in an increasingly shaking hand.  As his health deteriorated, Danny coasted through the living room holding table to chair to door handle in the manner of a child learning to walk. He was fragile. Diminutive even. But once seated, his mind would whir, with talk of closed-door meetings with Cameron or Putin. Danny chaired the powerful B20 investment group, the business equivalent to the G20.

Danny was not just good at his job, but the best. Danny was a winner. And he wanted his party – the Labour Party – to win too.

DONATIONS IN 2019:

Finally, Battersea Labour Party expresses warm thanks to all members for their subscriptions and to the following for their additional financial support:  Joseph Afrane, Samuel Albert Amoako, Sara Apps, Elizabeth Barnard, Susan Barty, Tony Belton, Diana Birkett, Brian Cairns, Chris Callaghan, Elizabeth Carboni, Richard Card, Alan Cooper, Penelope Corfield, Emma Cornish, the estate of Priscilla Cornwall-Jones, John Cox, Aydin Dickerdem, Maureen Docherty, Ed Elliott, David Fairbairn, Deidre Feehan, David Franklin, Andy Gibbons, Richard Hatfield, Susan Hayday, Harvey Heath, Jon Hilary, Simon Hogg, Peter Holland, Lynne Jackson, Ian Jewesbury, Monash Kessler, Belinda & Sandy Kirby, Tom Kirk, Mr. Lewis, Martin Linton, David Lovell, Rob Lugg, John Lyons, Maurice McCleod, Sally Manders, P Marsh, Will McDonald, Brendan McMullen, Mark Mildred, A. P. Munsie, Toby Naish, Cynthia Newman, Wendy Nicolson, Sue Nye, Stoby Orotayo, John Oughton, Jenny Pardington, Fred Ponsonby, Margaret Post, Aaron Quinn, Sarah Rackham, David Rathbone, Gery Roberts, S Rossi, Donald Roy, Jenny Sheridan, Jonathan Smith, Kate Stock, Basil Strong, Derek Sutton, Rachel Trim, Tony Tuck, Unite, Barrie Vince, Paula Walker, Susan Watt, Prunella West, Timothy West, Cynthia Willis, Emily Wintle, Steve Worrall, Eleftherios Yannoulopoulus, Gulay Yurdal-Michaels, and, of course, Putney Labour Party.

MAKE A DONATION – EVERY LITTLE (OR LARGE) HELPS: 

All financial help given directly to Battersea Labour Party gives us invaluable extra scope for local campaigning.

Did you know that your annual Membership fees go the national Labour Party, which sends only 5% of the income back to the Battersea constituency. We are very dependent upon the 100 or so members, who contribute an average of £10 per month, on top of their membership fee. Our income from these quite small standing orders amounts to over £10,000 a year.

The snap election that took place in December, 2019, stretched our finances to the limits and we start the New Year in debt, by a few thousand pounds. We are hardly in a position to fight the GLA and the London Mayoral elections this coming May. Those elections will probably cost us £10,000 on top of our normal costs.

We really need to add to our income from standing orders. One hundred £10 per month contributions would transform our finances.

Please, go online NOW and start a monthly standing order to Co-operative Bank:-

Account Name: BLP Fundraising Account

Sort Code: 08-90-34

Account no: 50448065

Reference: Surname, initial

Or for hard copy of standing-order form, contact Treasurer: Tony Belton:

tonybelton99@gmail.com

Annual Report Editor (2019)     Tony Belton        Copyright © Battersea Labour Party