Criminal Charges Erupt For Starmer; Media Still Fixated On Mandelson

While Westminster chases Mandelson for sport, Labour is sitting on a live criminal case over the internal route to choosing one of its own MPs. Right, so Keir Starmer’s having a bad one, but if you’re sick to back teeth of Mandelson dominating every single news cycle ad nauseum, then you’ll be pleased to know that so am I, but not only that, there is frankly a much more damaging story going incredibly poorly reported right now, because frankly the Mandelson stuff is just easier and our5 mainstream journalists might pull a muscle if they actually attempted the real thing. You see four Labour figures have now been charged after a Metropolitan Police cybercrime investigation into allegations that a Labour Party database was manipulated to increase one particular candidate’s chances of selection in Croydon. Joel Bodmer, Shila Bodmer, Carole Bonner and Gabriel Leroy are all due in court now on 19 May in connection with that, and Bodmer faces an extra charge of perverting the course of justice over alleged phone-record alteration. That is a live criminal case now, over how the local Labour Party attempted to choose a likely future MP and amid all the stories and allegations surrounding Starmerroid attempts to rig selections and ensure only the most Starmery of people could ever get selected to stand for his party, this one stands out for all the wrong reasons and if Keir Starmer’s whole sales pitch was that he cleaned Labour up, restored discipline, restored standards and put adults back in charge, then this is not a scratch on the paintwork. This is the bonnet up, smoke coming out, and the cowboy mechanic currently scratching his arse and tutting is still trying to convince you the engine sounds fine. Croydon East is where all of this has taken place. It was a new constituency for the 2024 general election and Labour was strongly placed there, as you would imagine they would be, south London, which means the internal selection was never just a bit of party admin, it was the gate through which a likely MP was going to pass. Natasha Irons was later selected after the process was rerun and she has been the MP for Croydon East since that election, Labour of course very much as predicated won it.