In 2018 the local Labour Party chose its candidate for the next general election in the marginal seat of Worcester.
.... Mandy Richards, a then London-based former teacher and youth worker.
However it appears that someone hadn't done all their due diligence, as it emerged afterwards that Ms Richards had something of a colourful past in her dealings with governmental and other bodies, as well as some possibly controversial views.
She had allegedly challenged the evidence in the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, and she had also seemed to challenge the evidence for the Islamic terror attacks in both Westminster and Manchester in her Tweets. It then turned out that she has also been banned by the courts from bringing any further court actions without permission, after she had brought a number of what were described as "false and vexatious" claims against ... deep breath ...
.... MI5, MI6, The Metropolitan Police, her Electricity and Gas suppliers, her Internet broadband suppliers, The Royal Mail, Hackney Council, Her Doctor, Thames Water, plus her flats freeholder, amongst others. She was reported in the press as being the subject of 14 High Court orders in all, regarding the claims she made against a number of different government agencies. Ms Richards accused a number of the organisations of; putting her under surveillance, tampering with her car, bicycle and mail, breaking into her home, and failing to stop alleged attempts to poison her … In fact when asked in a Facebook thread if she had attempted to sue up to 20 organisations, she replied: "I asked them for the issues to be investigated. There was an inadequate response, hence the court action."
The Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) had to block her selection (They don't pre-vet local candidates since a change in party rules in 2005). A spokesperson said: "The NEC has not endorsed Mandy Richards as the Labour Party candidate for Worcester." .... Perhaps true to form, Ms Richards described herself as "disappointed" by the NEC's decision. "It is unfortunate that the misrepresentation of the circumstances leading up to my selection were allowed to gain traction." She gave a fuller explanation of her side of all this, in a statement to the Worcester News ... it does far, far, better than I ever could, in representing her claims, and explaining her position.
In point of fact, Labours current candidate selection processes with no NEC vetting kind of invite issues with the potential candidates. Two week after Ms Richards was dropped as a candidate, than the NEC also had to drop Ms Tara-Mary Lyons as the newly selected parliamentary candidate for the key target seat of Welwyn Hatfield .... this time the reason was allegedly large unpaid business debts run up in her two failed companies, and owing an alleged £480,000 to HM Revenue and Customs, as well as allegedly owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to her former suppliers and former staff.
She was still a serving Labour borough councillor, but was reported as having five outstanding county court judgments personally against her, totalling nearly £21,000 .... Oh, and she also had some social media issues with her views and language.
It seems that the two lessons from these episodes are that Labour needs to tweak its parliamentary candidate list procedures, and that everyone who wants to be a candidate, should remember that social media really is a double edged sword .....
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| The Best Candidate? |
.... Mandy Richards, a then London-based former teacher and youth worker.
However it appears that someone hadn't done all their due diligence, as it emerged afterwards that Ms Richards had something of a colourful past in her dealings with governmental and other bodies, as well as some possibly controversial views.
She had allegedly challenged the evidence in the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, and she had also seemed to challenge the evidence for the Islamic terror attacks in both Westminster and Manchester in her Tweets. It then turned out that she has also been banned by the courts from bringing any further court actions without permission, after she had brought a number of what were described as "false and vexatious" claims against ... deep breath ...
.... MI5, MI6, The Metropolitan Police, her Electricity and Gas suppliers, her Internet broadband suppliers, The Royal Mail, Hackney Council, Her Doctor, Thames Water, plus her flats freeholder, amongst others. She was reported in the press as being the subject of 14 High Court orders in all, regarding the claims she made against a number of different government agencies. Ms Richards accused a number of the organisations of; putting her under surveillance, tampering with her car, bicycle and mail, breaking into her home, and failing to stop alleged attempts to poison her … In fact when asked in a Facebook thread if she had attempted to sue up to 20 organisations, she replied: "I asked them for the issues to be investigated. There was an inadequate response, hence the court action."
The Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) had to block her selection (They don't pre-vet local candidates since a change in party rules in 2005). A spokesperson said: "The NEC has not endorsed Mandy Richards as the Labour Party candidate for Worcester." .... Perhaps true to form, Ms Richards described herself as "disappointed" by the NEC's decision. "It is unfortunate that the misrepresentation of the circumstances leading up to my selection were allowed to gain traction." She gave a fuller explanation of her side of all this, in a statement to the Worcester News ... it does far, far, better than I ever could, in representing her claims, and explaining her position.
In point of fact, Labours current candidate selection processes with no NEC vetting kind of invite issues with the potential candidates. Two week after Ms Richards was dropped as a candidate, than the NEC also had to drop Ms Tara-Mary Lyons as the newly selected parliamentary candidate for the key target seat of Welwyn Hatfield .... this time the reason was allegedly large unpaid business debts run up in her two failed companies, and owing an alleged £480,000 to HM Revenue and Customs, as well as allegedly owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to her former suppliers and former staff.
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| Borough Councillor, Labours Tara-Mary Lyons |
She was still a serving Labour borough councillor, but was reported as having five outstanding county court judgments personally against her, totalling nearly £21,000 .... Oh, and she also had some social media issues with her views and language.
It seems that the two lessons from these episodes are that Labour needs to tweak its parliamentary candidate list procedures, and that everyone who wants to be a candidate, should remember that social media really is a double edged sword .....
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