Butt is Going Nowhere

Martin Francis has been posting a series of posts about the forthcoming Labour Group AGM. Ironically, these serve to underline the irrelevance of the kind of anti-Labour politics Martin represents.

One of the more curious features of Martin's posts is the idea that Cllr Muhammed Butt is about to be offered a post outside Brent.  These suggestions appear to emanate from those close to Cllr Butt.  For instance, here Martin suggests that Cllr Butt could be the Labour candidate in the Tooting by election. He says the suggestion comes from "Butt's relatives", which is interesting if true

Tooting By election
The by election shortlist has been drawn up and of course Cllr Butt is not on it.  Anyone who thought such an idea was a runner has little idea of how difficult it is to be selected as a parliamentary candidate in the Labour Party.  The Tooting election is likely to be difficult, and Cllr Butt simply doesn't have the skills necessary.  This was so even before he was forced to apologise and then resign over Equalities issues.  

Sadiq Khan
Martin has also been suggesting that Sadiq Khan might want to offer Cllr Muhammed Butt some sort of role.  Again, this seems pretty far fetched.  Sadiq Khan has run a professional campaign to get elected, and I expect he will operate in office in the same way.  That means vetting any applicants for jobs.  Both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson were embarrassed by their failure to do this adequately.

It would be very hard for such vetting not to notice Cllr Muhammed Butt's various appearances in Private Eye.  Even if it did the London Labour Party has been forced to intervene in Brent Labour Group over the attempt to suppress Group elections,  the attempt to dictate policy on Council Tax rises, attempts to alter Labour Party rules without notification, claims that the Regional Director had approved rule changes when he hadn't, attempts to force by elections under the six month rule, and so on.

Possibly, Martin may have just contributed further to the reputational damage that Cllr Butt has suffered from the Rosemarie Clark racist bullying scandal, and the very odd goings on about the recent Planning Committee meetings on outline applications in Wembley.

Sadiq Khan strikes me as far too canny a politician to appoint some one who simply generates scandals and rumours all the time, and that is what Muhammed Butt does not seem able to stop himself from doing.