The longer it takes Ed Miliband to publish Labour’s report into the Falkirk vote-rigging scandal, the more his authority dwindles.
How can it not? The issue, once simply a worrying tale of suspected corruption, intimidation and electoral malpractice looks as if it has turned into something far more sinister. It’s beginning to look like a cover up. And the longer the row drags on, the more ‘party sources’ insist it’s all just a little local difficulty, the more people will wonder what exactly the Labour Party is trying to hide. And who exactly it is trying to protect.
In the background, but still looming large, is Ed Miliband’s promise to reform Labour’s relationship with the trade union movement. To discard old politics and old elites; to create “a politics that is open, transparent and trusted.” Fine words. But with the Falkirk mess unresolved, and Labour’s apparently half-hearted investigation unpublished, the idea of reform is frankly laughable.
Party members like me have no choice but to put our trust in Ed Miliband. But unless he gives us the opportunity to know the truth about Falkirk, how can we be certain that the process of selecting Labour candidates is open, fair and honest? That the same practices that have been alleged in Falkirk aren’t happening elsewhere? And how can Ed Miliband claim he’s taking on vested interests on behalf of the people of Britain when he can’t, or won’t, even take them on on behalf of his own members? The whiff of corruption is beginning to turn into a stink.
As Ed Miliband himself has acknowledged: “the reason…Falkirk is so damaging is because it comes against growing mistrust in politics. People thinking politicians are in in for themselves. Not to be trusted. Not to be believed. And every time something like Falkirk happens, it confirms people’s worst suspicions.”
Ed Miliband is a decent, honourable man. But until he answers the hard questions about Falkirk, publishes his report and damns the consequences – whatever that report says and whoever it damages – I’m afraid he’s confirming them himself.
Kath Raymond Hinton 