PART 4

The sources for this are numerous and are to be viewed as allegations, anecdote, observations,rumour, historical memory/fact and written evidence supplied.

We are told that the first the whole of Eastbury ward knew there was something wrong was when they got a letter inviting them to an Extraordinary General Meeting.

It seems that they were told that a few days after the ward secretary had sent over to the Barking CLP secretary Laila Butt the new positions in the ward and the nominations for positions within the party there was a phone call from Rob Chapman from London Region, he stated that he had received a couple of complaints from ward members that they had not received notice of the wards AGM.

The ward secretary informed the members that she had asked Chapman who had made the complaints he claimed he could not find the email but one of the names was Mr Riaz.

The ward secretary they were told stated to Chapman that all ward members had received the notice, and even emailed him a copy of the label list used for the envelopes, but, Chapman was having none of it he said that he would advise Ken Clark that the AGM should be re-run.

Jim McDermott the Chair told the meeting that in a conversation with the secretary he asked her to check with all members to see if they had received the notice.

Ward Secretary reported that she had managed to contact majority of ward members who told her that they had received the notice, but, there were 4 or 5 who had a bigger story to tell. Ward Secretary reported this to Chair and it was agreed that the secretary would visit these members and take statements from them.

The first member visited was perhaps the most telling, and gave a pretty good idea of what was to come next.

It was reported to the EGM that the visit was made to the address at which Mr Riaz had allegedly moved to, the male resident was a party member and was very happy to make a written statement and to sign it.

He told that back in the beginning of December he got a telephone call from Mr Riaz, who told him that he was having problems with his wife and needed to have a new postal address and would Mr.....mind if he used his? Mr.......said that would be OK, and in fact said that Mr Riaz actually stayed at his house for a night. He did not know Mr Riaz had moved his party membership to his address.

Mr .....statement which was read out to the members then went on to say that some 2 or 3 months later he had a telephone call from Mr Riaz asking if he could use Mr.........home address on the electoral register, Mr.....said that he knew this would be wrong and he refused.

Mr......confirmed that he had received the notice for the AGM.

Another ward members statement was read out Mr B stated that Mr Riaz had knocked on his door and asked him if he received any letters or notices from the ward? Mr A said that he did, Mr Riaz then asked him to sign a piece of paper to confirm this.

Mr A said that being an elderly gentleman he got worried about this, so the next day he made a visit to North Street to find out if it was genuine. He said he was spoken to by a young man with glasses who told him that yes it was genuine and that Mr Riaz worked as part of M Hodge team and was an incredibly busy member of Eastbury ward.

The ward members who were listening to this all said they were very surprised at this as none of them until just recently had heard or seen Mr Riaz.

But, we know that this gets better.

This comes from numerous sources and is to be viewed as allegations, rumour, anecdote, observations, historical memory/fact and in this case written evidence.