Having been caught red-handed indulging in the crime of treating – supplying free food and drink to voters to influence their vote – Jack Straw is planning to do it again this evening.
Treating is a criminal offence for which the maximum sentence is a year in prison. As a corrupt electoral practice, it also carries disbarment for life from both the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Straw has already flagrantly broken this law in an election rally at Jan’s Conference Centre on 25 April. Several hundred Blackburn Muslims were given free meals at a vote Jack Straw rally.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/04/jack_straw_face.html#comments
Blackburn police have told me this morning that they now have dealt with this by merely issuing a formal warning to Jack Straw’s election agent not to do it again. That is completely insufficient when Straw did exactly the same thing, at the same venue, with the same main speakers and the same food, five years ago, and was then given an official warning not to do it again.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/06/jack_straw_shou_1.html
It is beyond argument that nobody but a New Labour minister in a rotten borough like Blackburn would be able blatantly and repeatedly to flaunt the law of the land in this way without any consequences. I am now putting in a formal complaint to the IPCC about Blackburn Police.
Straw is however frantic as it looks increasingly unlikely he will hold his seat. A Gujerati constituent of Straw explained to me this morning that, in their culture, if they eat your food they are morally obliged to vote for you. He jokingly compared it to “tasting the salt” in the days of the Raj. A large gathering of Gujerati voters has therefore been organised by New Labour for this evening, at Lord Adam “Postman” Patel’s factory on Randall Street, where Straw will address the assembled diners. The plan is that, by issuing invitations by word of mouth through the Gujerati community, and holding the meeting on private premises with food provided by Lord Patel, they can get round the treating laws.
In fact this does not wash at all. The treating law says the candidate’s campaign may not “directly or indirectly” provide food and drink, while Lord Postman Patel, a New Labour enforcer ennobled for his creative approach to the organisation of postal votes, can scarcely claim not to be part of the campaign. He was on the stage making “vote Jack Straw” speeches in the treating spectaculars at Jan’s Conference Centre both last week and in 2005.
I have so far 16 volunteers from inside the Gujerati community who will infiltrate the event and let me know if treating has taken place, and gather evidence. This is interesting, because my friend who told me that eating the meal more or less obliges you to support the candidate, tells me also that it would be a great scandal and lose votes for Straw to invite all these people for a meal, and then just give the speeches instead.
Why is Straw so frantic? My mole tells me that New Labour’s canvass returns for Audley Ward show Straw in third place. This is normally his second strongest ward.
Exciting! Keep it up, Craig!
Will you be having a presence outside as well as inside the event?
Have you thought about raising funds for a private prosecution?
Might be worth contacting the Public Law Project, I’m sure they’d be interested and would be the cheapest option.
http://www.publiclawproject.org.uk/index.html
Oh the joy on my face when he loses his seat… I’d better stock up on red wine for election night.
Straw had better practice keeping a stoic face on hearing that he has been defeated. I would advise him to see videos of Chris Patten in 1992 and Gerald Ford in 1976.
Don’t worry. After you vote the police will start enforcing the law.
/Laughs/
Should Straw lose his seat it is no guarantee that he will cease to serve in the government. Remind me again which constituency Peter Mandelson represents.
Michael Portillo, 1997.
There’s a link to some of your comments on Straw and treating in the post “who does the wolf love?” at http://freecommonwealth.blogspot.com/
Other bloggers may wish to link and comment on their blogs, if they haven’t already done so.
Vronsky
I remember that when Chris Patten lost he got a super consolation prize – governor-general of Hong Kong, feathered hat, twice the salary, the works. But the Tories had managed to scrape back into power. I don’t see Brown forming the next government, unless Nulab just beats the Tories in numbers of seats, and Clegg does a deal with them to get some share of power. If it happens (and it could, IMO) I wonder what consolation prize would be offered Straw. Here’s a guess – governor-general of Tristan da Cunha!
Why not begin a private prosecution?
I see that Phil Riley (election agent to Jack Straw) has put his views on this on the Blackburn Labour Party website:
http://wordpress.blackburnlabour.org/2010/05/grinding-his-axe-yet-more-sour-grapes-from-craig-murray/comment-page-1/#comment-51
Remember Staw’s statement during the Chilcot enquiry to Sir Michael Wood that he had “often been advised things were unlawful and gone ahead anyway and won in the courts” when he was home secretary.
Dear Craig
You have a mole.
Well done.
Soon you can form an intelligence service and get government contracts.
I would love to see Jack Straw lose the Blackburn seat.
Keep plugging away at it.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Reason:
Hey, that’s a good one – claim that any people at the banquet who were not party members were gate-crashers! I hadn’t thought of that.
“Should Straw lose his seat it is no guarantee that he will cease to serve in the government. Remind me again which constituency Peter Mandelson represents.”
In a previous post Craig claimed that the offence of treating sees offenders banned from both Houses of parliament, which would almost certainly end his government career.
If I were Jack Straw, I could also now claim that any people eating my curry were moles planted by disgruntled former government employees. It seems to me that the only way you’ll see Jack Straw slung out is if the voters do it.
“Should Straw lose his seat…”
Oh, you mean should he be beaten in the election.
Should this title be
Jack Straw Plans More Criminal Tricking and Treating
??
Go for it Craig.
Small pedantic point: it’s “flout” the law, not “flaunt”.
Don’t worry: Ted Heath famously made the same mistake if I remember correctly.
The Judge,
surely “Flout” and “Flaunt” both apply in the case of the Minister for Justice…
What a crock of SXXT. I said it before nothing would happen, it was a guess though and I was hoping that due to your profile the matter would be treated harshly. I cannot see the Police complaints changing that decision…can you? I admire your determination. Vote on past performance maybe? I cannot fathom why a muslim would vote for Straw,, trojan horse.
What happened to that DT journalist that was sniffing around?
Would have thought the DT would be interested in embarrassing Straw/NuLab.
Jack Straw… where to start, that’s the question? A great pile of bales of straw with Jack at the top perhaps as the main course? Now, that, I would argue, would be a real treat for so many of us. Jack Staw teated fairly at last; basted, trussed up and tasted.
Phil Riley invokes Bushra for doing the same, so everybody is at it huh?
Mr M @ 4:56
Craig mentioned in an earlier post that Bushra Irfan never did serve any food after being advised it would not be legal.
Phil Riley has no leg to stand on, as Bushra has not been doing it. She merely forgot to take it off her website due to the illness of her IT man who updates the website. She did not feed anybody once the election was called.
I’m living proof of that I must have lost at least a stone in a month.
Phil Riley has been warned by the police, he claims that this would anull the affidavit, this is not true, its stands in his own right.
We are off in a minute to see what he is doing, we know that food is being prepared and that the initial place was a dud, we know more than we will let anybody to believe and will have the evidence as it comes in.
Once the evidence is with us, we shall put it on to u-tube.
Hear hear, to the suggestion of a private prosecution!
Hey Ingo. It’s OK for Bushra to feed you. You are not a voter. Get stuck in to a plate of curry.
I am sure he is not the only one. In fact I think I witnessed a version of the same today by another MP. But how serious is this, I’d appreciate a reply by e mail.
It should be understood that the Lord “Postman” Patel here referred to is not the late and better know (Lord) Postman Patel of Patel Towers, whose views on Jack Straw were quite different from those of his undistinguished namesake:
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2008/06/war-criminal-jack-straw-and.html