The final ward to declare its result in last Thursday’s local elections in Birmingham was Glebe Farm and Tile Cross. At stake were two council seats.
The Labour leader of Birmingham Council, John Cotton, was ousted. The two new councillors were Jess Ankrett (Reform UK) and Shehryar Kayani (Workers Party of Britain.)
It was close. There were two recounts on Saturday (no change announced) but on Monday (it is said) seven new ballots were discovered. Rumour had it that the margin between Kayani and Cotton was only six votes and the extra seven were all for Labour and would have returned Cotton. Here is the controversial former diplomat Craig Murray jumping on the bandwagon:
A Birmingham seat is being recounted for the third time.
The Workers Party won the first count by 6 votes. They won the second count by 6 votes.
Then the Returning Officer - who is of course an employee of Labour run Birmingham City Council - “Found” seven Labour votes that had gone astray.
Here is former Labour MP and now Workers Party leader George Galloway furiously responding to the allegation by “Losrafascartel”:
If we are cheated of this famous victory Legal Action will follow immediately @WorkersPartyGB
But the official return shows that although there was (ultimately, if not before the recounts) a six-vote gap it was between Kayani of the Workers Party and (third in the list) Satnam Tank of Reform. Had the new seven ballots all been for one or both Labour candidates it would not have made the slightest difference to the outcome:
It’s not been established who asked for the recount, but given the results it could easily have been on behalf of Reform.
These are feverish times. As I write we still don’t know whether the Prime Minister himself will stay or go.
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