Croydon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The Croydon East selection fraud case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, intensifying scrutiny over alleged malpractice in the process.
The Crown Prosecution Service has received a dossier from the Metropolitan Police about the alleged criminal attempt by certain Croydon Labour figures to rig the parliamentary selection in Croydon East, according to a report published this morning by the Daily Torygraph.
It detailed the events that prompted the Met to begin an investigation into the use of suspicious email accounts and the Anonyvoter voting system in late 2023 and early the following spring. Party members ultimately chose Natasha Irons, who was elected as the first Member of Parliament for the new constituency in July of last year.
However, that was only after Joel “Bodger” Bodmer, another contender, left the race for selection after the Old Bill appeared.
Former Croydon councillor Carole Bonner, one of the Newman Numpties who led the council from 2014 to 2018, has now disappeared from all WhatsApp groups and local party events. Bonner was chosen by Labour’s London region to serve as the Croydon East CLP’s acting chair at the time.
Melanie Felton, a lawyer, was just “selected” to run for South Norwood council in the next municipal elections. Felton served as the CLP secretary for Croydon East when the purported vote-rigging occurred.
Mark Henson, a co-director of the business that provided the Labour Party with the Anonyvoter voting technology, was the CLP’s treasurer at the time and was also chosen by the London region.
The Labour Party has acknowledged that there was vote-rigging, but the Met has not brought any charges against anyone. In actuality, Labour informed the Information Commissioner’s Office about the data breaches. Additionally, Labour acknowledged in March 2023 that an attempt at electoral fraud had been made in Croydon East, according to an internal inquiry conducted by party officials.
There is no assurance that the CPS will concur that someone should be prosecuted with a crime after Scotland Yard’s cyber crime squad conducts a protracted investigation.
However, this CPS development is just the most recent chapter in a lengthy story of prominent Labour Party members in Croydon breaching the law.
Investigative writer Paul Holden’s latest book, The Fraud, which is scheduled for release next month, painstakingly details the latter incident.
The alarming claims in the book are believed to have caused Paul Ovenden, Starmer’s director of political strategy, to leave two weeks ago after it was revealed that he had exchanged improper and sexually explicit messages regarding MP Diane Abbott.
On the eve of the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool, today’s Torygraph piece focuses on Pearleen Sangha, who was Labour’s London area director in 2023–2024 and is currently Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s business adviser.
Two years ago, this put Sangha in a theoretical position to oversee the Croydon East parliamentary selection. Or “involved in a criminal investigation over alleged vote-rigging,” as Torygraph would put it.
The Torygraph reports: “The Treasury declined to say whether [Chancellor] Ms Reeves was aware that Ms Sangha had overseen a selection subject to a live criminal investigation before she got the job.”
That Sangha was not involved in the alleged misconduct and was not a focus of the Met’s investigations is admitted in the seventh paragraph of the report:
“There is no suggestion Ms Sangha is personally being investigated by police, but, as the party’s regional director, she was in charge of overseeing the selection process.”
A piece of software called Anonyvoter is utilized for online voting.
When Starmer appointed David Evans as Labour General Secretary, the former councillor and prominent member of Croydon Labour secured the adoption of Anonyvoter for use in all party selections. Evans accomplished this without ever entering a competitive bidding process.
Henson IT Solutions Ltd., owned and operated by Mark and Maddie Henson of Addiscombe, is the company behind Anonyvoter. The CLP treasurer at the time of the Croydon East selections was that same Mark Henson.
A Newman Numpty, Maddie Henson has served as a councillor for the present Addiscombe East ward since 2014.
Anonyvoter is a perfect tool for any evil figure looking to sway a vote’s outcome because of its obvious and obvious weaknesses in how it has been used over the last few years. Almost all of Labour’s choices for parliamentary candidates who ran in the July 2024 General Election used anonymity.
Local party officials who use Anonyvoter to manage the selection process no high-flyers from the London region are required can easily add votes, even throughout the process or after the poll’s declared conclusion. They are able to see who has and has not cast a ballot.
It was noteworthy that the precise number of votes cast was never disclosed in a number of parliamentary selections, including Croydon East.
As the Torygraph accurately reports today:
“It triggered a wave of allegations that the selection process had been stitched up in favour of a particular candidate.”
The newspaper reports:
“A CPS spokesman said: ‘We have received a file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police Service in relation to the Labour Party selection process for a candidate to represent the Croydon East constituency’.”
And:
“A Met spokesman said: ‘We have received allegations of computer misuse in relation to an internal selection process for a political party in Croydon during October and November 2023. The Met’s cybercrime team are investigating, and inquiries are ongoing’.”
It is, of course, entirely possible that the CPS decides not to pursue any charges over the Croydon East attempted criminal stitch-up.
Keir Starmer is a former Director of Public Prosecutions.
How this may affect Croydon East’s sitting MP and local party?
The ongoing criminal investigation and CPS case has highlighted serious ethical and legal breaches within Croydon East’s Labour Party, which undermine public confidence and create perceptions of internal dysfunction and corruption.
Sitting MP Rowenna Davis is now more under scrutiny and political pressure as a result of the scandal. Although there are no specific accusations against the MP in question, the scandal will harm her reputation, and make her re-election more complex.
The Labour Party in Croydon has been marred by significant internal unrest, including the subsequent deselection of experienced local councillors and distrust between regional/national Labour officials and local party members.