The Labour party in Tameside, Greater Manchester, has been accused by opponents of introducing fake ‘independent’ candidates in this month’s local elections.
The veracity of these single-source claims could not be confirmed at the time of writing. However, if proven to be true, the scheme seems intent on splitting the vote of former Labour supporters. They left the party in protest of Starmer’s backing of Israel, perceived disregard of human rights, and its war on people in poverty.
Splitting the vote
The scheme, as reported by the Manchester Mill, is said to have been cooked up by a local Labour councillor. They reported that he had confided in whistleblower Philip Wilson-Marks at a boozy party hosted by Labour MP Angela Rayner. Moreover, the councillor had raised the idea before, Wilson-Marks said:
This idea remained important to Vimal. It was central to his tactics.
With less than a week to go until the elections, Labour is accused of putting the alleged scheme into practice, with one white and one Asian Muslim ‘Trojan horse’ — Marie Fairhurst and Muhammad Ali.
three other councillors have come out in supported of these allegations, as named by the Manchester Mill:
- Liam Billington, Tory councillor
- Kaleel Khan, independent councillor
- Ahmed Mahmood, independent candidate
The accusers say that Labour is trying to benefit its own candidate, Atta Ul-Rasool, a Rayner protégé. If true, such behaviour, according to guidelines published by the Electoral Commission, constitutes a serious case of electoral fraud — a criminal offense. According to local publication manchestermill:
It’s difficult to find any information about either of them. Neither has an online presence, and no one I speak to in the ward has seen them engaging in typical campaign activity, such as handing out flyers, door-knocking or putting up posters. There have been no social media posts or press engagements since their names were announced on April 10th. Neither appear to be active members of the community — nor does Fairhurst seem to live in it.
…a constituent could reasonably assume that Fairhurst and Ali are just two local people throwing their hats into the ring, trying to improve one of Tameside’s most hardened wards.
But politics in St Peter’s is widely viewed through two lenses: The war in Gaza, and Tameside Labour’s recent scandals (among them, Angela Rayner’s resignation as Deputy PM, and the ‘Trigger me Timbers’ WhatsApp group). Both look unkindly on Labour, the borough’s governing party.
If they even exist, do they even know their names are on election papers?
Old trick, new names
The invention of fictitious candidates to split votes is an old trick.
In the 2024 general election, ‘Reform UK’ fielded a number of ‘ghost’ candidates that divided the Tory vote in seats that Labour consequently won.
No one has been prosecuted and the exact number of ‘ghosts’ is unclear. However, Starmer’s 2024 majority was 86 seats. Reform came second in 89 seats won by Labour. This enabled Starmer to ‘win’ a ‘landslide’. Yet he received considerably fewer votes than Corbyn achieved in either 2017 or the ‘disaster’ 2019 general election.
The truth of the allegations may take a police investigation to establish. But the St Peter’s ward has five candidates on the ballot paper for the May 2026 general elections. Three of them are ‘independents’ when only one of them may actually be independent.
Labour’s desperation in the face of the Polanski Green surge has already seen party bosses and their allies mount smear campaigns. They aim to nobble or remove Green candidates that threaten its hold. If the allegations are true, the Starmer regime is also targeting independents. It may not just be in Tameside.
Featured image via the Manchester Mill
By Skwawkbox
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