BIRMINGHAM LABOUR AT WAR - PART 2

24-03-2007

The Labour supporter threatening to take his own party to court insists there's nothing personal in what he's doing - he says he's just fighting for the interests of democracy.

Sewa Singh Mandla, the chairman of Birmingham's Council of Sikh Gurdwaras is threatening legal action in a bid to force Handsworth Wood councillor Cllr Paulette Hamilton to face a re-selection battle .

More than 80 members' signatures were collected, which would normally be enough to trigger an election but as we reported in February (see the article here) the West Midlands Regional Labour Party refused to sanction a ballot on the basis that Hamilton was the victim of an orchestrated campaign against her.

Mandla denies that and says, “there has been no attempt to de-select her. It's a question of having a democratic election.”

He described the regional party's allegations that some of those who'd signed the petition were misled as a “load of rubbish”.

And as for Paulette Hamilton's claim that the campaign was racially motivated (see yesterday's story here) Mandla said it was - but blamed the councillor making it so.

“She's driving a wedge between the communities, and we've been trying long and hard to create social cohesion.”