VOTE-RIGGING SCANDAL: 50 days have passed since the Labour Party admitted someone had been tampering with the personal details of around 500 members in Croydon. With the London elections next week, two figures at the centre of a live police investigation are now actively seeking voters’ support. By STEVEN DOWNES

It’s “business as usual” as far as Croydon Labour is concerned.

With polling day coming up next Thursday, two figures at the centre of a current police investigation into allegations of computer misuse have been out and about around the borough, trying to encourage the electorate to vote for their party.

Getting the vote out: Joel Bodmer and candidate Melanie Felten are central figures in the Labour vote-rigging scandal

Melanie Felten, the interim secretary of the under-investigation Croydon East Constituency Labour Party, is Labour’s candidate in the Park Hill and Whitgift council ward by-election.

Joel “Bodger” Bodmer was one of the candidates seeking selection to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Croydon East, only withdrawing from the contest after party officials admitted that the selection process had been undermined. Labour’s London Region halted selection proceedings in November 2023 because of complaints of election fraud, ballot-rigging and fixes going on with the CLP membership lists.

Yet this week, the two posed together for pictures while out leafleting unsuspecting members of the Croydon electorate in Park Hill and Whitgift.

Today is 50 days since Labour issued a statement in which they said that their own investigation had found “some of the personal details of Labour members in the Croydon East constituency were altered on the Labour Party membership database without authorisation”.

Lurking: Bodger was spotted at the back of a group pic in a Labour councillor’s tweet on Saturday

These very serious findings were followed soon after by the Metropolitan Police and the Information Commissioner confirming that they were both conducting their own investigations into the affair.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson has confirmed to Inside Croydon today that their investigation is still ongoing.

Yet despite repeated questions from the likes of political correspondent Michael Crick, Private Eye and Inside Croydon, after two months, the Labour Party has refused to say if anyone has been suspended or punished as a consequence of their own findings.

Could it be that Bodmer and Felten have been “cleared” of any part in the brewing scandal? Or is this the Labour Party that bankrupted Croydon now gas-lighting residents?

Certainly, “Bodger” was pretty much off all social media radar for a spell (perhaps one of “quiet reflection”?), after he issued his own little disingenuous statement on March 12, stating that he was withdrawing from the Croydon East selection process because, “I do not currently have the emotional energy required for this contest”.

Presumably now suitably re-charged, Bodmer is this week asking people to vote for the same party that in Croydon is being investigated by the police for trying to fix votes.

Bodger was first spotted in photos from a Fabians housing event in London last week. Chrishni Reshekaron, a Labour councillor in Croydon, tweeted the picture from the launch of a new Fabians pamphlet, Homes for London, without identifying Bodger in a group shot.

And Reshekaron was busy on social media again at the weekend, tweeting from West Thornton, and tagging London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan and Maddie Henson – “Mrs Anonyvoter” – the party’s London Assembly candidate for Croydon and Sutton. Bodmer cpould be seen lurking in the back of a group of activists.

On Monday night, Felten herself put out a jolly social media message, with group pictures showing Stuart King, the leader of the Labour group on Croydon Council, and Ben Taylor, Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Croydon South.

Describing her colleagues as “this amazing group”, the wannabe councillor wrote, “Connecting with residents, hearing personal, today a tragic experience about mental health – I am reminded again why I’m standing as a councillor.”

Bodmer, who is unidentified with any social media tag, appeared in only one image – standing alongside Labour’s by-election candidate.

“Maybe no one else wanted to be seen in a picture with him?” suggested one long-suffering Labour member. “You have to be sooo careful about the company you keep these days.”

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Read more: Scotland Yard’s cyber crime unit investigating Croydon Labour
Read more: Labour admits serious breach of private data in Croydon East
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection

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