EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Under scrutiny: Unmesh Desai, investigated by the police, suspended by Labour
Unmesh Desai, the London Assembly Member for The City and East London, has been suspended by the Labour Party following what was initially reported as “a police investigation into a serious allegation”.
A spokesperson for the Labour group at City Hall told Inside Croydon: “We can confirm we have withdrawn the whip from Assembly Member Desai due to an ongoing police investigation. We won’t be making any further comments on the matter while the investigation continues.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that as at this morning, Desai has not been charged with any offence, but they refused to comment further.
As well as his role as an Assembly Member scrutinising the work of the Mayor of London, Desai had been Labour’s London Assembly spokesperson on… policing and crime.
Desai, a lawyer by profession specialising in human rights, has been an Assembly Member for the City Hall superconstituency of Barking and Dagenham, City of London, Newham and Tower Hamlets since 2016, having previously been a borough councillor in Newham from 1998.
He continues to sit as a London Assembly Member, with a public-funded salary of £64,331, but as an independent. At least, that is, as long as the police investigation and his Labour Party suspension lasts.
Police inquiry: Desai, here with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, was Labour’s Assembly spokesperson on policing and crime
Desai did not respond to Inside Croydon’s request for comment.
Sources at City Hall today say the matter is shrouded in secrecy. “Labour have closed ranks. Nothing is coming out.”
Most curious of all, however, is the total lack of reporting of what is potentially a significant City Hall matter by any London media – whether BBC London, ITV London, the website of the weekly Sub-Standard, or any of the plethora of recently launched capital-based websites.
It’s almost as if there’s an effort to enforce a news black-out on the matter.
Inside Croydon has obtained a message sent yesterday to Labour’s London MPs by the Parliamentary Labour Party: “Hi everyone, you may have heard the news that London Assembly Member Unmesh Desai has been suspended from the Labour Party following a police investigation.
“If you are approached by any journalists please could you direct them to myself or Patrick Moule please. We do not comment on any issues while investigations are taking place. Thanks in advance for your co-operation.”
Patrick Moule is head of communications for Labour’s London region.
The note was signed off by “Aline”, meaning Aline Delawa, also known as Baroness Evans of Penge – the wife of the recently ennobled David Evans, until recently the Secretary General of the Labour Party and one-time mover and shaker in Croydon politics.
Suspended: Tony Newman
Delawa is Labour’s London region director, it is believed while Pearleen Sangha is on maternity leave.
It is Labour’s London region that oversaw the dodgy candidate selection for the Croydon East constituency in 2023 and into 2024.
And it is Labour’s London region which in 2021 placed Tony Newman, the former leader of Croydon Council, and his sidekick, Simon Hall, on administrative suspension – much like Desai – because of their role in the council’s financial collapse. There has never been any announcement that Newman and Hall’s suspension from the Labour Party has been lifted.
One media platform, notably, did publish a report on Desai’s plight.
On Tuesday this week, On London, a property lobbyist-backed features site run by former Grauniad journalist Dave Hill, published a story under the headline “London Assembly Member suspended following arrest”.
By Wednesday, Hill had pulled his entirely legitimate and fact-based news report. Without any explanation.
Now you see it: how On London published the Desai story earlier this week
Hill is notorious in some circles for being the hack who in October 2020 ran a cosy, soft-focus profile of Croydon’s then council leader, only to have to do a “reverse ferret” the next day when Tony Newman resigned, forced out and discredited after having bankrupted the borough.
Hill’s initial reporting disputed official accounts that Brick by Brick was loss-making, instead repeating a claim from the council-owned company’s MD Colm Lacey that the housing company had “created revenue for the council of £20million”. Ahhh, if only that had ever been so.
Hill also suggested that “social media claims” that Croydon Council had gone bust were “inaccurate”. Ha! How we all laughed.
When Newman did resign, Hill did at least report that he had received tributes from MP Steve Reed (without mentioning that Reed employs Newman’s partner) and also from the then leader of Redbridge council, Jas Athwal. Now whatever happened to him?
Now you don’t: Dave Hill pulled his Desai story without any explanation
Hill just happens to be the brother-in-law of Croydon councillor Sean Fitzsimons, who for several years accepted council payments of around £40,000 a year as Newman’s appointee as chair of Croydon’s scrutiny committee. It was that scrutiny committee which was criticised in various official reports for failing to spot any problems with Brick by Brick, or the £70million Fairfield Halls refurbishment fiasco or the council’s deeply troubled budget and soaring debts.
Hill’s On London doesn’t get many decent exclusives unless, that is, he is fed stories by his property lobbyist chums. So Inside Croydon asked Hill to explain the inexplicable pulling of his scoop about Unmesh Desai, a news story which is clearly a bit troubling to the Labour Party. Tony Newman’s hagiographer did not respond.
Update: Police drop investigation into London Assembly Member Desai
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: The Audit Report: ‘Tony Newman always has been a coward’
Read more: Brick by Brick has paid nothing to council
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Good of Aline to take a moment out of her busy day and trot out a memo. She should spend a bit more time sorting out her company’s affairs (see https://insidecroydon.com/2024/09/09/labour-party-chiefs-consultancy-business-is-in-deep-trouble/).
The Campaign Company Limited’s accounts are now overdue by 377 days and rising. What has she got to hide? The people she owes money to should be told. And paid.