Cllr Hanif Khan, Hounslow Cabinet Member for Transport not reselected for election

Image above: Cllr Hanif Khan, LB Hounslow Cabinet Member for Transport

Cllr Hanif Khan, Cabinet Member for Transport at LB Hounslow and Mayor of Hounslow, Cllr Bishnu Gurung, have not been reselected by their ward, Hanworth Park, to represent it in the May elections. Deputy Leader Cllr Lily Bath was not reselected by her ward, Heston West, either but has since found another ward to represent.

The deselection of Cabinet members comes as a huge shock, as LB Hounslow won the Council of the Year award last November in the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) awards. They have received praise for their housing policy, meeting their target to build 1,000 new Council homes across Hounslow last October and in the most recent round of Ofsted inspections, Hounslow schools received a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ for every school inspected.

Image above: Cllr Hanif Khan invited to Downing St to congratulate him on LB Hounslow’s Streetspace rollout

‘The wrong kind of Muslim’

Apparently Khan’s deselection has nothing to do with the Council’s performance. A senior source within the party told The Chiswick Calendar Hanif Khan had not been reselected by his ward because he was “the wrong type of Muslim”.

“The mosque in Hounslow has a lot of Labour party members who are trying to influence the selection”, our source told us. “Hanif wasn’t in the right mosque.”

Brentford Today & TV’s John Dale has also been talking to Labour Party members. He describes what’s going on as “open warfare” in the party. His sources have told him there’s a move to replace Steve Curran as Leader and make Cllr Shantanu Rajawat, Lead Member for Finance on the Council, the Leader and Cllr Samia Chaudhary his deputy. She is currently the Council Member for Leisure Service. 

Images above: Cabinet Members Shantanu Rajawat and Samia Chaudhary

Late choosing candidates

The Labour Party in Hounslow is late selecting its candidates for the local elections on Thursday 5 May. Around 160 people applied to stand for 62 seats in 20 wards and many of them appealed against the decision when they were not approved as candidates. The process of working through the appeals, which involves input from objective councillors in other councils, only just finished last week.

Whereas the Conservative Party in Hounslow announced their candidates last September, the Labour Party is still holding ward meetings to select it candidates. The process continues for at least another week.

Council Leader Steve Curran announced on Tuesday he would not be standing for election again this time because of ill health. Cllr Katherine Dunne, currently Cabinet Member for Communities and Climate Emergency will find out on Thursday whether she has been reselected in Syon ward on Thursday.

Images above: Council Leader Steve Curran and Cabinet Member Katherine Dunne

Musical chairs

Cllr Khan still has an opportunity to be selected by another ward, as there are several wards which have yet to choose their candidates. Cllr Richard Eason, who represented Osterley & Spring Grove was suspended  from the party for a month last year after he called for Cllr Khan and Cllr Dunne to resign over the implementation of Streetspace measures. His ward, Osterley & Spring Grove, has yet to choose its candidates. Isleworth and two of the Brentford wards are due to be decided tonight (Monday 28 February).

Update: Cabinet Member Guy Lambert has been reselected by his ward.

READ ALSO: Labour rebellion on Streetspace initiatives in LB Hounslow

Image above: Cllr Hanif Khan confronted by a protester in Chiswick 

One place Hanif Khan will probably not choose to stand is Chiswick, which elected all Conservative councillors in the last election and where there has been very vocal opposition to the introduction of the Cycle lane and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

READ ALSO: Thousands sign up to traffic petitions

After the elections in May, the Labour Party will elect its leader. Last time Steve Curran was elected by just one vote: 25 to 24.

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar

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