Luton Lockdown breach councillors de-selected

Asif Masood, Tahir Malik, Waheed Akbar apologised for their lockdown breach, and faced no legal penalties

Three Labour councillors who broke the rules during the pandemic lockdown have been de-selected ahead of the local elections in May.

Former Luton mayor Tahir Malik and councillors Waheed Akbar and Asif Masood, were pictured at a gathering in a garden in July 2020.

Luton's two Labour branches are unable to select their own candidates locally at the moment.

The Labour Party said selection process was "incredibly competitive".

In late 2020, Luton faced extra tier 2 social restrictions after a rise in Covid cases.

Labour has a large majority of seats, at 32, on Luton Council, with the Liberal Democrats with 12 and the Conservatives with four.

Although the three councillors apologised for breaching lockdown rules and Mr Malik resigned as mayor, none of them were fined.

The two local party branches, for unrelated reasons, had been put in "special measures" which has meant local candidates have had to be selected by the national party.

The three serving councillors could still choose to stand as independents in the 4 May elections, or approach other parties, with the full list of candidates to be revealed on 5 April.

The three are among eight who will not be seeking re-election as Labour candidates.

Labour currently holds a strong majority in the town and the Liberal Democrats are the main opposition party

Of the other five, Anne Donelon, is standing as an independent and Ghulam Javed and Summara Khurshid have joined the Liberal Democrats.

The Labour Party said there were a "variety of reasons" for sitting councillors being unsuccessful.

It added that it had more than 120 applications and would not be giving specific reasons why individuals were not selected.

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A party spokesman said its selection processes were carried out "in line with our rules and procedures, and include robust interviews and due-diligence checks".

"This selection process was incredibly competitive, and Luton Labour is proud of the fantastic candidates who will represent the party in the upcoming elections, and would also like to offer commiserations to those who were not successful on this occasion," he said.