Gareth Unmasked

Breaking news: I have just seen a letter from Truptiben Patel, the President of the HFB, to Keir Starmer. In her letter she talks about a conversation she had with Gareth Thomas in which she states, ‘At one point in the conversation Gareth said, ‘I am unfortunate enough to represent a significant section of the Gujarati community in my constituency'. This is devastating news. How can Gareth Thomas, the Labour Party Shadow Minister for Trade say that it is rather unfortunate he has to represent Gujaratis? Truptiben goes on to remind Keir, ‘Would it be acceptable if Gareth had said, ‘I am unfortunate enough to represent the Jewish community'? Or ‘I am unfortunate enough to represent the Muslim community'? Recently we have seen the race fiasco emerge again in Labour forcing Keir to take the whip away from Diane Abbot. And now we have another Labour MP, telling us that it’s unfortunate he has to represent his Gujarati constituents. On what planet are these Labour politicians living on? Antisemitism and anti-Hindu sentiments seem to be fuelling the very essence of this party.
Gareth has brought his office into disrepute. He has broken the parliamentary code of conduct. He has in fact made the Gujarati community into a group he tolerates just to be their MP. He is unfit to hold any public office. Truptiben rightly points out to Keir, ‘As the leader of the Labour Party, you also have responsibilities and we believe you need to remove Gareth from your Shadow Cabinet, along with taking away the Labour whip’. Of course, if Gareth has any honour left, or any sense of duty or responsibility, then he should resign and offer an unreserved apology to the Gujarati community.
I am also sure there will be some who will try to undermine Truptiben, and to tarnish her reputation. We have seen such attacks on Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and many others before, and quite often from the same vested individuals and groups.
Exclusive to Asian Voice, I spoke to Truptiben at length. It seems during the said conversation with Gareth, there was indeed a witness who was also present and heard the conversation. Therefore, it seems there is clear evidence to support the contents of her letter to Keir Starmer.
APPG Gujarati Update: I was able to get to the launch event and observe for myself what happened. It was held in the Atlee Suite with a capacity of 125. In my estimation I believe around 85 people were in attendance.
I took the opportunity to speak to some in the queue, and followed this up when we were in the event room. It transpires that many were family, friends, or Labour members. I could not find anyone representing any of the recognised national organisations.
Of course, Truptiben Patel of HFB and Pravinbhai Amin of NAPS were present, but they came to lodge their official objection to the APPG. It became clear that Gareth had no intention of allowing anyone to speak or to even ask questions. In fact, at one point in his speech he made a song and dance about the president of one of the smaller organisations attending, ignoring the fact that Truptiben Patel and Pravinbhai Amin were literally a few feet away from him. I had to intervene and point this out to him - at which point in his embarrassment he had no choice but to recognise them. One must wonder what kind of APPG is being created which they cannot value and respect the leaders of our organisations?
Apart from the normal rhetoric, Gareth was not able to produce any information on who they had consulted, or how many organisations had given their blessing and so on. At one point they said this was in the making for more than a year. Really? And during this period, they could not find the time to consult any of our leading organisations? The facts are that most of our organisations have written to him and rejected the APPG as divisive.
Open challenge to Gareth Thomas: You have been asked time and again, please provide a full list of every organisation you consulted and the criteria for selecting them. Provide a full list of all individuals you have consulted and why? And provide copies of all letters of support you have received. What we are asking for is standard practice. This should already be in the public domain, the fact that we have to keep asking for such basic information suggests you have much to hide.
It was left for me to intervene and ask Bob Blackman his thoughts on the fact that almost every major national organisation had rejected the APPG. Bob in his candid style made it clear that he was also very unhappy with the poor communications that had taken place. That is code by a politician I guess to tell the listener that he was uncomfortable with the whole set up and how the secretariat and Gareth had conducted themselves. A word of advice to Bob, if you stay too long with this madness, don’t be too surprised if it affects you also.
The launch was a shambles. Most who attended, represented only themselves or their own business interest. Mahendra Sinh Jadeja was seen to be prominent, but it seems his interest might have been to promote a business enterprise that he is involved with. A group of Punjabis were also present, but then I heard from a source that the creation of an APPG for British Punjabis was now on the cards. There are now mutterings that some politicians are contemplating APPG’s for Tamils, Maharashtrians, Bengalis, Rajasthanis etc. If Indians cannot see the madness of this divide and rule policy of the Labour Party, God help us.
Whilst many people might be focussed on the Hindu and Jain Gujarati community from India, it’s also important to note that Gujarat has a sizeable Muslim community as well. Also, did you know that in Pakistan it is estimated that there are some 3.5m Gujarati Muslims? I am sure Pakistani Gujaratis in the UK will also want to be accommodated and not ignored. After all, the APPG is not limited to Gujaratis from India alone.
Of course, if I was very picky, I could point out to Gareth that when they started the event, there were only two MPs in attendance. Part way through two more joined them, and then a Lord. Interestingly, NOT one MP or Peer of Indian origin who were part of this APPG originally, turned up. That's right, missing in action were Shailesh Vara, Virendra Sharma and Navendu Mishra. With respect to Lord Dholakia, I am pleased to inform you that on Gujarat Day, he has decided to withdraw himself from APPG. I commend Navnitbhai for siding with the community.
You should also know the names of those involved with this APPG madness: Sanjay Jagatia, Mahendra sinh Jadeja, Ajay Chaurasia, Muna Chauhan, Pragna Hay, Sanjay Rughani, Jeet Rughani, Raj Mistry, Pramod Thakkar, Amit Karia and Amit Chandarana that I am aware of. I was also surprised to see Meena Jasani President of the Lohana community of North London and Ajay Jobanputra President of the Lohana Community of South London in attendance. They will need to explain to their membership why they wanted to be part of the tukde tukde gang.
I commend Lord Popat because he is the only peer who wrote to Gareth objecting to the formation of the APPG.
Pravinbhai Amin, President of National Association of Patidar Samaj asked a very serious question to Gareth, ‘Gareth - lots of organisations have not been contacted and when we mention this to the Secretariat, he said if we do not invite him, he will not invite us. That is not right.’. Gareth deflected the question, but I was left utterly shocked. I had a chat with Pravinbhai later to confirm the details. Can you imagine, here we have the secretariat (Sanjay Jagatia) of this unwanted APPG, that now appears to be practicing partiality. In effect, if you do them a favour, then they will invite you to their group. This is not an APPG for Gujaratis, this is an APPG for family and friends of those who set it up. I wonder who would support such morally and ethically suspect practices? At the very least, it is clear Sanjay Jagatia is unfit to be the secretariat.
Much has happened in one week. The issues arising are not only serious, but they are also having a direct impact on the whole Indian community.
There is also a lesson for the people of Harrow West (and indeed all Gujaratis across the nation) that if they had any self-worth, how on earth can they allow those who exhibit such prejudice to exploit them so openly?