FEISTY SHABANA DEFENDS LADYWOOD POLL

02-07-2008

If Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Ladywood Shabana Mahmood has been scarred by ongoing the row over her selection, she’s doing a good job of hiding it. The 27-year old sounds bright, confident – and just a tad feisty.

As we reported yesterday, supporters of her defeated opponent Yvonne Mosquito are warning they’ll march on Birmingham Council House if their demands for an enquiry into the poll are ignored (see link here).

Mahmood points out that all four candidates were asked before the vote if they had any quibble with the process – but none did.

And she says, “From my perspective as a participant and successful candidate I didn’t have any concerns about the process.”

Ask her if she resents being seen as a Daddy’s Girl whose benefitted from her father’s position as Chair as Birmingham’s Labour Group, she politely bristles, pointing out that her mother is politically active too.

"I stood as a candidate in my own right" she points out.  "The decision to put myself forward was mine and mine alone, and I will stand or fall on my merits alone."

So will she – like Ladywood’s celebrated outgoing MP Clare Short – be willing to stand up to the party machine?

"Clare Short was obviously a forthright individual, never afraid to ruffle a few feathers, who struck out for what she believed in.

"If there's something I disagree with, I will say that.  It's important to speak up and have that discussion."

She cites as an example the Iraq war: “I was against pre-emptive strikes in Iraq. I always have been and was unafraid to say that. That’s a good example of an issue where I challenged the views of my own party.”

So what about the leadership issue, given Labour’s tonking in the recent Henley by-election: “There’s no getting away from the fact that there’s been a tough run of things in the past few months but Gordon Brown, with the record he has, is the person to lead us.

"These are difficult economic circumstances but lots of countries are experiencing similar problems on the international scene.  We've got to focus on the fact that compared to other countries, we are holding our own."

All in all, it's a quietly impressive performance from the qualified barrister who worked in London but has now returned to Birmingham to concentrate on her activism, using her parents home as a base.

Mahmood shows no signs of being anyone's patsy, and after her baptism of ire amid the controversies of Ladywood, she's got a head start when it comes to the rough and tumble of the eventual Ladywood election. Certainly not a woman to be taken lightly.