A local Labour activist is blaming the party leadership for their by-election loss in Uxbridge last week, saying they ran a bad campaign. Labour had wanted to win Boris Johnson’s west London seat, sending in Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to help candidate Danny Beales, above, but fell short. They have blamed the Ulez expansion, which aims to make air cleaner by taxing polluting cars.
Now Norrette Moore, a veteran member of the local constituency Labour Party, has written a piece for Labour List attacking the party for shutting out residents, saying they were “not given the full opportunity to be proactively involved and provide the local insight we had to offer”. Moore says that flip-flopping on Ulez was a major factor. “What almost always has a detrimental impact is to appear to change your mind mid-campaign,” she writes. During a hustings, Beales came out against Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion.
She also criticised the choice of Beales to run, saying that though he was “the leadership’s preferred candidate”, he was not local. “Perhaps we should have looked to have had a properly local candidate, who was known and liked in the area,” she says. Beales was born nearby, but has lived elsewhere for most of his life.
Another local Labour activist agreed with Moore, telling us “they kept local people away from the campaign as much as they possibly could”. The Labour party declined to comment. Starmer praised both the campaign and Beales in his National Policy Forum speech in the days after the loss.
Enninful signals end of his Vogue days
Edward Enninful has kicked-off a countdown on his time at British Vogue, announcing that March 2024 will be his final issue. A colourful teaser video shows the covers from his time as editor, where he has been credited with diversifying the fashion world. It asks: “Who will cover the September 2023 issue?”, the largest of the year. There’s lots to come: Enninful was spotted outside the mag’s Vogue House offices in Mayfair last week for a photoshoot of models on step ladders in front of the revolving doors. With him were a clutch of London designers including Simone Rocha and Mowalola Ogunlesi. Who else might follow Maya Jama, top left? Some names being touted include actress Zendaya, and a return of Adwoa Aboah, who was on his dramatic first offering.
Celebration of Caroline Flack returns
Flackstock, the music and comedy festival held in memory of the late presenter Caroline Flack, braved dark clouds for its second year yesterday. Celebrity friends, such as Chris O’Dowd and his wife Dawn O’Porter, turned out in support. Other guests included the singers Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Pixie Lott and Louise Redknapp. Flack’s mother says the festival “provides a legacy” for her daughter, and money raised goes to charities including Choose Love and Mind. Actor Ophelia Lovibond and presenter Kirsty Gallacher went too.
Tales of the Globe gimp
We hear that the man who went to Shakespeare’s Globe wearing a full “gimp” suit upset the adults more than the kids. A mole at the Globe tells us security at first wanted to turn away the man, left, from the The Comedy of Errors in May but chatted and realised he was “normal”. An audience member complained on behalf of children. But the mole tells us “adults were the ones who were scared”. As one wag quipped: “Aye, there’s the rubber”.
