Last
updated: 11/03/08
“Dirty
Games” - NUS presidential election stitch-up
THIS
STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED
A
whistleblower has accused student political leaders of “backroom
deals” and “dirty games” aimed to ensure Labour Students’
leader Wes Streeting becomes the next president of the National Union
of Students.
Kevin
Atkinson has spoken out after serving as an elected officer at Manchester
Metropolitan University for five years. He sits on NUS’ national
executive as an observer for the North West region.
He said: “I was in the upper echelons - what you might call the
‘inner circle’. I’m speaking out now because of the
unbelievable arrogance I found there.”
“They patronisingly say ‘we know what’s best for students’
while sitting in Westminster and never speaking to anyone. They only
care about their political careers - not about students.”
Atkinson says that this year’s elections have been “stitched
up” by a deal that will see NUS president Gemma Tumelty’s
‘Organised Independents’ faction being handed the vice-president
higher education position for Aaron Porter, in exchange for them not
standing a candidate against Streeting for president.
The “arrangement” is alleged to have been
announced by Tumelty at the ‘Labour Students Political Weekend’
on November 17 2007. The National Student confirmed this
information from two Labour Students members, who asked not to be named.
Tumelty is said to have explicitly spelled out that the intention was
to make sure her faction and Labour controlled all the positions, to
“keep the socialist left out of NUS”. Tumelty, who calls
herself ‘independent’, has previously admitted that she
is a member of the Labour party but denied collaboration with its Labour
Students wing.
Following our first report on this story the NUS have told us that Gemma
Tumelty was at a meeting in London on November 17 2007 and remained
in the capital that evening.
The ‘Labour Students Political Weekend’ event she is alleged
to have made the announcement at took place in a hotel near Grantham,
Lincolnshire.
Regarding the purported ‘deal’, Atkinson told The National
Student: “This definitely happened. I was personal friends
with all the people involved - they’re not speaking to me any
more, but then I can’t say I’m particularly concerned about
that. I’m leaving the student movement this year and I want to
go with a clean conscience.”
“These people are manipulating this election for their own ends.
Plenty of others know about what goes on, but they won’t speak
out about it because they want to get elected - they don’t want
the ‘machine’ to turn against them.”
One Labour Students member added: “This sort of thing goes on
all the time - I don’t know why you’re surprised. Both Gemma
and Wes understand that the important thing is to stop a bunch of Trots
turning NUS into a tool to bash our government and help the Tories.”
Wes Streeting faces two left-wing opponents for president this year:
NUS black students’ officer Ruqayyah Collector, who is supported
by Student Respect and Student Broad Left, and Daniel Randall, supported
by Education Not for Sale. The left is expected to be stronger than
usual at this year’s annual conference because of the strength
of opposition to the “undemocratic” governance review.
There is also a “genuine independent” candidate for president,
Ciarán Norris, a former president of Hull University Union and
a current NUS part-time ‘block of 12’ officer. He is standing
without the support of any political faction.
Kevin Atkinson said: “Ciarán standing made Gemma go bananas
- he is a real student who is not playing games. But you should make
up your own mind.”
“Your choice has been limited by others’ deviousness, but
it has not been taken away completely. The union should be a voice for
students: I think people who are using it to promote themselves are
doing the students a huge disservice.”
“Somebody, please… give the students back their union!”
by
Tom Walker
In
response to the above article ‘‘Dirty
Games’:
NUS presidential election ‘stitch up’’ Wes Streeting
has posted a blog
questioning the information in the article and the integrity of our
reporter Tom Walker. Click
here for our response to the claims made in that blog.
STORY
UPDATE
The
National Student has been contacted by the NUS who have
told us that Gemma Tumelty was in London and did not attend
the event at which she is alleged to have made this announcement.
Despite this, several Labour Students members who were present
at that event were key sources in the creation of this article
and all attested to Tumelty's alleged attendance and announcement
at the event. The event in question took place in a hotel near
Grantham, Lincolnshire.
|
STATEMENT
FROM
Alex Kemp
NUS
Disabled Students' Officer
I can confirm
that Gemma Tumelty was in attendance at the NUS Disabled Students
Committee meeting in NUS HQ on 17th November 2007.
Gemma was attending in her role as NUS National President to
carry out a presentation and question/answer session of the
NUS Governance proposals. In attendance for some or all of this
meeting were members of the NUS Disabled Students Committee
and other members of the NEC, including George Woods and Scott
Cuthbertson.
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