Pickles over-eggs the pudding with his latest defector

By Simon Fletcher

I see the Tories are grandly parading the defection of a Brent Labour councillor today. ConservativeHome's local government blog declares:

"Gordon Brown's fightback falls flat in Brent as Labour councillor defects to the Conservatives."

Eric Pickles cannot contain himself:

"It seems like Gordon's great fightback has already crumbled at its first hurdle. People are deserting Labour in droves as they realise the only real way of achieving positive change for the country is through a Conservative government. The Prime Minister should do everyone a favour and spare us  another eight months of  labour infighting and plotting  and call an election."

I am sorry but the fortunes of the Prime Minister are not even vaguely tied to the activities of Cllr Francis Eniola or the antics of a defecting Labour councillor in Brent.

The Tories are forgetting their history. Labour defections to the Conservative party in Brent are nothing new, and have often proved more in the interests of the Labour party than the Tories.

Who can forget the weird and wonderful case of Poline Nyaga and Nkechi Amalu-Johnson, who defected to the brutally right wing Brent Tory group in 1991, under its leader Bob Blackman, thus handing control to them - and who then proceeded to cause mayhem in the media and in the ruling Conservative group, perhaps the most innocuous example of which was their demand that Harlesden should be renamed 'Harlesden-upon-Paradise (Nirvana)' ward.

Then there was the defection of Cllr Bertha Joseph in 2007, much-trumpeted by the Conservative Party at the time, but a great relief all round to many in the local Labour party.

I have followed Brent politics on and off for many years. When I started working for Ken Livingstone he was the MP for Brent East, so it is twelve or thirteen years since I had a direct interest in following the twists and turns of local politics in the borough - through Labour's re-taking of the council under Paul Daisley, Paul's replacement of Ken as the Brent East MP, the miserable Brent East by-election, Dawn Butler's election as only the second ever black woman MP after Paul Boateng's departure, Toby Harris's time as the local Assembly member and his sad defeat in the Assemby election in 2004, the grim night when Labour lost control of Brent council (only to see the LibDems put the Tories back in power), the great votes for Ken and Navin Shah in the London elections in the area last year...but I am afraid Cllr Francis Eniola has barely even crossed my consciousness. I had to look him up to see if I could recognise him. He is no great prize for Pickles, not even locally.

Cllr Eniola declares today:

“I am genuinely convinced that I will be much better able to serve my constituents in Welsh Harp  by joining the Conservatives, under the forward thinking of David Cameron and the strong local leadership of Cllr Bob Blackman and I am very much looking forward to working with them”.

What a laugh. Blackman was one of the most ineffective Conservative members of the London Assembly until he lost his seat to Labour's Navin Shah last year. His period as leader of Brent council in the bad old mad old days of Brent politics was a benchmark for extreme and chaotic Tory policies. Internal divisions and rows continue to be a defining characteristic of the Brent Tories.

If Eniola is even vaguely attracted to the weird and wacky world of Brent Tory politics then he is absolutely no loss to the local Labour party at all.

So don't try to kid us that it makes even a scintilla of difference to "Gordon Brown's fightback".