July 8, 2009 - By BNP News

After mounting public pressure in support of the British National Party’s North Manchester organiser Derek Adams, Manchester City Council has finally come clean on its links to extremist Communists using their facilities.

Regular readers of this website will know from an earlier report that Manchester City Council has repeatedly ignored Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from Mr Adams on the question of who used conference facilities in the town hall and why. This request was submitted after the council denied the BNP conference room facilities for a private candidate selection meeting at the city hall.

“I was specifically given the task of rooting out certain irregularities within Manchester Town Hall by North West MEP Nick Griffin,” Mr Adams told BNP News. “I was not going to take no for an answer.”

At last, due only to the sustained pressure from Mr Adams and his supporters, Manchester Town Hall has revealed some of its murky secrets regarding Labour Party involvement with extremist Communist Party groups.

“Our relentless probing has uncovered attempts by Labour to deprive the Manchester taxpayers of much needed revenue for the city and it has laid bare the association between certain Town Hall workers, the Labour Party, Unison and the far leftist extremists,” Mr Adams said.

The Freedom of Information request to Town Hall was first submitted on 20 February 2009. In flagrant violation of the law, the city authorities have only now finally replied to Mr Adams’s request today, 8 July.

“The answer is every bit as scandalous as we expected,” Mr Adams said.

“The reply to our FOI involves the Deputy Leader of Manchester city council, Mr Jim Battle, who booked Town Hall rooms for use by Searchlight/Hope not Hate, which is run by Gerry Gable,” he continued.

Mr Gable is not only a convicted burglar but was a member of the Young Communist League, and the Communist Party of Great Britain. Mr Gable worked on the Communist Party’s Daily Worker newspaper and was later a Communist Party trade union organiser. He also stood as a Communist Party candidate in Northfield Ward, Stamford Hill, North London.

“The FOI response reveals that Mr Battle booked Manchester City Hall rooms for this group to plan their violent attacks on BNP activists and to disrupt BNP meetings during the recent European election campaign.

“The answers also confirm that these groups were given public buildings free of charge – until the FOI request forced them into the light.

Here is the full response as received by Mr Adams today:

“Dear Mr Adams

Re: Request for Information: Room Booking – Reference No. CEX/7PSLM9

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 20 February and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I apologise for the delay in replying.

You have asked:

1) Could you please provide details of the organisation or individual who booked the use of the Conference Room at 7pm on 20 November 2008.

2) The price paid for use of room.

3) Was it an internal or external hire.

4) Could you please provide details of the organisation or individual who booked the use of the Committee room on the evenings of 9 December 2008, 13 January 2009, 10 February 2009.

5) The price paid for use of room.

6) Was it an internal or external hire.

The information you have asked for is as follows.

The above room bookings were made by Cllr Jim Battle.

The room bookings staff assumed that the meetings involved Council business. However, enquiries have shown that this was not the case as the bookings were made on behalf of Hope Not Hate/Unison. As a result, a charge of £1,400 (£350.00 for each occasion) was made which has now been paid.”

Mr Adams said these answers have opened up a can of worms and there are now even more questions which need answering.

“It is surely fraud if Cllr Battle booked the rooms on all these occasions in his own name and never informed Town Hall booking staff that the rooms were indeed for a private group.

“Secondly, if he  allowed staff to assume that the rooms were indeed being used for council business, then there must be an assumption that there has been a misuse of public funds, either lost revenue from room hire or unauthorised use of public buildings,” Mr Adams said.

“The ratepayers of Manchester deserve better than this.”

From a party political perspective, Cllr Battle was also attempting to misuse public resources for this group in order to disrupt a political opponent’s election campaign.

“This must also be against the electoral commission’s rules and illegal,” Mr Adams continued.

“Complaints are to be laid with the Electoral Commission, Greater Manchester Police and the Standards Board. The BNP intends to stamp out corruption within our government at whatever level.”

Mr Adams, who faces the prospect of losing his business due to a politically motivated City Hall order, said he would leave no stone unturned in his quest to rid Manchester Town Hall of Labour Party corruption.

“The people of the North West can rest assured that although it is not even five weeks since Mr Griffin’s election victory, the new broom is already sweeping through the old parties’ sleaze and corruption – and it is starting in Manchester,” Mr Adams concluded.