Jared O'Mara: Sheffield MP arrested in fraud probe

[muriel_volestrangler]

MP Jared O'Mara has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, according to multiple sources.

The independent MP for Sheffield Hallam was arrested at the same time as his chief of staff Gareth Arnold, the BBC's Next Episode Podcast found.

Electronic equipment was confiscated in the South Yorkshire Police inquiry, the BBC also understands.
...
Both have been released under investigation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49451255

I read in Private Eye that the Lib Dems in Sheffield have no money at all to fight a by-election, so there's a good chance Labour will take this seat in the by-election (if O'Mara goes through with his promise; or maybe he'll be convicted of something and there'll be a recall).

[mwooldri]

1. Given this was Nick Cleggs seat...

... I would think the LibDems would arrange some sort of whip round and put up a candidate. Unlike US elections, only so much can be spent.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The Private Eye figures, for the Lib Dems' income in the whole of Sheffield, were:

2016: £8,715
2017: £10,354
2018: £399

They say it raised six figure sums when he was in government. Having said that, I see oddschecker.com has one place offering odds, and it's 1/14 on for the "Democrats". I'm not sure how national money is allowed to be used in by-elections.

[Soph0571]

3. Agreed. The Lib Dems will want this seat, badly

They will find the cash - it is theirs for the asking after this debacle

[T_i_B]

5. Owing to the Jared O'Mara train wreck...

...the Liberal Democrats selected Laura Gordon as their candidate many months ago in preparation.

The Labour candidate Olivia Blake has just resigned as deputy leader of Sheffield City Council on the say a petition with 20,000+ signatures was handed in demanding a change to a committee system of government for the rather high handed Labour run council. A move that will do her good but reeks of cynicism.

Without wishing to give much away, I happen to know one of the candidates in Sheffield Hallam personally. I grew up in the constituency and I have already done a spot of leafleting for said candidate.

I also cannot believe that Labour did so few checks on Jared O'Mara before making him their candidate. They then compounded the issue by flooding Sheffield Hallam with activists while totally neglecting neighbouring seats like North East Derbyshire (which Labour lost for the first time since the 1930's to a ERG group Tory)

[LeftishBrit]

6. Yes, I am amazed that he was not vetted more carefully

I had thought that perhaps the Labour party were so sure they'd lose to Clegg that they didn't bother selecting their candidate carefully; but I am told that this was not so, so it looks like pure carelessness.

[T_i_B]

9. I don't think they even interviewed him

Which is something you expect for paper candidates in Parish council elections to be honest. Let alone parliamentary candidates in a high profile seat that Labour came fairly close to winning in 2015.

Labour's candidate from 2015 would have been a much wiser choice. But Oliver Coppard is firmly on the right wing of Labour and he isn't standing for Labour anytime soon owing to Labour's anti-semitism issues.

[The King of Prussia]

4. The voters of Sheffield Hallam

Can't half pick 'em:
Hillsborough liar "Sir" Irvine Patnick (Tory)
Tuition fees liar "Sir" Nicholas Clegg (neither Liberal nor Democrat) and
Jared O' Mara Labour (sex pest)

[LeftishBrit]

7. Oh wow, I remember Irvine Patrick but had not realized he was from that constituency

They seem to be competing with Peterborough as to who can produce the most unsuitable MPs!

[Denzil_DC]

8. Interesting that Gareth Arnold has also been arrested.

Some of you may remember this post of T_i_B's back in July, when Arnold hijacked O'Mara's Twitter account to denounce him in no uncertain terms (unfortunately, since O'Hara's Twitter account appears to have been deleted, the Tweets no longer show up in the post - a reminder that it's good practice to copy the tweet text for posterity): https://www.democraticunderground.com/108816708

Here are screencaps of a few of them:




Arnold's Twitter account also appears to have been deleted, and I can't be arsed delving into Twitter archives to see what if anything else Arnold tweeted afterward - he was doing some serious soul-searching about what he'd done the last I saw, as this BBC article of the time indicates: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49089055.