Latest news with #Tarry
Daily Record
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Record
Fears over Scottish Labour using 'rigged' voting system involved in Met fraud probe
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Members have already raised concerns about the online voting system being used by the party, which is part of a Met police fraud probe in England. Scottish Labour members fear a controversial computer voting programme involved in a Met police fraud probe could be used to block left-wing candidates from standing as MSPs. Anonyvoter, an online voting software, is being used by the party to pick candidates for the next general election, often alongside postal and in-person voting. But the party has previously faced calls to ban the Anonyvoter system after it was criticised by unions and candidates who lost their reselections in favour of centrist candidates in the 2024 election. Former MPs Angela Rayner' s partner Sam Tarry and Welsh MP Beth Winter instructed lawyers to challenge the party over the system's usage claiming it could be tampered with. Both Tarry and Winter had received more votes from those who attended their selection contests in person, but lost out to their rivals via the online system. Tarry called for the party to stop using Anonyvoter and said it was 'used to deselect me, rigged to change the result' while Winter called for a full investigation. Now several Scottish Labour sources have told the Sunday Mail they fear the same issues are happening in Scotland following a selection for the Dundee West constituency earlier this month. Left-wing MSP Mercedes Villalba lost out on standing as an MSP in favour of Michael Marra, who has been touted as a potential successor to Anas Sarwar. Despite winning the vote in the room Villalba lost the contest due to the online votes cast through Anonyvoter. Although the full tally is confidential the Sunday Mail understands that Marra received 'almost triple' the votes of Villalba online. Trade unions previously demanded the party stop using the system for selections after claims it could be rigged in favour of certain candidates. John McDonnell, former shadow chancellor, claimed Prime Minister Keir Starmer was on a 'search and destroy' mission to weed out the party's left wing and Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, has also faced similar accusations in Scotland. The Sunday Mail understands several Labour members have contacted the party with concerns about the use of Anonyvoter in Scotland. One such member said: 'I emailed our local branch secretary last month as I was concerned about the fact we were having to use Anonyvoter but I didn't get any reply. 'I know someone else who also contacted the party's leadership team directly and was told that there had been no problem with Anonyvoter in Scotland and it was being used here. End of discussion. 'People are very sceptical of the system and don't understand why we are still using it when there were such problems before.' Another member who has also raised concerns about Anonyvoter said: 'I'm worried that what we saw for the Westminster selections is now going to happen for the Holyrood ones. It seems to be already happening - just look at the situation in Dundee.' A former Labour staffer said that Anonyvoter removed 'critical oversight' from selections and said: 'I can say that in standard parliamentary selections, ballot counting is carried out by staff but with clear oversight from CLP officials to ensure transparency and trust in the process. 'With Anonyvoter, that critical layer of local oversight is simply missing. We've already seen serious concerns raised about its accuracy and flaws, most notably in Croydon where the situation escalated to the point of police involvement.' Alongside Tarry and Winter's concerns ahead of the General Election, the East Croydon Labour branch admitted there had been manipulation of member's data prior to its candidate selection and is now being probed by the Met. Anonyvoter insisted that its software was unrelated to the incident and it was Labour's own internal database that had been tampered with. Critics of Anonyvoter say that independent tellers are not given access to monitor the voting process and regional Labour figures are able to see who has voted, giving them the ability to whip up support for certain candidates among those yet to vote. The software was developed by a former Labour councillor and provided to the party without any competitive tender process in 2020. A Scottish Labour spokesman said: 'We have full confidence in the integrity of both selection processes and the use of Anonyvoter. 'Labour candidates are selected by the votes of local members who select the person they believe should represent them. 'All selections are carried out in line with rules and procedures agreed and overseen by Scottish Labour's Executive Committee.' Anonyvoter was contacted for comment.
The Citizen
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
How the trainers are faring this racing season
Tarry four-timer inches him closer to pacemaker Snaith. When trainer Sean Tarry cooly collected four feature winners on Saturday, racing fans weren't particularly surprised. The man from Randjesfontein always targets major meetings, with their lucrative races, and The Championships Finale at Turffontein – the climax of the Highveld autumn season in his backyard – was just the ticket. As he collected trophy after trophy at the Big T, Tarry confirmed his big-day love affair: 'We always give it a go. We aim for the stars … if it comes off that's great … but we are never greedy.' It took just over 30 minutes for the Tarry team to reach some of those stars, with both the TAB Pretty Polly Stakes and the TAB Protea Stakes in the bag (both Grade 3 races for juveniles). A couple of hours later, two Grade 2s had been added – the Camellia Stakes and the Colorado King Stakes – courtesy of fillies Mia Moo and Let's Go Now. This is also the time of year when Tarry shifts gears, revving up the KwaZulu-Natal winter term, which climaxes South Africa's official season. Indeed, in recent seasons the former champion trainer has put in flying finishes during May, June and July to almost overhaul prevailing top dog Justin Snaith on the prizemoney log that decides the championship. This year we are unlikely to see another Tarry-Snaith cliffhanger as the latter already has a very commanding lead and carries awesome firepower in his KZN raiding party. This week's arrival of the East Coast's three-month festival is a good time to reflect on the state of play among the country's top trainers. Stakes money won Cape Town-based Snaith, who dominated his hometown summer, already has R21.4-million in stakes money won. Tarry's Saturday haul pushed his total up to R11.3-million – level with Eastern Cape supremo Alan Greeff, who annually runs up an impressive number early on before being swamped by the 'big guns' as the season rushes to its end. In nominal fourth spot is the newly formed father-son combo of Brett and James Crawford, with their tally of R9.7-million being made up of Brett's winnings from when horses raced under his name alone, added to the aggregate they've achieved as an official unit. Joburg's Tony Peter and Alec Laird are level-pegging on R8.9-million, just ahead of Cape Town's Candice Bass-Robinson on R8.5-million. Another father-son team has a joint tally of R8.5-million: Mike and Mathew de Kock. KZN has a pile of money waiting to be won in dozens of elite races, and upsets are always a factor as the great puzzle works itself out. No one race will decide the final numbers, but it's interesting to glance at the list of trainers of the top 10 horses in the betting for the showpiece, the Hollywoodbets Durban July. In order of favouritism, they are: Snaith, the Crawfords, Tarry, Laird, Joe Soma, Natie Kotzen, Snaith, the De Kocks, Michael Roberts and Lucky Houdalakis.
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
John Lewis profits triple to £126m but hopes for staff bonus dashed again
The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has tripled profits to £126m but workers at the staff-owned retail group have missed out on a bonus for a third year in a row. The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) said sales rose 3% to £12.8bn in the 12 months to 25 January 2025, as underlying profit rose from £42m. However, the company said it was prioritising investment over the bonus with plans to spend £600m on transforming the business. Jason Tarry, the chair of the John Lewis Partnership, said: 'These are solid results, which show that our customers are responding well to our investments in quality products, value and service. We have made good progress with much more still to do.' The retailer, which employed about 69,000 people last year, has now skipped the bonus to workers in four out of the last five years, after diving to a loss during the Covid pandemic when it was forced to close stores during lockdowns. The group is in the midst of a tough turnaround plan, in which 16 department stores and at least 20 Waitrose outlets have been closed and thousands of head office staff jobs cut. It had been hoped that Thursday's annual results, the first presented by the new chair and former Tesco executive, Tarry, after six months in the role, would confirm the cash reward for workers. However, John Lewis is focusing on upgrading its stores and improving weekly pay for its staff, having announced a 7.4% pay rise last week to a minimum of £12.40 an hour last week.
