. . . if you’re a bent (allegedly) politician, pretending to live elsewhere.

The Times has been investigating Cllr Sam Tarry, one of Corbyn’s leading henchmen. He claims to live in Barking, and is therefore eligible to be a councillor in the borough.

However his Strava account (along with other evidence) suggests that he actually lives 70 miles away in Brighton, where his wife is a hospital doctor:

A regular recreational cyclist, Tarry uses the Strava app to track his rides. Records of these rides, including detailed maps, are publicly available on the Strava website and show that between 2013 and 2016 only eight of Tarry’s 68 UK rides started at the Barking address, or anywhere near it. However, 32 of the 68 rides started at his Brighton and Hove addresses or nearby.

32 rides in three years? I’ve more rides than that starting around Brighton and I don’t live there either. I expect me took his bike to Brighton on the train, doubt there was a seat available though

Any chance of a link please? The strava ‘evidence’ is pretty weak (32 rides in 3 years hardly shows that you live there) and I’m curious as to what their other evidence is.

Strava is part of the evidence. This sort of post code hopping is quite common amongst counsellors/political activists dodging the rules. It’s on the increase as Corbynistas try and take over local party infrastructure

I live in one place but my bike is currently in a mates garage and I ride from his house. It’s posible the councellor keeps his bike at his “wife’s” house and onky rides at the weekends when he is visiting.

A couple of articles:
Corbyn hit by electoral fraud row
Double life of Corbyn henchman

Sorry, I didn’t link them above, in case they weren’t accessible (if hidden behind a paywall).

Why would you start a bike ride in Barking? Could it possibly be that he understandably doesn’t ride his bike when he is living at his Barking address? From what I remember of living in Barking, I wouldn’t even bother going out for a walk!

Plenty of people do recreational cycling at the weekend when they are at their second home somewhere a bit nicer.

Thanks Esme. Both paywalled, any my curiosity doesn’t stretch that far.

I will be sure to mark all of my rides as private when I decide to commit electoral fraud though.

So;

He and his wife (who is a doctor in Brighton) are the owners of the property in Brighton.
He and his wife’s address on their recent marriage certificate is Brighton
He and his wife are on the electoral role in Barking
Another woman (lodger it’s claimed) lives in the Barking flat
He receives approx £10k in allowances (housing?) from Barking council

Very fishy smell here

Very fishy smell here

Definitely something odd going on here. This sort of behaviour would be more typical of a tory. Is he knobbing said female lodger too, for the full set?

I just worry that we are painting too positive a picture of the rogue. I thought henchman sounded derogatory enough, backed up by watching old episodes of Batman. But having checked the dictionary I’m not sure. Can’t we go with ‘villainous sidekick’ or ‘minion’ instead.

Any chance of a link please? The strava ‘evidence’ is pretty weak (32 rides in 3 years hardly shows that you live there) and I’m curious as to what their other evidence is.

No link but from front page and page 16 of the Sunday Times – Part of it is The fact that three neighbours who share the same hallway don’t recognise him. The fourth says she has seen him there twice in 5 years. All the neighbours say the flat is occupied by a woman they see regularly.

The Times claims there are numerous references by him on social media to living in Brighton.