Newham Independent campaigners wearing the uniform of right-wing populism, the gilets jaune
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks you’l know that Sophia Naqvi, Mehmood Mirza’s candidate, won the Plaistow North by-election by a handy margin, handing Labour a second consecutive defeat.
Mirza and Naqvi have been joined in a new group on the council by Zuber Gulamassen (Plashet) who defected from Labour. The Newham Independents are now the largest opposition group on the council. Which hands Cllr Mirza an extra £7,900 a year ‘special responsibility allowance’ as leader.
What did the local blogs and commentators have to say?
From the Left of the local political spectrum Newham 65 reported
Labour has been comprehensively beaten in Plaistow North by the misnamed ‘Newham Independents’, who generally represent a populist anti-Labour/pro-car platform. On this occasion the campaign undoubtedly focussed on the national Labour Party’s position refusing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The failure of local MP Lyn Brown to join Stephen Timms in supporting parliamentary efforts to call for a ceasefire didn’t help the atmosphere.
Newham’s ‘Old Labour’ Right could barely contain their glee
The defeat in Boleyn was a disaster. The defeat in Plaistow North is a humiliation.
Predictably they blamed that humiliation on the mayor, but added
For the first time in decades, Labour is facing an opposition that wants to win. It is an opposition that builds its support on an ethno-religious communitarian base. Labour currently has no response … But they will have to decide whether they will confront this new party on principle or will appease them in the hope of retaining some of the votes, say in parliamentary elections. Meanwhile they face a campaign that aims to attack local Labour and its record at every opportunity.
Writing for the On London blog, Lewis Baston observed
There is an electoral malaise in this ancestral Labour heartland at the moment. Mirza polled only eight per cent in the mayoral election in 2022 as an Independent candidate but would clearly be doing better now as leader of what amounts to a local opposition party. After all, Lutfur Rahman and Aspire returned to power in neighbouring Tower Hamlets last year with a familiar blend of Leftist and Islamic rhetoric, populism and somewhat conservative campaigning on issues like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
However, the hurdle at which past challenges to Labour’s hegemony in Newham have fallen is the ability to campaign across the whole borough. That is a bigger task than picking off a ward or two where issues and personalities come together. Mirza’s political operation is not yet ready for that. Even so, its growth is a headache for Labour in a borough where the party has become accustomed to winning everything.
Mirza and his followers have already started to address that last point, inviting applications to be his candidates in a swathe of wards across the centre of the borough from Green St West to Little Ilford. Those selected are encouraged to be ‘community champions’ for their wards. It should be a wake up call to Labour and an antidote to complacency among its sitting councillors.
forestgatedotnet 
Interesting developments which should be viewed from the perspective of Islamic Populism, a growing menace.
I suspect that the suspension of both the constituency Labour Parties in the borough over the last two and a half years has also contributed to this growing threat to the Labour Party’s usual dominance. The absence of normal party activity outside of fighting by elections leaves some members disenchanted and disconnected from the party.
Yes, the suspension of both parties must have had a really bad effect on party unity and moral. The same thing has happened in Tower hamlets with John Biggs fulling the same role there as your current mayor has with you.
Most Labour Councillors could walk through their Wards and nobody would know who they are.
Most of them are unknown, they are anonymous, literally nobodies.
They do nothing for residents, not appearing at their own Councillor Surgeries, not at Community Assemblies, not at Ward Panels, in fact nowhere at all.
The National Labour Party has suspended both CLPs?
If the Labour Party does not trust it’s own members, why would voters?
There are record lows of voter turn out because of the apathy that you describe which creates a fertile ground for extremism. Starmer is expecting such a big majority that he can afford to ignore places like Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The suspension of CLPs is indeed to some extent a factor, but not the only one. Increases in Council Tax and less than ideal performance on some key indicators and ..perceptions…is another. The management of traffic schemes ( irrespective of their virtues or drawbacks) is another. None of this is beyond retrieval though…but Councillors do need to “get out there” and do the necessary work