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Party says no

5 Dec

After the final set of trigger ballot meetings, the score stands at eleven wards to nine in favour of an open selection for Labour’s 2018 mayoral candidate.

The detailed results are: 

Ward Yes No
Beckton 16 3
Boleyn 3 36
Canning Town North 17 21
Canning Town South 6 8
Custom House 7 6
East Ham Central 29 31
East Ham North 20 23
East Ham South 26 8
Forest Gate North 13 30
Forest Gate South 34 21
Green Street East 5 32
Green Street West 36 32
Little Ilford 23 36
Manor Park* 29 28
Plaistow North 27 17
Plaistow South 12 19
Royal Docks 11 1
Stratford & New Town 11 34
Wall End 20 18
West Ham 8 20
Totals: 353 424

* Second ballot. The first ballot tied at 30:30

In addition to the wards two affiliates, the Co-operative Party and the West Ham Women’s Forum, voted No; Christians on the Left did not vote but the chair determined the consensus was for Yes.

Whatever happens with the remaining affiliates (but I think we can all guess…) it is absolutely clear that ordinary party members want an open selection.

It would be a travesty if Sir Robin denied them one.

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God only knows

2 Dec

After the four ward meetings last night – all of which voted No – I tweeted that the trigger ballot score stood at 9 in favour of automatically reselecting Sir Robin and 11 for an open selection.

I was then told by a couple of people that a mysterious and unnamed affiliate organisation had also cast its vote in favour of the mayor, so it was actually 10 to 11.

It turns out that the mystery affiliate was Christians on the Left – an organisation previously known as the Christian Socialist Movement.

The Newham chapter met on Sunday 20 November at the Cornerstone Café. You might think Sunday was an odd day to choose, given that Christians have other commitments that day but, as we know, there’s no rule against it!

There were 14 people at the meeting, most of them councillors and many from the mayor’s payroll vote. Cllr Clive Furness, mayoral advisor on Adults and Health, chaired the meeting.

Among those who spoke in favour of Sir Robin were Terry Paul (mayoral advisor – Skills and Adult Learning), Joy Laguda (chair of council and ‘associate cabinet member’) and Aleen Alarice (not yet a paid advisor, but ever-hopeful). Cllr Furness also spoke for the mayor, despite being in the chair.

The agenda for the meeting said it had been called simply to canvas opinions on the affirmative nomination. No ballot papers were distributed and no vote was taken, but Cllr Furness announced that as the majority were in favour he would write to the local campaign forum to tell them. 

The lord moves in mysterious ways.

Despite frequent requests, the ‘procedures secretary’ running the trigger ballot process, Cllr Pat Murphy (mayoral advisor – lead councillor for Royal Docks), has refused to disclose the full list of affiliate organisations entitled to take part. I doubt the Christians will be the last surprise vote in Sir Robin’s favour. 

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Sunday Bloody Sunday

30 Nov

Labour members in Green Street East received a letter yesterday cancelling their Trigger Ballot meeting on Sunday.

As chair of your branch I am writing to you personally on a matter of grave importance to our ward.

Over the weekend you may have received a letter advising you of a labour Party Green Street East ward branch meeting, to be held at a Restaurant in Forest Gate, West Ham on Sunday 4th December 2016. This notice was sent without the agreement of our branch and was in fact kept concealed from the Chair until I received an email on Sunday night. Since then members have approached me personally for an explanation as to why a Ward meeting was planned on a Sunday afternoon, outside the Ward and outside the Constituency. After further investigation, and as your democratically elected chair I wish to inform you that this meeting is formally cancelled.

As Sunday is the last date for meetings and members need seven days notice that means members of Green Street East will have no say whatsoever in whether they want to re-select the sitting Mayor.

The letter goes on (at some length) to say that the meeting is being cancelled for two reasons:

  • because the meeting was outside the ward and constituency (and is on a Sunday)
  • because the Secretary sent out the email (allegedly without the Chair’s agreement)

This is patently nonsense.

Firstly, Manor Park’s (very well-attended) meeting wasn’t held in Manor Park, Forest Gate North’s was held in Forest Gate South, and Thursday’s East Ham Central meeting isn’t being held in East Ham Central. There is nothing in the rules about holding the meeting in the ward, so what is the problem in Green Street East? 

Secondly, there are no rules about which day Labour party meetings are held. In fact in 2013 ward selection meetings for councillors were held over a whole weekend. I don’t recall anyone complaining about that at the time.

And finally, these trigger ballots are about the Mayor of Newham – the whole borough. Constituency boundaries are irrelevant. 

The letter sent to all eligible members in Newham by Patrick Murphy, the procedures secretary, at the start of November stated clearly:

You will receive a letter from your ward secretary advising you of the arrangements. (my emphasis added)

In Canning Town South the chair and other members of the executive were surprised to see receive a letter telling them the meeting was on a different date to the one they had all agreed. Presumably the secretary changed the time; there was a similar story in Custom House. In both cases the meetings went ahead and members voted.

But there is obviously something odd going on in Green Street East. Members were originally told the meeting was happening on Tuesday 24th, but the Chair sent out a text saying the meeting was being postponed and another date would be arranged. They were then told it was going to be on Sunday. Now they are now being told it isn’t and there’s no time left to organise a different date.

It appears that someone doesn’t want Green Street East to meet and is going to considerable lengths to make sure they don’t. 

What on Earth is going on? Perhaps the chair, Ayub Darbar, could explain. I will be very happy to publish his response.

In the meantime, Green Street East members should keep their diaries free for Sunday. Maybe the meeting will get ‘uncancelled’ and they’ll get their shot at democracy.

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Co-op coup

22 Nov

James Beckles 2016 Nov 21

Picture from @james_beckles on Twitter

Last night Newham Co-operative Party said yes to democracy by voting No in the Newham mayoral trigger ballot.

It was 37 votes to 36. That may seem like a narrow win but in the context of Newham Labour politics, it’s an extraordinary result.

According to reports, 15 of Sir Robin’s Yes votes came from councillors on his vast payroll.

Two more turned up but were unable to vote because they weren’t actually Co-operative party members. And in a moment of pure comedy gold, one of them produced her Co-op loyalty card, thinking this would get her a vote.

Who was this? Cllr Joy Laguda, the supposedly-independent chair of council and ‘civic lead’ (a polite legal fiction, she’s actually a paid mayoral advisor) for adult social care.

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Trigger mortis

11 Nov

The Executive Committee of West Ham Labour Party agreed on Wednesday to submit an emergency motion to the London regional conference tomorrow (Saturday).

As you can see from the text, party members believe that Sir Robin and his cronies have been playing fast and loose with the rules in order to rush through his re-selection:

This Regional Conference notes:

  1. The Labour Party Rule Book states that all Local Campaign Forums (LCF) must hold annual AGMs after May each year at which an executive has to be elected. Where a LCF fails to elect an executive, the Rule Book implies that the entire LCF makes executive decisions.
  2. That the Newham LCF did not hold its 2015 AGM until March 2016, and failed to elect an Executive at that delayed AGM.
  3. Since the last meeting of the Newham LCF on the 31 May 2016, new delegates to the LCF have been elected by West Ham and East Ham CLPs.
  4. That a trigger ballot timetable on re-selecting the current directly elected Mayor of Newham to be the Labour Party candidate at the May 2018 local elections was approved at meeting with the London Region Director on the 25th October 2016 and some members of the Newham LCF.
  5. That the whole of the current Newham LCF members weren’t notified about this meeting taking place.
  6. That London Regional Board members were not notified by the London Region Director of the planned meeting with the Newham LCF or the proposed trigger ballot process.
  7. At the meeting on the 25th October 2016, a procedural secretary was also appointed who is a is paid mayoral advisor to the current Labour Mayor of Newham seeking re-selection. This potentially creates an unacceptable conflict of interest.
  8. Based on the Trigger Ballot timetable agreed by the London Region Director and some members of the Newham LCF, only members of the Labour Parties in Newham who joined on or prior to the 25th April 2016 will be eligible to participate in Trigger Ballot meetings held by eligible branches and affiliates. This freeze date will mean that hundreds of new members in Newham will be disenfranchised
  9. Branches and affiliates in Newham will have to meet and vote on a ‘affirmative nomination’ to re-select the current directly elected Mayor Sir Robin Wales between the 14th November 2016 – 4th December 2016 and there is emerging evidence of procedural abuse happening where NEC guidelines are being ignored. For instance, officers in one branch in West Ham CLP had the date of the branch’s Trigger Ballot meeting determined by the Procedural Secretary without their knowledge.

This Regional Conference resolves:

  1. That the current Trigger Ballot timetable in Newham be suspended and withdrawn;
  2. The London Region Board oversee an investigation of alleged procedural abuses in conjunction with the NEC Organisation Committee;
  3. That the Newham LCF calls an emergency meeting where all new LCF delegates elected at the respective East Ham and West Ham CLP AGMs to elect its new Executive. Where possible this should be constituted as the Newham LCF’s 2016 AGM which hasn’t taken place;
  4. That resolves 3 should be followed by a new Trigger Ballot timetable, set and circulated before 31 December 2016.

If the motion is carried the current process will have to be stopped and a new timetable agreed. This may allow hundreds of new party members a say in who gets to be the mayoral candidate. And that’s a good thing.

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West Ham tickets – who’s getting them?

11 Oct

From the ‘Knees up Mother Brown’ website:

More than half the free tickets for West Ham United home matches distributed by Newham Council have gone to their own employees, it has been claimed.

From a total of 5,970 tickets handed out thus far by the Council as part of their arrangement with West Ham, just 2,728 reached members of the local community – with the remaining 3,242 being allocated to employees of Newham Council, according to a KUMB source.

The 3,242 tickets snapped up by Newham employees were used for the Europa League qualifiers against Domzale (1,433 tickets) and Astra Giurgiu (1,010) plus the recent EFL Cup tie with Accrington Stanley (799) – resulting in 55 per cent of the available tickets intended for local residents going to unnamed Council workers.

“Newham previously stated that ‘the tickets are used to reward residents for being active and resilient members of the community’,” said the source. 

“Lead councillors for each of our community neighbourhoods will have a role in managing these rewards, and settling the criteria for distributing tickets to their residents who are making a contribution to their community. 

“Why is it, that in each of the three games referred to, there were more tickets given to Newham Council staff than went to those ‘active and resilient members of the community’?”

Those ‘free’ tickets are among the supposed benefits of the £40 million ‘loan’ the council made to help cover the enormous cost of making the stadium ready for multi-millionaire-owned West Ham United.

Can anyone at the council explain this?

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Temporary housing

29 Sep

From the Newham Recorder:

More people are living in temporary accommodation in the borough than anywhere else in London.

Homelessness data from the Office for National Statistics show 3,956 Newham households were resident in temporary shelter between April 2015 and March 2016.
The figures – the most up-to-date available – also reveal 2,448 households were deemed eligible for action under the Housing Acts, the highest amount in London and second-highest in England after Birmingham.

Newham also had the second-highest number of households accepted as homeless and in priority need – 1,345 – again behind only Birmingham.

Of the households living in temporary accommodation, 79 were in bed and breakfasts, 27 in hostels, 127 in local or housing authority stock, 1,690 in leased private sector property and 2,033 in other properties.

Also included is the ethnicity of homeless households, with 474 black or black British, 396 Asian or Asian British and 314 white.

Meanwhile on Twitter Cllr Jose Alexander points to Red Door Ventures, the council’s for-profit housing company, as an example of how Newham is “tackling housing crises.” (sic)

Yep. Tackling the housing crisis by charging £1,500 a month for a two-bed flat in Stratford.

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Really free

17 Aug

Screenshot 2016 08 16 16 08 09

With this year’s Under the Stars coming up at the weekend, a timely Freedom of Information response has revealed the true cost of the mayor’s ‘free’ events for residents.

Over the five years covered that’s a total of £4,314,409.

Imagine what else that money could have been spent on.

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Arrogance and stupidity

16 Aug

An excellent article in Tribune arguing that Labour needs to support fair votes.

The penultimate paragraph sums up so much of what frustrates me about the party and its unwillingness to cooperate with other progressive voices (my emphasis added):

In July, a private member’s Bill on PR introduced by Green MP Caroline Lucas was stifled at birth by a just a handful of votes. Labour MPs – under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – were whipped to abstain, and only eight defied the whip and voted in favour. The arrogance of the Labour Party in denying the right of the electorate a fair vote because it sees itself as the only legitimate voice of ‘the left’ is matched only by it’s stupidity in failing to recognise, or at least acknowledge the changed balance of power in British politics, and the fact that without PR, England and Wales face the prospect, with or without a Labour split, of becoming a Tory one-party state.

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A prayer for Owen Smith

26 Jul

Another day in the Labour leadership contest, another open letter.

This time it’s backing Owen Smith MP in his fight against Jeremy Corbyn. Eight Newham councillors have signed:

  • Cllr Andrew Baikie
  • Cllr David Christie
  • Cllr Ian Corbett
  • Cllr James Beckles
  • Cllr Jo Corbett
  • Cllr Mas Patel
  • Cllr Patricia Holland
  • Cllr Quintin Peppiatt

In addition, both Newham MPs, Lyn Brown and Stephen Timms, are among those who formally nominated Smith.

UPDATE (19 August 2016)

Councillors Salim Patel, Aleen Alarice and Alan Griffiths have now added their names to the list of signatories

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