Whistleblown

2 Sep

Halima Khan speaking at a Workers Party event

Halima Khan, the self-described ‘whistleblower of the Labour Party’ has lost her Employment Tribunal case against the party.

She claimed that Labour unfairly dismissed and racially discriminated against her. The tribunal found that it didn’t.

Ms Khan stood in the general election in Stratford and Bow for George Galloway’s Workers Party GB, achieving 7.5% of the vote and third place.

The full judgement can be found here.

One small detail that I find utterly jaw-dropping is that, despite her job at head office investigating complaints about party members, Ms Khan “was not herself a member of the Party.”

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Beckton and Little Ilford by-election results

29 Jul

Two local council by-elections held on 18 July, two weeks after the general election, caused by the resignations of Elizabeth Booker and James Asset.

Beckton

Candidate Party Votes Percent
Blossom Young Labour 597 38.7%
Shahzad Abbasi Newham Ind Party 476 30.9%
Justine Levoir Green 228 14.8%
Maria Clifford Conservative 144 9.3%
James Alan-Rumsby Liberal Democrat 96 6.2%

Turnout was 13.55%.

Little Ilford

Candidate Party Votes Percent
Akthural Alam Labour 884 39.0%
Tahir Mirza Newham Ind Party 738 32.5%
Akm Mahinbur Rahman Liberal Democrat 274 12.1%
Vijay Parthiban Independent 163 7.2%
Mohamadu Faheem Conservative 104 4.6%
Joe Oteng Green 103 4.6%

Turnout was 18.3%.

In my post about the Forest Gate North and Maryland by-elections which were held on the same day as the general election I said that these contests would be more challenging for the incumbents. And in truth I expected Labour to lose Little Ilford. Tahir Mirza, the Newham Independent candidate, had just finished as runner-up to Stephen Timms in East Ham in the general election with around 7,000 votes. He lives in Little Ilford. Surely this was going to be his day. But for some reason his vote did not turn out and Labour’s ground operation ensured that theirs did. I am incredibly pleased for Akthural Alam, who showed tremendous courage putting himself forward again after losing Plaistow North last year. 

The other surprise in Little Ilford was the respectable showing for the Liberal Democrat candidate. Having read his campaign material I have to wonder how much control the national party has over what gets published in their name. Mr Rahman appeared to be fishing for voters in the same pool as Tahir Mirza – overtly anti-Labour and pro-motorist. He also seems to have been asleep for the past two years, as he insisted that there was no opposition to Labour on the council.

In Beckton the excellent Blossom Young held off the Newham Independents in what can only be described as an appallingly low turnout contest. I know it was only two weeks after the general election, but 13.55% demonstrates a shocking level of disengagement by voters.

Hopefully these are the last by-elections in this council term and voters won’t be asked to turn out again until May 2026.

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FGN and Maryland by-election results

11 Jul

Two local council by-elections held on the same day as the general election, caused by the resignations of Sasha Das Gupta and Ken Penton.

Forest Gate North

Candidate Party Votes Percent
Liz Cronin Labour 1757 43.0%
Zakaria Bhariwala Newham Ind Party 1073 26.3%
Zahra Kheyre Green 810 19.8%
Malcolm Madden Conservative 251 6.1%
Jamie Bryant Liberal Democrat 192 4.7%

Turnout was 53.35%.

Maryland

Candidate Party Votes Percent
Melanie Onovo Labour 1626 43.0%
Linda Jordan Newham Ind Party 896 23.7%
Chris Brooks Green 712 18.8%
Mary Antwi Conservative 360 9.5%
David Terrar Liberal Democrat 185 4.9%

Turnout was 41.25%.

There were no surprises and Labour held both seats comfortably. The Newham Independents threw everything at the campaigns, with a mountain of leaflets, a small army of canvassers and even digital advertising vans touring the streets, but to no avail. Their brand of grievance-based communitarian populism has a more limited appeal in this part of the borough.

The Greens will be disappointed to have given up second place but their shares here both exceeded the 17.7% they achieved across the entire Stratford & Bow constituency in the general election, despite limited campaigning. 

Neither the Tories nor the Lib Dems did any campaigning. We got a single Conservative leaflet combining their GE and local candidates but nothing from Liberals – not even the standard free post delivery. The resulting vote shares were par for the course. 

Attention now turns to Little Ilford and Beckton, which vote on July 18th. Both will be more challenging for the incumbents.

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More council by-election candidates

24 Jun

The statements of persons nominated for the Beckton and Little Ilford by-elections have been published.

Beckton

  • Shahzad Abbasi, Newham Independents Candidate
  • James Alan-Rumsby, Liberal Democrats
  • Maria Clifford, Conservatives
  • Levoir Justine, Green Party
  • Blossom Young, Labour Party

Little Ilford

  • Akhtural Alam, Labour Party
  • Mohammad Faheem, The Conservative Party Candidate
  • Tahir Mirza, Newham Independents Candidate
  • Joe Oteng, Green Party
  • Vijay Parthian, Independent Candidate
  • Akm Mahinur Rahman, Liberal Democrats

The elections will take place on Thursday 18 July. The last date to register to vote is Tuesday 2 July and postal vote applications must reach the council by 5 pm on Wednesday 3 July.

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Not so independent

14 Jun

The defintion of independent

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘independent’ as “not belonging to or supported by a political party.”

Which creates a paradox for Cllrs Mehmood Mirza, Sophia Naqvi and Zuber Gulamussen.

At the start of June the Electoral Commission approved the Newham Independents Party’s application to register as a political party. So now the Independents are a party, they are no longer independents.

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Council by-elections – your candidates

12 Jun

Voters going to the polls on 4 July in two Newham council wards will have another ballot paper to complete – for local by-elections.

Councillors Sasha Das Gupta (Forest Gate North) and Ken Penton (Maryland) have resigned and the contests to replace them are being held on the same day as the general election. A further by-election in Beckton will be held two weeks later – the deadline for nominations in that contest is Friday 21 June.

The candidates are:

Forest Gate North

  • Zakaria Bhariwala, Newham Independents
  • Jamie Bryant, Liberal Democrats
  • Liz Cronin, Labour Party
  • Zahra Kheyre, Green Party
  • Malcolm Madden, Local Conservatives

Maryland

  • Mary Antwi, Local Conservatives
  • Chris Brooks, Green Party
  • Linda Jordan, Newham Independents
  • Melanie Onovo, Labour Party
  • David Terrar, Liberal Democrats

Labour is defending the seats and will expect the higher turnout from the general election to boost their chances of holding them.

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Election 2024 – your candidates

11 Jun

Nominations for the parliamentary election have closed and the full list of candidates has been published. Newham’s two previously oversized seats have been abolished and replaced with three – one of which crosses the border to include three wards from Tower Hamlets.

East Ham

  • Hillary Briffa, Liberal Democrats
  • Maria Higson, Conservatives
  • Tahir Mirza, Independent
  • Daniel Oxley, Reform UK
  • Rosie Pearce, Green Party
  • Satish Ramadoss, Independent
  • Anand Sundar, Independent
  • Stephen Timms, Labour

Stratford and Bow

  • Nizam Ali, Independent
  • Kane Blackwell, Conservatives
  • Jeff Evans, Reform UK
  • Omar Faruk, Independent
  • Steve Hedley, Independent
  • Joe Hudson-Small, Green Party
  • Halima Khan, Workers Party
  • Uma Kumaran, Labour Party
  • Fiona Lali, Independent
  • Janey Little, Liberal Democrat

West Ham and Beckton

  • James Asser, Labour Party
  • Lois Austin, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
  • Emily Bigland, Liberal Democrats
  • Rob Callender, Green Party
  • Georgie David, Reform UK
  • Sophia Naqvi, Newham Independents
  • Holly Ramsey, Conservatives
  • Kayode Shedowo, Chrstian Peoples Alliance

Disclosure: I am a Labour Party member and signed the nomination papers for our candidate in Stratford and Bow.

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Further matters of interest

5 Jan

Cllr Sophia Naqvi posing with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

What does Jeremy think about buy-to-let landlords?

Cllr Sophia Naqvi’s register of interests has been published and it reveals that she, like the leader of her political group, is a multi-property owning landlord.

In addition to the home they live in, Cllr Naqvi and her partner own a further five properties in Newham – two in her own name, two in her spouse’s and one jointly owned. No doubt a tax-efficient arrangement of assets.

The latest recruit to the Landlords Alliance is former councillor Idris Ibrahim, who will be one of the three candidates for Green Street West. As the final register of interests from his single previous term shows, he is very much a junior member – just the one extra house. 

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WTF just happened, part 2

14 Dec

Newham Independents camapigners in yellow h-viz jackets

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.

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Secret by-election

23 Oct

Former councillor Daniel Lee-Phakoe

Former councillor Daniel Lee-Phakoe

There’s going to be a by-election in Plaistow North. Not that you’d know it from the council website.

Cllr Daniel Lee-Phakoe resigned a week ago, on 16 October, for personal reasons. This created a ‘casual vacancy’ in his ward and assuming more than one candidate is nominated it will be filled following an election.

In order for people to stand they have to know an election is happening. So the returning officer (in this case the council Chief Executive) publishes a notice. These days that means an announcement on the council website.

But if you look on the homepage, there’s no notice. No mention of an upcoming election. Nor in Latest News. Or even on the council’s Twitter page.

Okay, so maybe it’s under Your Council. So click the hamburger menu, top right and scroll down to the bottom. Nothing obvious there, but a menu of other sub-sections and a link to results from May 6th (that’s May 6th 2022, more than a year ago). There’s also results from recent by-elections in Boleyn and Wall End and an archive of previous results. But nothing for upcoming elections.

Let’s try Voting in Newham.

If you look at that on a laptop or tablet there’s nothing obvious, but if you scroll down you might spot a link for Statutory Election Notices.

And there you have it – notice of a casual vacancy, dated 17 October, and Notice of Election Plaistow North, dated 19 October.

It takes five clicks to find the notice of election, and that’s assuming you knew to start looking.

There’s also a Timetable of Proceedings for the by-election, but that’s on a different page.

Long story short, the by-election is being held on Thursday 23 November and if you want to stand you need to get your papers in by 4 pm this Friday (27 October 2023).

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