Matters of interest

20 Sep

Cllr Mehmood Mirza

The recently elected councillor for Boleyn ward, Mehmood Mirza, has published his register of interests.

And it is, to say the least, interesting given his personal brand as a Corbynite man of the people.

In the section on land, he declares that he owns eight properties, either directly or through his company Phoenix M Properties Limited. Addresses for seven are provided: 

  • 79B Selsdon Road E13 9BZ 
  • 28 Eversleigh Road E6 1HQ 
  • 29 Patrick Road E13 9QA 
  • 11 St Martin’s Avenue E6 3DU 
  • 47 Central Park Road E6 3DZ 
  • 24 Orwell Road London E13 9DH 
  • 76 Strone Road London E7 8EU

The location of the eighth is withheld as

The Monitoring Officer has agreed the disclosure of the Member’s home address is a sensitive interest under s.32 of the Localism Act 2011.

While declaring eight properties in the borough might meet the legal requirement, Cllr Mirza is being modest about the extent of his rental empire. Three of the houses are sub-divided into flats on which he either currently or has in the past had selective (which is to say landlord) licenses. These are 76 Strone Road, 24 Orwell Road and 28 Eversleigh Road. 

Cllr Mirza was granted a selective licence for the ground floor flat at 76 Stone Road on 3 August 2023, after he was elected; Phoenix M Properties was granted a licence for the first floor flat on 22 June. The contact address for both applications was First Floor Flat, 24 Orwell Road. In 2010 Mirza was granted a “Certificate of Lawfulness for an Existing Use as 2 x 1 bedroom flats” at Orwell Road.

At 28 Eversleigh Road, Mirza has held a selective license since December 2020 for Flat 2 at that address. And documents publicly available on the Companies House website show that Phoenix M Properties has two mortgages on the house – one for 28 and another for 28A.

This extensive portfolio of rental units puts Mirza top of the league of Newham councillor-landlords. No mean achievement given the number of competitors.

Elsewhere in Mirza’s declaration, Labour officials will raise an eyebrow at section 2. This is where councillors declare who has made donations to, among other things, their election expenses. Mirza lists Unite the Union and the GMB. As both unions are affiliated to Labour it is unlikely that either would contribute to a candidate running against the party. I suspect that Mirza has simply filled the form out incorrectly. His union memberships should appear in section 8 – other interests. Though quite why a company director and landlord should be a member of two trade unions is a bit of a mystery.

Companies House records show that Cllr Mirza is the sole director and company secretary of Phoenix M Properties Limited. He is the sole ‘person with significant control’, owning more than 75% of the shares and voting rights in the business. His occupation is given as ‘Property Management’. However the section on his register of interests where he is asked to “state any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain” he doesn’t mention being either a company director or property manager; he says he is a legal advisor.

Now that the extent of his property holdings is public it will be entertaining to see how his supporters square this with the idea he is a left-wing hero.

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They work for you (kind of)

28 Jul

Hat tip to former councillor Andrew Baikie for his recent Freedom of Information request, asking how much constituent casework each councillor has been logging on the council’s i-Casework system.

He asked:

Please can you provide:

Data (numbers thereof) for Member (Councillor ) Enquiries logged by Newham Council between May 9th 2022 and May 8th 2023, broken down by :

1. Each Ward

2. Within 1) then broken down by individual Ward Member.

Although it took the information governance team an age to respond, they eventually did.

The data comes with a mild health warning: although i-Casework is the primary system for managing member enquiries (i.e. casework)…

…Councillors have a number of ways of raising issues on behalf of their constituents, or helping their constituents to raise issues themselves through the most appropriate channels, such as the Council website and online forms. Similarly councillors may refer issues directly to services for their direct action and assistance. Where councillors have assisted their constituents in these ways they would not be recorded centrally on the casework system. As such, the data shared below should be treated as only a partial representation of all of the casework that councillors undertake as we are aware that a significant amount of casework does get administered and managed ‘off’ of the i-casework system through emails and other channels of contact.

So, to the data. Broken down by ward

Ward Total enquiries
Beckton 419
Boleyn 54
Canning Town North 74
Canning Town South 55
Custom House 143
East Ham 110
East Ham South 147
Forest Gate North 111
Forest Gate South 47
Green Street East 103
Green Street West 213
Little Ilford 93
Manor Park 238
Maryland 68
Plaistow North 108
Plaistow South 82
Plaistow West & Canning Town East 120
Plashet 128
Royal Albert 48
Royal Victoria 33
Stratford 84
Stratford Olympic Park 116
Wall End 119
West Ham 102

And by councillor. The original response sorts the results by ward, but I have put them in rank order

Councillors Enquiries Ward
Asser, James 376 Beckton
Godfrey, Lewis 166 Green St West
Patel, Salim 134 Manor Park
Tripp, Rachel 110 Forest Gate N
Dawood, Mariam 101 Manor Park
Gulamussen, Zuber 98 Plashet
Masters, Susan 82 East Ham South
Higgins, Nate 80 Stratford OP
Hudson, Lester 80 Wall End
Morris, John 79 Plaistow W & CTE
Patel, Miraj 70 Green St East
Laguda MBE, Joy 67 Plaistow North
Booker, Elizabeth 60 Little Ilford
Whitworth, John 58 West Ham
Beckles, James 57 Custom House
Kamali, Sabia 57 Stratford
Shah, Lakmini 49 East Ham S
Corben, Carolyn 49 Maryland
Haque, Imam 48 East Ham
Chadha, Rita 47 Canning Town N
Ruiz, Sarah Jane 46 Custom House
Easter, Canon Ann 46 Royal Albert
Gray, John 42 West Ham
Odoi, Thelma 40 Custom House
Rush, Simon 40 Plaistow W & CTE
Keeling, Danny 36 Stratford OP
Wilson, Neil 35 Plaistow South
Ferdous, Shantu 34 East Ham
Wilson, Tonii 33 Beckton
Adaja, Caroline 33 Royal Victoria
Khan, Mumtaz 32 Green St West
Charters, Luke 32 Wall End
Makwana, Pushpa Dipaklal 30 Plashet
Ali, Zulfiqar 29 Plaistow North
Dasgupta, Dr Rohit Kumar 28 Canning Town S
Falola, Femi 28 East Ham
Lofthouse, Jane 28 Plaistow South
Welsch, Cecelia 21 Boleyn
Singh Virdee, Harvinder 20 Boleyn
Rahman, Muzibur 20 Green St East
Penton, Ken 19 Maryland
Lee-Phakoe, Carleene 19 Plaistow South
Chowdhury, Areeq 18 Canning Town N
Bashar, Syed 18 Little Ilford
Paul, Terence 18 Stratford
Griffiths, Alan 17 Canning Town S
Islam, Anamul 17 Forest Gate S
Sarley-Pontin, Madeleine 17 Forest Gate S
Alam, Musawwar 16 East Ham South
Virdee, Amar 15 Green St West
Begum, Nur 15 Little Ilford
Gani, Mohammed 13 Boleyn
Vaughan, Winston 13 Forest Gate S
Zilickaja, Larisa 13 Green St East
Lee-Phakoe, Daniel 12 Plaistow North
Rahman, Rohima 10 Beckton
Guaña, Belgica 10 Canning Town S
Mohammed, Shaban 9 Canning Town N
Garfield, Joshua 9 Stratford
McAlmont, Jemima 7 Wall End
Bailey, Jennifer 3 Manor Park
McAlmont, Anthony 2 Royal Albert
McLean, Charlene 2 West Ham
DasGupta, Sasha 1 Forest Gate N
Hossain, Dina 1 Plaistow W & CTE
Brayshaw, Stephen – Royal Victoria

Even given the health warning that not all casework flows through the system there is a remarkable variance between the casework being logged across the council.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

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WTF just happened?

17 Jul

This was not the news I was expecting to wake up to on Friday morning:

Boleyn (Newham) council by-election result:

IND: 42.5% (+42.5)

LAB: 32.1% (-27.0)

GRN: 21.1% (+3.5)

CON: 2.5% (-15.6)

REF: 0.8% (+0.8)

LDEM: 0.8% (+0.8)

Votes cast: 2,710

Independent GAIN from Labour.

The Independent in question is Mehmood Mirza, a figure well-known (and not necessarily in a good way) to local Labour people.

For those fortunate enough not to have encountered him before, the excellent Newham 65 blog addressed the question Who is Mehmood Mirza? 

Mehmood Mirza has surprised many by winning Thursday’s by-election in Boleyn ward. But who is he, and what does he stand for?

He has described his occupation variously as a legal adviser, a campaigner and a human rights activist, but he is also a significant private landlord. He currently owns ten properties in the borough, which will make him – since the departure of Ayesha Chowdhury from the council last year – the most propertied Newham councillor-landlord.

The piece is worth reading in full for a flavour of what we can expect to see in council meetings over the next three years. His first outing as Cllr Mirza will be on Wednesday. 

Lewis Baston, writing for the On London blog tried to take a broader view of why Labour had lost a seemingly safe seat.

Mirza’s win came as a surprise to most observers, although he had obviously run an effective campaign on the quiet. While Labour dominates in Newham, other candidates poll a third of the votes cast even at a peak Labour elections such as 2018. There – particularly with the focus of a local by-election – there is still the critical mass required for a challenge in the right ward at the right moment.

I don’t think anyone in Boleyn would have described the Mirza campaign as being run on the quiet. But the point about a potentially critical mass of non-Labour voters that can coalesce around the right message is well made. As Baston notes

Boleyn was one of the three best Newham wards for Respect in 2006, when it mounted the most successful recent challenge to Labour’s ascendancy. Mirza’s vote in 2023 mobilised some of this left of Labour and independent strand of opinion, and he was assisted by left wing campaigners. Some of Mirza’s policies were not particularly socialist – he said he was in favour of free car parking and a lower council tax, so he might have attracted some Conservative-inclined voters too.

Some? The Tory vote collapsed completely! Mirza basically stole their local policies – opposing LTNs and parking charges – and combined them with a hefty dollop of anti-establishment populism. As in May 2022, Mirza’s actual policy platform – as opposed to his left-wing posturing – was indistinguishable from the Conservatives.

Open Newham, the voice of the dispossessed ancien regime, wasted no time in pointing the finger

This is an indictment on Mayor Fiaz. In five years, she has taken Labour from a seemingly impenetrable position to one in which Labour appears vulnerable; she has alienated her colleagues on the council; and faces serious accusations of bullying of staff and colleagues.

The two constituency parties remain suspended by the Labour Party. There is a real doubt that Fiaz would have been reselected if the members had been allowed to choose in 2022.

The election of Mehmood Mirza will not mean that the voting arithmetic on the council has significantly altered. It will mean that there is a consistent and hostile, independent opposition voice who will seek to hold the mayor to account. If Fiaz experienced some discomfort at council meetings before, we can only anticipate that this will increase in the future.

Over on Twitter the Jeremy Corbyn fan club was in equally jubilant mood, declaring

Seat taken by a staunch Corbyn supporter standing as an independent – up yours Akehurst and co

And

Newham folk don’t like being stitched up by Central Office & [having] candidates foisted on them.

Which ignores two inconvenient facts. Firstly, that in neighbouring Wall End ward Labour’s vote share went up by 12 percentage points with a candidate selected in the exact same way. 

And secondly, that staunch Corbyn supporter is a buy to let landlord with multiple properties who swans round the place in a huge Mercedes & campaigns on lowering taxes, abolishing parking charges and removing LTNs.

Maybe get your head out of your arse, understand that most voters neither know nor care about Labour’s internal processes and recalibrate your political compass.

None of which is to ignore the fact that this result is an absolute disaster for the Labour party in Newham. Losing two seats to the Greens is one thing; losing a third to a populist campaign like Mirza’s is altogether more threatening. Just look across the borough boundary to Tower Hamlets. 

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Paul and Beckles quit

16 May

Cllrs Terry Paul and James Beckles

Before the mayor had the chance to announce her new executive team two members of her previous cabinet announced their decisions to stand down.

First was Cllr Terry Paul

It’s been an honour to serve the residents of Newham since 2018 as the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, but with regret, I have declined the offer of a different role in Cabinet.

I’m proud to have restored Newham’s financial sustainability and improved its governance and reputation. I have left Newham’s finances in a better place than when I found them, and Newham is in the best financial position to face the challenges of the future.

Over the last four years there are many achievements I’m proud of, but my personal highlights were:

  1. The Covid-19 response: Newham spent £30m keeping services going and protecting residents. This was meaningful to me as I had to shield during the early stages of the pandemic;
  2. The London Living Wage was given to 700 care workers across Newham to the London Living Wage, making sure that those caring for our most vulnerable residents were rewarded fairly for their work. Thanks to this, we were also able to sign up to UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter.
  3. Restructuring the Council finances to provide more money for services: through more efficient use of council funds, we found ways to improve funding for Young People, Children & Adult services, and libraries.
  4. Taking on the banks: Newham renegotiated better terms on its disastrous LOBO loans of circa £435m, reducing our interest payments to the banks and freeing up money for council services.
  5. Addressed the need for improved temporary accommodation in Newham, developing a Temporary Accommodation Housing Programme over 18 months to provide quality homes for people in urgent need.

I’d like to thank my Cabinet and council colleagues for their commitment to making Newham a better place. No one goes into local politics without a desire to improve their local area, and that is apparent in the work all my fellow councilors do for their communities.

It’s a privilege to have the trust of Stratford’s voters, and I intend to continue working hard and speaking up strongly for them over the next four years.

The digital ink was barely dry before Cllr James Beckles announced that he too was returning to the back benches:

After nearly 3 and a half years in the cabinet, I will be stepping down as the Cabinet Member for Crime and Community Safety. It has been a privilege to serve the people of Newham leading a front-line service that has positively impacted the lives of many of our residents.

I’m proud of a number of things that have been accomplished in my three years including:

  • Launching Newham Council’s Women’s Night Safety Charter with Stratford Business Crime Reduction Partnership.
  • Maintaining a council-funded Met police team, able to respond to council priorities.
  • The Days of Action every six weeks tackling ward-based anti-social behaviour.
  • Newham’ Trading Standards, Licensing, and Regulatory Services team winning a National Hero Award from the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards for their rigorous inspection work during the pandemic.
  • Launching our council’s Modern Day Slavery Strategy.
  • Co-ordinated work with the Met Police to disrupt and arrest drug dealers in Stratford Park.
  • A Violence and Vulnerability Reduction Action Plan commended by the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.

All this could not have been achieved without the dedication and hard work of council officers who are the backbone of our organisation and turn our political ideas into reality.

I’m looking forward to the new term and working for the people of Custom House, who have put their trust and votes in me and my ward colleagues.

Reaction from across Labour’s political spectrum was swift and consistent.

Rita Chadha, recently elected in Canning Town North, said on Twitter

 

Known @Terrympaul for more than 20 years, not always agreed, but you would be hard pressed to find a better representative and public servant. A big loss to the cabinet in Newham

 

Former councillor Daniel Blaney, very much from the left of the party, tweeted

 

Unbelievable! Me & Terry are on different sides when it comes to Labour Party NEC elections and argue all the time, but he delivered progressive policies like London Living Wage for careworkers. This is disappointing news.

To misquote Oscar Wilde, “To lose one cabinet member, Ms Fiaz, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.”

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Ten things about the election

11 May

1. Turnout was abysmal

Perhaps to spare the blushes of the various parties and candidates that fought the election the council has not published any turnout figures, although reports on social media from the count said it was just over 28% for the mayoral election. Looking at the number of votes cast in some wards, it will have been lower than that in a number of places. This is shocking and everyone involved in Newham politics needs to take a long look at themselves and ask why the local electorate has become so disengaged.

2. Labour still dominates

The party won 64 council seats and retained the mayoralty. It took 56.2% of the votes for mayor and 61.5% for council. Although this was not the 100% sweep of recent elections, Labour is still by far the biggest force in Newham politics. Across the 26 wards in the council election the party took 100,535 votes.

3. The Greens are number two

For the first time since 2006 an opposition party won seats on the council, as the Greens took both in the newly created Stratford Olympic Park ward. They were the only other party to field a full slate of 66 candidates (the Tories had 65). Although they narrowly missed out on second place in the mayoral election they finished as runners-up on total votes across the council election with 27,268 – 4,000 ahead of Tories.

4. Your surname is worth votes!

In 21 of the 26 wards the candidate with the most votes had a surname closer to the front of the alphabet than their party colleagues. So in Beckton James Asser finished ahead of Rohima Rahman and Tonii Wilson. In Green Street West Lewis Godfrey topped the poll, followed by Mumtaz Khan and Ama Virdee. The candidates that bucked this trend were Rachel Tripp, Neil Wilson, Mariam Dawood, Steve Brayshaw and Imam Haque.

5. Is Manor Park Labour’s safest seat?

Measured by the gap between the lowest ranked elected councillor and the highest ranked loser, Manor Park is the safest ward in Newham. The opposition will have to close a gap of 1,647 votes to take even one of the three seats.

6. Or is it Maryland?

The new Maryland ward saw Labour score its highest individual vote share, with Carolyn Corben getting 33.8%. Her running mate Ken Penton scored 30.3%, more than 20 points clear of the next best candidate. Given the entire ward is covered by low traffic neighbourhoods and the candidates were unashamedly in favour of them on the doorstep, this should be seen as a vindication of the policy. 

7. Plashet is the most marginal ward

On the same basis, the newly created two councillor ward of Plashet is the Borough’s most marginal. Independent Mehmood Mriza finished just 196 votes behind Labour’s Pushpa Makwana. Beckton is also tight, with a margin of 230 and the Greens only have a 267 vote cushion between themselves and Labour taking back a seat in the Olympic Park.

8. The Independents got nowhere 

The group made a huge fuss about leaving ‘right wing’ Labour and standing on a ‘socialist’ platform of free parking permits, more traffic and setting illegal budgets. They won no seats and five of their seven candidates scored fewer than 200 votes.

9. The Christian Peoples Alliance is surely over

This has been true for several election cycles now, but they keep up coming back. This time their 26 candidates averaged just 131 votes and two of them recorded the joint lowest score across the entire borough with 25 votes each in Stratford Olympic Park. Maybe that’s God’s way of telling them to stop.

10. First Past the Post leaves many voters unrepresented

Labour took 61.5% of the votes and 97% of the seats. The Greens got 16% of the vote and 3% of the seats. The Conservatives got 14% of the vote and no seats at all. Is that fair? I don’t think so.

 

UPDATES (13 May)

First of all, a bonus thing about the election: more people voted to abolish the Mayor in last year’s referendum (36,424) than voted for the mayor last Thursday (35,696). I know it changes nothing, that turnout was lower and it’s a binary choice versus a multi-candidate election, but it amuses me.

Secondly, Cllr Nate Higgins has been in touch to point out – quite reasonably – that looking at closeness by number of votes instead of by percentages makes it seems like the smaller wards are closer than they actually are. The Greens are almost 20 points clear of Labour in Stratford Olympic Park; it’s just a low population ward (because of expected growth). 

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No surprises

11 May

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To absolutely no-one’s surprise Rokhsana Fiaz was re-elected for a second term as mayor of Newham.

The Labour and Co-op candidate took comfortably more than 50% of the first preference votes. Conservative Attic Rahman finished second, narrowly ahead of the Green Party’s Rob Callender.

Candidate Party Votes Percent
Attic Rahman Conservative Party 7,390 11.64%
Lois Austin Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 2,096 3.30%
Simeon Adewole Ademolake Christian Peoples Alliance 2,405 3.79%
Saleyha Ahsan Liberal Democrat 3,528 5.56%
Robert Alexander Callender The Green Party 7,003 11.03%
Rokhsana Fiaz Labour and Co-operative Party 35,696 56.23%
Mehmood Mirza Independent 5,369 8.46%
  Total 63,487  

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Who’s side are you on?

2 May

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Mehmood Mirza is standing as an independent candidate for the Mayor of Newham.

At a Mayoral hustings last week, at which Mr Mirza did not appear in person – preferring instead to be represented by a member of his campaign team – the issue of his property portfolio was raised.

Despite posturing as a left-wing socialist Mehmood Mirza is a significant private landlord. He and his property company, Phoenix M Properties Ltd (No. 10216604), own or control at least 10 homes in Newham. Filings at Companies House show that Mr Mirza is the sole shareholder and director of the company.

The availability of good quality, affordable housing is a huge issue in Newham. According to the Office for National Statistics 35.5% of households in the borough live in the Private Rented Sector. Many of these homes suffer from overcrowding, disrepair and have poor standards of amenity and thermal efficiency at a time when energy costs are heading skywards. Combatting abuses by private landlords and improving standards has been a priority for the council under both the Wales and Fiaz administrations.

Were he to be elected, Mehmood Mirza would have a significant conflict of interest to manage between his role as Mayor in enforcing the Council’s policies on the Private Rented Sector and his role as a rentier property owner whose actions would be regulated by, er, himself.  It is unclear as to how he would resolve these conflicts.

Mirza has said very little about how he would treat the Private Rented Sector if he were elected as Mayor of Newham. His published leaflets are silent on the matter.

By contrast, the Labour manifesto for Newham is quite clear on its approach to the private rented sector, stating that the next Labour Council will:

  • Seek Government approval to extend the private landlord registration scheme for an unprecedented third term of 5 more years.  It will include all Temporary Accommodation.
  • Introduce an enhanced inspection regime for the private rented sector in Newham, zero tolerance of poor landlords and provide the staffing resources needed for rigorous enforcement activity.
  • Set clear property standards so that landlords have to provide high quality housing that has good space standards, is safe and well managed.
  • Place particular emphasis on establishing minimum standards of energy efficiency so that private rented homes meet EPC Band C where practical, cost effective and affordable and also have high standards of security. 
  • Campaign for a future Labour Government to introduce both rent controls and security of tenure, subject to cause, for private rented sector tenants.

So here are ten questions Mr Mirza needs to urgently answer ahead of the polls on Thursday:

  1. How many homes do you and any companies that you have an interest of any sort in, own in Newham?
  2. Do you charge more than the Local Housing Allowance to any of your tenants/occupants and by how many percent have you increased your rents in the last one, two, five and 10 years?
  3. Are (or have) any of the homes that you own/control /have a beneficial interest in ever been in a state of disrepair or had repairs outstanding for more than a short period of time?
  4. 35.5% of homes are in the Private Rented in Newham. How can the residents of these homes expect you to treat them fairly when you are a significant private landlord?
  5. As a significant private landlord, explain how there would be no conflict of interest between your role as a landlord seeking to maximise your profits and your role as Mayor policing the private rented sector in Newham and rooting out wrongdoing?
  6. If you were elected Mayor would you rid yourself of all interests in the property you own or control and, if so, how would you do this? If not, how would you resolve your conflicts as a private landlord with the responsibilities of the Mayorality?
  7. How would you ensure that all the decisions you made on the private rented sector were open and accountable to scrutiny?
  8. What lawful policies would you pursue as Mayor to increase the supply of social rented homes and reduce that of private rented homes?
  9. Do you agree that the Council should crack down on private landlords, campaign for security of tenure for private tenants and for rent controls? Should the Council issue Compulsory Purchase Orders on the homes operated by private Landlords in Newham who misbehave?
  10. How much income do you receive in either salary or dividends from the homes that you own/control/have a beneficial interest in, directly or indirectly, and is this the income that allows you to say that you will only take a Living Wage from the Council?

The people of Newham deserve answers. Will they be voting for someone who is on their side, or the side of landlords?

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Spot the difference – 2022 edition

18 Apr

Mirza and Rahman

Below are a dozen policy statements, six from Conservative mayoral candidate Attic Rahman and six from his independent rival Mehmood Mirza. But can you tell which is which?

  • employ new community patrol officer teams to pursue those who drop litter and issue on the spot fines
  • effective enforcement to deal with flytipping and rubbish on our streets
  • a thorough review of parking across the borough to ensure residents and businesses are not punished
  • meaningful consultation on parking issues
  • abolish the first car MiPermit tax to help meet the cost of living
  • free first car permit for every household
  • more resources for the police to tackle crime and support those who want to live in a peaceful and safe borough
  • bring back our own enforcement team to deal with crime, drugs and prostitution
  • primary school children will receive a free breakfast
  • invest in youth centres and services
  • raise housing standards to support private renters
  • no more council tax increases – freeze council tax for four years

Harder than you would imagine, given Mr Rahman’s professed admiration for Boris Johnson and Mirza’s previous Corbynite affectations.

By coincidence, both are also standing for council in Plashet ward. Neither has a running mate, so their almost identical policy platform means it would make sense for them to campaign together.

UPDATE: I am grateful to Tim Roll-Pickering on Twitter for pointing out that the lack of second Conservative candidate in Plashet last year was down to the Returning Officer rejecting a nomination paper and not informing the party agent when there was time to replace it. A revised Statement of Persons Nominated showed this after a complaint was raised.

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Greens announce a full slate

5 Apr

For the first time in its history, the Green Party will be fielding a full slate of candidates for the local elections: 66 candidates across all 24 wards in the borough, and a candidate for Mayor of Newham. The party’s aim, it says, is to elect the first opposition councillors in Newham since 2006, in Stratford Olympic Park and Beckton wards, and to beat the Conservatives to become Newham’s second party.

In 2018, the Newham Green Party stood just 11 candidates and in 2014 just two. Standing a full slate in every ward places the party in a strong position to beat the Conservatives across Newham and to firmly define itself as Newham’s second party. No other currently active national party has ever succeeded in fielding a full slate of candidates in Newham, besides Labour and the Conservatives.

Nate Higgins, co-chair of the Newham Green Party, who is standing in Stratford Olympic Park said: “When I set out over a year ago to recruit the widest and most diverse slate of candidates the Newham Green Party has ever fielded, I never even dreamed we would be this successful. In one of the most diverse and young London Boroughs, I am proud we have a slate of candidates who are more like the people we wish to represent than ever before, and who share their experiences. With 66 candidates in this election, we are now in a fantastic position to beat the Conservatives across Newham for the first time ever, and to elect some opposition councillors. I know through my year-round hard work in my home ward of Stratford Olympic Park how excited people are about having the chance to vote Green for the first time, and I know we can win.”

The Greens claim that this slate of candidates represents the party’s most diverse ever, with a wide range of ethnic minority, women, young, working class, and LGBTIQA+ candidates. Almost every ward has at least one woman or non-binary candidate standing.

Danny Keeling, the other co-chair of the Newham Green Party and also a candidate in Stratford Olympic Park said “The Green Party stands ready to give Newham voters the chance to use all of their votes on a Green Party candidate for the first time ever. Greens will not let the people of Newham down like Labour and the Conservatives consistently have.”

The full list of Green candidates:

Beckton

Solveig Bourgeon
Karen Webb Green
Alison McLucas

Boleyn

Peter Bright
Helen Lynch
Roxana Toderascu

Canning Town North

Charlotte Croft
Oscar Lessing
Cassie Leanne Thomas

Canning Town South

Oliver Reynolds
Deb Scott
Benjamin Ian Smith

Custom House

Gareth Bannister
Sean Labode
Rupa Sarkar

East Ham South

Mark Lamptey-Harding
Alex Mchugh
Liam Palmer

East Ham

Tim Boxall
Maddy Catriona
Ed Toso

Forest Gate North

Gary Pendlebury
Mike Spracklin

Forest Gate South

Ben Beeler
Kieren Jones
Emma Sorrell

Green St East

Tassadduq Cheema
Joe Hudson-Small
Rose Waddilove

Green St West

Ron Harris
Adam Mitchell
Joseph Henry Sorrell-Roberts

Little Ilford

Terrence Stamp
Amy Wilson
Waleed Zuoriki

Manor Park

Deyan Atansov
Ros Bedlow
Jenny Duval

Maryland

Chris Brooks
Ainsley Vinall

Plaistow North
Elsa Malki
Francis Moore
Aki Turan

Plaistow South

Nicholas Drew Dowden
Iain Mckeil
Anca Zahan

Plaistow West & Canning Town East

Jacintha Christopher
Christopher Luke Slevin
Peter Whittle

Plashet

Stephen Charles
Joshua Robinson

Royal Albert

Jane Lithgow
Daniel Rodrigues

Royal Victoria

Rob Callender
Gloria Goncalves

Stratford Olympic Park

Nate Higgins
Danny Keeling

Stratford

Pau Ingles
Moira Lascelles
Ed Lynch

Wall End

Melanie Bax
James Peter Buttress
Matthew Talbot Savage

West Ham

Clare Hardy
Lyubo Ivanov
Ben Parker

Mayor of Newham

Rob Callender

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Your 2022 – 2026 councillors… probably

26 Mar

Finally, we have a slate of @newham_labour candidates for the election in May.

Although other parties – and the voters! – will have their say, recent electoral history suggests these will be the 66 councillors filling the benches for the next four years.

Sitting councillors are marked with a * although boundary changes mean some are now standing in a different ward

BECKTON
James Asser*
Rohima Rahman
Tonii Wilson*

BOLEYN
Mohammed Osman Gani
Harvinder Virdee*
Cecilia Welsh

CANNING TOWN NORTH
Rita Chadha
Areeq Chowdhury
Shaban Mohammed*

CANNING TOWN SOUTH
Rohit Dasgupta*
Alan Griffiths*
Belgica Guana*

CUSTOM HOUSE
James Beckles*
Thelma Odoi
Sarah Ruiz*

EAST HAM
Olufemi Falola
Haque Imamul
Shantu Ferdous

EAST HAM SOUTH
Mussawar Alam
Susan Masters*
Lakmini Shah*

FOREST GATE NORTH
Rachel Tripp*
Sasha Das Gupta*

FOREST GATE SOUTH
Anamul Islam*
Madeleine Sarley Pontin
Winston Vaughan*

GREEN STREET EAST
Larisa Kilickaja
Miraj Patel
Mohammed Muzibar Rahman*

GREEN STREET WEST
Lewis Godfrey
Mumtaz Khan*
Amar Virdee

LITTLE ILFORD
Elizabeth Booker
Nur Nahar Begum
Abul Bashar Syed

MANOR PARK
Jennifer Bailey*
Mariam Dawood*
Salim Patel*

MARYLAND
Caroline Corben 
Ken Penton 

PLAISTOW NORTH
Zulfiqar Ali*
Joy Laguda*
Daniel Lee-Phakoe*

PLAISTOW SOUTH
Carleene Lee-Phakoe*
Jane Lofthouse*
Neil Wilson*

PLAISTOW WEST & CANNING TOWN EAST
Dina Hossain 
John Morris
Simon Rush

PLASHET
Zuber Gulamussen*
Pushpa Makwana*

ROYAL ALBERT
Ann Easter*
Anthony McAlmont*

ROYAL VICTORIA
Caroline Adaja
Stephen Brayshaw*

STRATFORD
Joshua Garfield*
Sabia Kamali
Terry Paul*

STRATFORD OLYMPIC PARK
Nareser Osei*
Muhammad Ravat

WALL END
Luke Charters
Lester Hudson*
Jemima McAlmont

WEST HAM
John Gray*
Charlene McLean*
John Whitworth*

Congratulations to all those selected and commiserations to those who applied but were unsuccessful. 

UPDATE: the original version of this post listed Aisha Siddiquah, a sitting councillor, as candidate in East Ham and Alison Davenport, a new candidate, in Canning Town North. Cllr Siddiquah decided not to accept the nomination and was replaced by Shantu Ferdous. Ms Davenport’s nomination did not proceed and she was replaced by Areeq Chowdhury.

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