The Boleyn by-election will be held on Thursday 1 November. It has been called following the resignation of Veronica Oakeshott, who is moving away from London for family reasons. Cllr Oakeshott was first elected to the council in a by-election in 2015.
History
Boleyn ward came into existence in 2002, following a major reorganisation of boundaries in Newham, which reduced the number of wards from 24 to 20. The newly created Boleyn ward was made up from bits of the old Bemersyde, Castle, Central, Greatfield and Plaistow wards.
Greatfield ward, from which the southern part of Boleyn comes, was once a stronghold of the Residents & Ratepayers. They held the ward at every election from 1968 to 1982, when the SDP-Liberal Alliance won. Labour took all three seats in 1986, but lost two of them in 1990 to the Conservatives. The ward went back to Labour in 1994 and stayed that way.
The northern part of Boleyn mostly comes from Castle ward, where Sir Robin Wales first cut his teeth in Newham politics. He was elected there, as plain old ‘Robert A Wales’, in 1982.
Although Respect came close to causing an upset in 2006 Labour has won Boleyn ward at every election since it came into existence.
At the election in May there were 9,900 voters on the electoral roll in the ward. Entirely predictably, the three Labour candidates cruised home.
| Candidate |
Party |
Votes |
| Genevieve Kitchen |
Labour |
2824 |
| Veronica Oakeshott |
Labour |
2544 |
| Harvinder Singh Virdee |
Labour |
2280 |
| Md Fazlul Karim |
Conservative |
693 |
| Sayadur Rahman |
Conservative |
450 |
| Helen Lynch |
Green |
405 |
| Khatija Meaby |
Conservative |
384 |
Population & Demographics*
Population:
- Total: 15,932
- Male: 53%
- Female: 47%
- Average age (mean): 31
- Median age: 29
Households:
- Total: 4,928
- Avg HH size: 3
- One-person HHs: 24%
- Deprived HHs: 77%
- Single deprivation: 37%
- Multiple deprivation: 40%
- Owner-occupied: 42%
- Private rent: 31%
- Social rent: 26%
- Overcrowded HHs: 33%
Religion:
- Christian: 35%
- Hindu: 10%
- Muslim: 40%
- Other: 3%
- No religion/not stated: 12%
Ethnicity:
- White British: 13%
- Other white: 9%
- Asian/British Asian: 55%
- Black/Black British: 16%
- Mixed/multiple: 4%
- Arab/other: 4%
Place of birth:
- Born in UK: 46%
- Born in EU (ex. UK): 8%
- Born other countries: 47%
Time in the UK:
- In the UK less than 5 years: 35%
- In the UK 5 – 9 years: 20%
- In the UK 10 years or more: 45%
Economic activity (16-74 yr olds)
- Economically active: 49%
- In employment: 32%
- Self-employed: 7%
- Looking for work: 9%
- Economically inactive: 51%
- Retired: 23%
- Looking after home/family: 7%
- Long-term sick/disabled: 14%
- Other: 5%
- Students: 3%
* Based on 2011 Census. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
2015 candidates
Labour’s Moniba Khan has lived in the ward for the past 18 years and has been active in community campaigns. Her husband, Obaid Khan, represented the ward from 2014 to 2018.
Fazlul Karim also lives in the ward with his family and runs two businesses on Barking Road. In the May local elections he stood as one of the Conservative candidates in Boleyn, finishing fourth.
Green party candidate Frankie-Rose Taylor describes herself in her Twitter bio as a ’Performance artist/Comedian/Poet.’ She is convenor for Newham Greens and co-chair of London Young Greens. She fought the Boleyn by-election in 2015 and contested Forest Gate North in May this year.
The Liberal Democrats are standing Arunsalam Pirapaharan. He previously contested Wall End ward for the party in 2010 and stood before that as an independent.
The issues
Housing. Housing. Flytipping. And housing.
Look at the map. The Boleyn Ground stands at the heart of the ward. The 850 ‘luxury homes’ to be built there will have a huge impact on the character of the area. Shortly after the last by-election Newham Council secured agreement that 25% of the homes would be ‘affordable’. The then mayor, Sir Robin Wales, announced in a press release his intention to ‘top up’ the affordable housing allocation by a further 10% by making an £18m investment, thereby bringing the total amount of affordable housing to 35%. This promise was subsequently broken when the council decided it would buy the original 25%, rather than allow another social housing provider to acquire them. Newham spent its money (including the £18m) on buying the original 25%, leaving nothing left for the 10% top up. The net result was 84 fewer affordable homes.
Labour’s opponents will talk about this and the generally filthy state of the borough. Efforts to tackle the scourge of fly tipping are being made, but it’s all too easy to point at the rotting mattresses and broken furniture and promise to make it go away.
Tags: Boleyn ward, by-election
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