Tag Archives: Labour

Another four more years

20 Jan

69623893 55cb66041f z

Photo by ghedo on Flickr
 
Having been prevented from socialising in the run up to Christmas by the application of non-existent ‘rules’ Newham Labour members face yet more misery as the campaign to secure Sir Robin’s nomination for a fifth term gears up: a home visit from the man himself and a member of his executive team.
 
The unhappy news was delivered in an email on Tuesday. Beneath a massive picture of Sir Robin and a predictable recitation of the administration’s ‘successes’ (Workplace, Every Child a Future Voter, prosecutions of rogue landlords), the shoe dropped:
However, we are facing a huge financial challenge with massive government cuts. I, along with many members of my executive, have been visiting party members to ask what they think our response should be. These visits will continue…
By a not-very-mysterious coincidence, these home visits started in Boleyn ward the weekend after Cllr Charity Fiberesima’s death, when Sir Robin and his mates were spotted running around the ward interrogating party members. Some were so offended they complained to Stephen Timms.
 
Those members who would rather not wait at home on the off-chance the Dear Leader drops by can go along to a couple of special meetings at East Ham Town Hall and Stratford library. They’ll be able to hear Sir Robin’s ‘current thinking’ before getting the chance – right at the end, no doubt – to have their say. 
 
The meetings are strictly ‘members only’ affairs – no affiliates or registered supporters have been invited, much less the wider public – and those who want to go along must RSVP first to Carl Morris, the full-time local organiser, to let him know which one they’ll be attending. As these are party events and not council business, Labour should be billed for the use of the facilities, though based on past events they probably won’t be.
 
Finally…
one thing which has become clear through our member visits is that we have not explained sufficiently well just how radical and successful we are as a Council. 
 
So, starting this week I will be writing a regular blog – you can find it www.newhamlabour.co.uk/blog. Do please visit and read it.
Read it, but don’t expect to be able to respond. Despite readers being invited to suggest improvements, there’s nowhere to leave comments. As ever in Newham, communication is a one-way process.

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No mayor, no Christmas

21 Dec

Labour party members in Manor Park had to cancel their Christmas social at short notice last week because the mayor couldn’t attend.

The ward party chair sent round an apologetic email, explaining that the social couldn’t go ahead because of Labour party “rules”:

I have to inform you, regretfully, that after an emergency meeting, the Manor Park Social Event for next week (17th), has been cancelled. 

This is due to three rules: firstly, one of our guests cannot attend. (If our Mayor cannot attend then we cannot proceed with the social). Secondly, branches are not allowed to officially socialize as part of the Labour Party, only CLP. Finally, no guests outside of Newham are allowed to be invited to a Labour Party social event and there was some doubt about the music and choir at a Labour Party event.

This is very disappointing, as it was discussed and agreed at our branch meeting three weeks ago. 

However, I have asked the Chair of East Ham CLP if we can have a social event in 2016 for all of East Ham branches and this can go ahead. So we can look forward to this event.

I am very sorry for any inconvenience this cancellation may have caused. 

My sincere apologies.

Anyone searching the Labour party rule book will, of course, come away empty-handed. There are no such rules. It is straightforwardly an attempt to control and stop East Ham members meeting up and working together ahead of the trigger ballot to confirm Sir Robin, yet again, as the mayoral candidate. Divide and rule!

The ward chair was instructed to cancel the event, but maybe she should have seen it coming. She is also East Ham’s social secretary and has previously complained to the CLP secretary, Mariam Dawood, about the impossibility of organising activities without access to the full list of party members.

These shenanigans are an interesting contrast to the West Ham party, which has held many events open to all Labour supporters, mostly without the mayor. Some have included non-Newham guests – and even non-Labour people (disclosure: I’ve been to a couple).

Members in East Ham ought to be asking themselves about the motives of the people running their local party. Whose interests are they looking after?

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At home he’s a tourist

15 Dec

Hanif LibDem

Somehow it escaped my attention until a few days ago that Cllr Hanif Abdulmuhit had once upon a time been secretary of Newham Liberal Democrats.

That was before he joined Respect, for whom he stood successfully for council in 2006, defeating the incumbent Labour members. He also stood in 2008 as the party’s candidate for the London Assembly seat of City & East.

As Respect disintegrated he reinvented himself again, serving out the remainder of his term as a Labour councillor. He had to sit out the 2010 elections before returning as a thoroughly reconstructed representative of Newham Labour in 2014. He is now mayoral advisor for Building Communities (Adult Care Integration) and community lead for Green Street. 

But he obviously never stays in one place too long, so Newham Greens should be on the lookout for his membership application any day now.

(hat-tip to Gary Stevens for the image)

[And in case you were wondering about the title: At home he’s a tourist – Gang of Four]

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Three and out

10 Dec

Angry Robin

Cllr Khan was once very close to the mayor

Boleyn councillor Obaid Khan has been suspended by the Labour party.

That makes three local councillors currently on the naughty step.

I haven’t seen the email that was sent to councillors about this, but I understand Cllr Khan’s suspension relates to two separate incidents.

One involves the way he allegedly spoke to a councillor from Barking & Dagenham at an event. The other was a bit of argy-bargy at the Boleyn by-election count where he squared up to Cllr Forhad Hussain. Unfortunately for Khan, this was witnessed by ‘the leadership’, who wasted no time in reporting the matter to higher powers.

One might reasonably ask why either of these ‘incidents’ justifies a councillor’s suspension, when similar events involving the mayor (with the Focus E15 mums), Cllr Ian Corbett (to a receptionist at East Ham town hall) and Cllr Ken Clark (to Cllr Noor at this year’s Newham Show) did not. The Mayor and Cllr Corbett were found guilty by the Standards Committee of breaching the code of conduct, but the Labour party did nothing to reprimand them. Calls to discipline Ken Clark have been ignored.

Quite perplexing.

Except that Obaid Khan was instrumental in thwarting the leadership’s plan to have Cllr Hanif Abdulmuhit’s wife, Aisha Siddiqah, selected as the party’s candidate in the Boleyn by-election. He also kicked up a fuss about the shenanigans that resulted in Femi Alese being elected chair of East Ham Labour party. And, to top it all off, he’s joined the pro-Corbyn ‘Momentum’ group. Sir Robin, you will remember, was one of the 4.5% that backed Liz Kendall for the leadership.

Revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold.

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Paranoid

13 Aug

Unmesh shopping

Making sure no-one’s listening in

The mayor is famously intolerant of dissent, to the point of paranoia, and it seems that this has now infected those around him.

At the end of a budget briefing session last night at Newham Dockside Unmesh Desai decided to hold a briefing of his own, not on council business but on his campaign to be the Labour candidate for City & East in next year’s London elections.

He asked council officers to leave and then noticed a 17-year old ‘A’ level student who had been shadowing a councillor for the day, getting an insight into how local government works. He insisted she leave as well.

He then said he didn’t want any non-supporters in the room. So three councillors walked out, along with the bemused teenager.

Not exactly a great introduction to local politics, but a perfect illustration of how Newham Labour party works.

Not just the paranoia but the use of council property for party business. The “Desai 4 City & East” campaign should be getting a bill for the room, although history suggests they won’t.

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Changing London

30 Jun

Author, journalist and blogger Cory Doctorow is leaving London and taking his family to Los Angeles:

The short version is, we want to live in a city whose priorities are around making a livable place to work, raise our family, and run our respective small businesses. But London is a city whose two priorities are turning itself into a playground for the most corrupt global elites who are turning neighbourhoods into soulless collections of empty, high-rise safe-deposit boxes in the sky; and continuing to encourage the feckless, reckless criminality of the finance industry (these two facts are not unrelated) …

… We’ve seen the writing on the wall: this is not a city for families. It’s not a city for people running small firms. It’s not a city for people who earn their living in the arts. We’ve given it the best we have, and we’re getting out because we can.

On Thursday (2nd July) Forest Gate North Labour party is hosting a public meeting at Coffee7 on ‘Changing London’. The city is in a turbo-capitalist induced death spiral. Unless we take action now London will become a hollowed out zombie city.

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Oh Noor!

5 May

Ahmed noor 323

According to the Newham Labour website, Ahmed Noor “is dedicated to making Newham a better place for everyone.” 

What could be more embarrassing for a local councillor than to be served with an enforcement notice by his own council?

That is the fate which has befallen Plaistow South’s Ahmed Noor.

Councillor Noor, like so many of his nominally Labour colleagues, owns a large number of properties in the borough that he rents out. One of these is at 238 Romford Road, Forest Gate. Quite properly, he lists this fact on his register of interests.

Unfortunately for Cllr Noor the property has at some time in the past ten years been converted from offices to ‘a house in multiple occupation’ without planning permission. Worse still, according to the enforcement notice (my emphasis added):

The conversion of the property to a house in multiple occupation provides a poor quality of accommodation which is to the detriment of the persons who reside there, and at a neighbourhood level, harms the objective of creating healthier neighbourhoods and delivering convergence. It is therefore contrary to policy … and the requirements of the Lifetime Homes Standards.

Given Newham council’s well-publicised determination to improve the quality of rented accommodation in the borough this is quite an extraordinary situation. 

And it could get even worse.

As part of its drive to improve local housing Newham has pioneered a private rented property licensing scheme: 

It is now against the law for any landlord to rent out a property in Newham without a licence. We work with the Metropolitan Police and other agencies across Newham to find unlicensed properties and take legal action. 

If you are found guilty you could face a fine of up to £20,000. You could also have control of your unlicensed properties taken away … and be ordered to repay up to 12 months rent to us or your tenants. 

A search of the property licensing database for 238 Romford Road produces no results. How exactly does Cllr Noor explain that? As a member of the council he can hardly plead ignorance – not that that would be any defence.

I’m sure the members of Plaistow South Labour party will be keen to hear what he has to say, as will his fellow Labour group members on the council.

Thursday’s by-election in Stratford & New Town is unlikely to be the last in the borough this year.

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Where’s Robin?

16 Apr

The start of the election campaign has seen Twitter flooded with pictures of activists out doing their bit for the party. Newham’s Labour councillors have been doing their bit, in locations from East Ham to East Dunbartonshire.

ChowdhuryAyesha 2015 Apr 04

Councillors Jose Alexander, Unmesh Desai, Ayesha Chowdhury & Susan Masters in East Ham

James Beckles 2015 Apr 11

Councillors James Beckles, Aleen Alarice and Terry Paul in West Ham

WestHamLabour 2015 Mar 28

Councillors John Whitworth, Aleen Alarice, John Gray, Julianne Marriott and Neil Wilson campaigning with Mike Gapes in Ilford

Tahmina Rahman 2015 Apr 04 2

Tahmina Rahman with fellow councillors Gray and Abdulmuhit

Mwarne 2015 Apr 13

A rare sighting of Forest Gate community lead councillor Rohima Rahman campaigning in Ilford with Unmesh Desai, Jose Alexander and Stephen Timms

WestHamLabour 2015 Apr 11

Lyn Brown talking to voters in Stratford with councillor James Beckles and by-election candidate Charlene McLean

Tahmina Rahman 2015 Mar 28

Eight Newham councillors on the doorstep in Scotland: Forhad Hussain, Ellie Robinson, David Christie, Joy Laguda, Hanif Abdulmuhit, Terry Paul, Lester ‘3 jobs’ Hudson and Tahmina Rahman.

There is one highly notable absentee from these pictures. Concerned citizens and Labour activists alike have to ask, where’s Robin?

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Ask me no questions

14 Nov

Could the gagging order sent down from chief whip Steve Brayshaw this week be in any way connected to the investigation into Sir Robin’s behaviour at the Newham Show and the report of the standards committee?

The last thing the mayor wants is to be publicly embarrassed by questions about the findings – whatever they turn out to be. Much better for a response to be agreed in private at Labour group, then have the report ’noted’ by council on a whipped vote without further ado.

The standards committee is scheduled to meet on 10th December – 2 days after council. The next full council after that isn’t until late February. If Brayshaw can keep his troops on message it will be all-but-forgotten by then.

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Gagging order

12 Nov

At the last council meeting, in late September, two backbench councillors – John Gray and Rokshana Fiaz – took the opportunity to ask the mayor questions about the Focus E15 mothers’ campaign and the future of the Carpenters Estate. These followed on from his statement and half-hearted apology. They were doing no more than their constituents would expect of them.

In any other local authority, councillors asking questions at a council meeting, in public, would have been unremarkable. It is what should happen. But in Newham it was exceptional.

And Sir Robin has, predictably, taken exception to it.

This email was sent yesterday to all Newham councillors by the Labour chief whip, Cllr Stephen Brayshaw (via the group secretary Cllr Susan Masters): 

From: Susan Masters [mailto:xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com] 

Sent: 11 November 2014 15:02

Subject: Message from our whip  

A MESSAGE FROM OUR LABOUR GROUP WHIP TO LABOUR GROUP MEMBERS 

Dear Comrades,

Concern has been expressed among group officers relating to the growing appearance of cracks within group and the use of Council meetings rather than Labour Group as a platform for airing disagreements and debate. 

When arguments are played out in public there are only losers: The Labour Party and our constituents. 

The officers agreed that we should draw a line now and move forwards towards a more cohesive group. Disagreements, questions and motions should be put to group and discussed at group. We are one Labour Party and we should show respect for the group and our colleagues. It is polite and proper that this should be the case. 

Moving forwards; where people break the rules or behave in a way that could embarrass the group, executive, party and leadership in a public forum we feel at such a key time that we have no option but to push  for the highest sanctions possible within the rules. 

Let’s move forwards and ensure that we are working for our constituents, our party and our group. 

Best

Steve Brayshaw

It is a clear and unambiguous attempt to muzzle councillors and stop them publicly raising serious questions at Council meetings. Debate can only happen in private, behind closed doors.

The “highest sanctions possible within the rules” means expulsion from Labour Group and – if the councillor were not later reinstated – automatic deselection at the next election.

Ironically, this threat is itself a breach of Labour Party rules: 

Labour recognises that individual members, to fulfill their representative duties, may without consultation speak and ask questions in meetings of the council on behalf of their constituents or other community interests. (chapter 13, clause XI, sub-clause 1)

Any councillor expelled from Newham’s Labour Group on these grounds would be entitled to appeal: they’d have an unanswerable case for immediate reinstatement.

But the more important point for ordinary Newham residents is that Sir Robin and his cronies are using heavy-handed threats to stop councillors doing the one job we elected them to do: publicly scrutinise the executive mayor and hold him to account for the decisions he makes. It is undemocratic and unacceptable.

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