Capsticks Investigation: Scapegoats, Smoke, and a Steaming Pile of C4
Another week, another investigation at Newham Council. This time the legal heavyweights Capsticks LLP, one of the country’s leading public sector law firms have been drafted in. On the face of it, the brief is clear: dig into the shambolic state of housing at Newham, laid bare by the Regulator of Social Housing’s damning C4 judgement.
A council failing to meet even the basic standards of governance and financial management? Nothing new here. True to form, the mayor’s office has responded in its usual way commissioning a high-priced investigation to tell us what residents already know: Newham housing is a disaster zone.
But sources tell us this isn’t just about cleaning up a mess. It’s about political survival.
The Fiaz Strategy
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz has a knack for spinning calamity into “process.” Each scandal is quickly followed by a consultant, a report, or an inquiry. Yet insiders suggest the Capsticks probe is less about reform and more about insulation placing distance between the mayor and the council’s humiliating C4 rating.
And for that manoeuvre to work, you need a scapegoat.
Enter Cllr Shaban Mohammed
Word around the corridors of Newham Dockside is that Councillor Shaban Mohammed has been cast for the role of sacrificial lamb. According to insiders, he’s been lined up to take the fall for the regulator’s devastating findings the latest in a long line of Fiaz’s political scapegoats.
By all accounts, Mohammed is “spitting chips.” Allies say he knows the writing is on the wall. Whatever his faults, few would mistake him for the sharpest tool in the political box even he can see that he is about to be well and truly stitched up.
Regime in Meltdown?
The mood in the Labour group is febrile. As pressure mounts, whispers abound that the Fiaz regime is eating itself from the inside. For Mohammed, the only path to survival may be to flip the script go public with the who, what, when and why of Newham’s housing collapse, and force the mayor to wear the mess herself.
Whether he has the courage, the allies, or the evidence to do so remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: in Newham politics, when the ship starts sinking, nobody wants to be the one left holding the bucket.