Councillor MP in the Clear?

An image of Councillor Miraj Patel pointing his finger in the face of a shopkeeper in Newham.

Some months ago, we reported on allegations that Cllr Miraj Patel had been reported for allegedly abusing his position as a councillor. Then things went quiet.

The allegations asserted that a drunken Patel, an Indian Hindu, had abused a Muslim shopkeeper and sought to extort money from the shop keeper. During the course of this interaction, Patel was alleged to have expressed anti-Muslim sentiments.

If any of this were true it would suggest that a criminal act was exacerbated by religious intolerance, perhaps sufficient in today’s climate to construe religious hatred.

The shopkeeper and their family were so distressed by this event that they closed the shop for a number of months.

We assumed that the matter had come to an end. There was no news of a report from the standards committee and no further issues came to light.

Then we discovered that the Standards Committee had met and cleared Cllr Patel of any wrongdoing. 

We later discovered that the independent members of the standards committee who resigned after settlement of the mayor’s legal case against the council, have not been replaced.

Currently there are three Labour councillors on the committee, one opposition councillor and one independent member. Effectively, the Labour Party have an absolute majority on the standards committee. They are, in effect, judge and jury in their own court. It must surely have occurred to them that this would give rise to the appearance of impropriety.

The Nolan Principles (Selflessness, honesty, objectivity, integrity, openness, accountability, leadership) guide the behaviour of those in public office. There will certainly be those who wonder whether these have been applied here. Why, it may be asked, were new independent members not recruited? It has been six months or more and there seems to have been no movement. 

Membership of the Standards Advisory Committee.

It seems that there were two videos of the interaction that gave rise to the complaint. Cllr Patel can be seen following the shopkeeper into the shop, going behind the counter and wagging his finger at him in a somewhat aggressive fashion.

As he leaves, there appears to be a brusque exchange of words with a customer who has seen the whole incident.

For reasons best known to themselves, we understand that the Standards Committee chose not to view the videos. We however can make one of them available below.

The minutes of the Standards Committee are not made public, so we have no way of knowing what their reasoning was nor what other evidence they looked at. There may be very good reasons for confidentiality, but the downside is that when there is an unexpected outcome, observers might tend to distrust the process.

This of course could be overcome if the council or Cllr Patel agreed to publish the deliberations of the Standards Committee.

Sitting councillors who want to stand again in 2026 are required to follow Labours Code of Conduct for councillors. These state that “The Labour Party requires its representatives to uphold the highest standards of probity and integrity”. It continues, “Labour councillors and members must at all times avoid not only wrong-doing but also the perception of wrong-doing”.

The Labour Party might wish to make further enquiry regarding Cllr Patels behaviour and whether he is a fit and proper person to represent the party, prior to consideration of his application to stand again.

And whether a standards committee with an absolute Labour majority and only one independent member meets with their own ethical standards and the Nolan guidelines.