Is Hussain Being Investigated? Or Is This Just Another Election Season Smear?

What a night it was at Revive.

If anyone thought this mayoral race was going to drift quietly toward polling day, they were very much mistaken. The gloves didn’t just come off they were thrown across the room.

With the Newham Independents’ candidate, Mehmood Mirza, notably absent (following a similar no-show at the Age UK hustings earlier in the week), the spotlight fell squarely on the Labour and Green Party contenders.

And they did not disappoint.

From the outset, Green candidate Chowdhury went straight for the jugular, alleging that Labour’s Forhad Hussain is currently under investigation by the council in relation to a Newshare property purchase dating back a decade.

It was a serious claim.

The kind of claim that, if true, would have major implications just weeks before voters head to the ballot box.

But it was also a claim that was immediately and forcefully denied.

Hussain hit back hard, accusing Chowdhury of engaging in “gutter politics” and making what he described as outright libellous allegations. The temperature in the room shifted instantly — this was no longer a policy debate, this was political trench warfare.

So, what are the facts?

Open Newham has been here before.

Readers may recall that similar allegations surfaced in the run-up to the 2022 mayoral selection. At that time, we made enquiries. What we found was clear: the matter had already been looked at.

Sources, including a former councillor and a housing officer with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that no wrongdoing had been identified and the issue had been closed.

Fast forward to today, and the same allegation has resurfaced, almost on cue.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But the timing will raise eyebrows.

Given the seriousness of the claim, Open Newham has once again made enquiries to establish whether there is any truth to suggestions that the case has been reopened.

The answer, from senior sources within the council, is unequivocal.

There is no investigation currently being carried out.

Furthermore, due to purdah restrictions, the council will not be issuing any public commentary a standard position during an election period, but one that inevitably leaves space for speculation to flourish.

There have also been whispers that council auditors may be preparing to step in.

This too does not stack up.

The property purchase in question dates back to 2016. It does not fall within the current financial year and would not ordinarily trigger any fresh audit action nearly a decade later without new and substantive evidence coming to light.

So where does this leave us?

Chowdhury’s allegation is now out there, circulating in the public domain.

But it arrives on the back of a difficult week, in which claims linked to Novara Media were shared and then quietly withdrawn by those involved.

That context matters.

Because in politics, credibility is currency and once spent, it is not easily regained.

The question now is a simple one.

Will Chowdhury stand by his claim and provide evidence to support it?

Or will this go the same way as last week’s allegations loudly made, and quietly dropped?

And perhaps the more intriguing question of all:

Is this just another example of election-season mudslinging?

Or does Chowdhury genuinely know something the rest of us do not?

As ever in Newham politics, the truth may not stay hidden for long.