We reported that the Labour Party had so little confidence in the Newham Council Labour Group that they would not let them pick their own officers. Well, the Labour Party has chosen, and there are some interesting changes!

Many readers will now be aware of the death of former Newham councillor, Andrew Baikie, aged 70. He died whilst on holiday in Jamaica. 

Andrew was first elected to Newham Council in 1992 in a by-election for Little Ilford ward.

R.I.P. Andrew. A friend, a colleague and a comrade.

Newham Independents Leader, Councillor Mirza has written to the Newham chief exec, Abi Gbago regarding the letter from The Ministry of Housing and Local Government.

It seems that if Newham Labour councillors are unwilling to take up the issue, the Newham Independents will. In his letter he seeks a “fundamental refresh” of the political and administrative leadership.

One way in which Fiaz might begin to regain some credibility is to sack her cabinet and reduce its size. They are clearly incapable of either delivering or challenging her. She is clearly on the way out, so she has nothing to lose by getting rid of some dead wood.

The atmosphere in Labour Group was described as “toxic”. That’s not our words, that’s the Regional Director. We have occasionally used the same word, (here, here, here, here, here, and here) to describe the atmosphere created by Mayor Fiaz. Now it’s official!

As low-paid staff have the value of their terms and  conditions eroded, Newham councillors  continue to enjoy another year of pay increases.

That might seem a little unfair to outside observers.

Formal complaints by staff, complaints to the Labour Party by councillors and nearly £4m spent on gagging orders suggest that this is an administration whose time is over and which needs to be replaced.

What is of interest to us is the value of this astonishing generosity. Remember, Newham had to go cap in hand to the government recently begging for an additional £51m to balance the books. You would expect that all of these highly paid individuals would bringing down costs and making the council run more efficiently. That is certainly what they would have us believe.

In 2023, the other Mirza (Tahir) took just under 18% of the vote in East Ham. If the general election was today, the Independent candidate would be expected to take 35% of the vote and the additional numbers would be taken from Labour.

The offhand attitude that the Labour Party has taken towards local government may now be coming back to bite it.

Labour were humiliated on 27th March. Another Independent candidate trounced the Labour hopeful.

the council’s auditors, Ernst and Young stated that the “Council were unable to provide full supporting records for the 2023/24 audit and therefore we concluded that they were not ready for an audit.”

We didn’t see any press releases saying that almost the entire independent membership of the standards board had resigned, but looking at Newham London Twitter/X account, that seems to be the only explanation.

About a week after publication we learned that Mr Desai had had the suspension suddenly lifted and that all “enquiries” were seemingly at an end.

The largest council tax rise in London is in Newham at £155. This is nearly £30 above the next borough, Kingston upon Thames.

we are led to believe that that won’t be “Rokhs’” problem. From what we hear, she has been busying herself looking for a new job. Not with much success so far, and time is getting short if she wants to promote herself as the sitting mayor rather than the deselected Mayor of Newham.

After a lull, Newham Independents have announced another candidate for the 2026 council elections.

Of course, the publication of their candidate for Forest Gate North may mean nothing more than he was the next in line. Having something of a conspiratorial mind we, however, are bound to ask whether there is more to this than first appears.

At the beginning we said that we thought that this was a local east London matter, but it appears not. Making anonymous allegations are enough to send honest men to the verge of suicide.

Quite how the abuse of a process which is rightly there to protect (mainly) women and secondly the reputation of political parties is stopped is a good question.

For ourselves we must express our gratitude to Fiaz and her acolytes. Without them the council might operate as a reasonable and efficient body. While they continue to mess up the borough and fight amongst themselves we have plenty of material to work with.

We have seen that those members of the council who have sought to address the issue have been harangued and bullied by the mayor and her cabinet colleagues.

The problem for Labour in Newham is not that the mayor is incompetent, but that certain members have pointed out her failings. It is these councillors, not the mayor’s ineptitude that is seen as the problem by the Labour Party.

In a world where politicians did the honourable thing, we might see the resignation of the cabinet member who has overseen this deterioration in his portfolio area. But don’t hold your breath.