We earlier revealed that the poor collection rate meant that Newham lost up to £5m a year.

As to who is responsible for this, since 2020 Newham has had three chief execs but only one mayor.

Former Deputy Mayor Charlene McLean currently Cabinet member for Resident Experience and Engagement has been given the chop.

Being a key Fiaz confidant perhaps it's only right and proper that Charlene goes down with HMS Fiaz.

Cllr Nur Begum has informed the council that she will be sitting for the remainder of her term as a member of the Newham Independent Group.

This brings the total number of Newham Independents up to five. Two defections and three elected in byelections.

It seems that Newham has been found out as the place which issues the most litter fines in the country.  A survey conducted on behalf of estate agents, Sell House Fast, and reported in Time Out crowned Newham as the Litter Capital of Britain.

It seems that 35 homes were allocated to people who did not qualify for them.

This is a trifle embarrassing when Newham has one of the largest waiting lists in the country.

Those of us who recall the two years that Ms Gbago was in post recall a collapse in the quality of some services, council tax hikes, massive hikes in residential parking charges, treating motorists like they are the council’s personal ATM.

We have noted that there has been a rather large turnover of chief execs under the leadership of Mayor Fiaz.

Failure is no bar to future employment as there seems to be a revolving door from one highly paid post to another. 

The gossip amongst Labour apparatchiks is that Fiaz is in denial, it is almost as if she doesn’t believe that she will be out of office in six months time.

There is no evidence (yet at least) that there is a continuity plan. We hear that neither Hussain nor his supporters are included in the budget planning.

It appears that he (Cllr Anam Islam) said “you want me to piss on your face or something” to a protestor at this evenings protest at a Labour fundraiser.

We note that Newham did eventually fly the Ukrainian flag, but chose not to fly the Israeli flag after October 7th.

Labour’s monopoly of Newham politics is crumbling. Readers will remember that in November 2023 the Plaistow North by-election marked the accession of the second councillor under the Newham Independent banner.

Labour’s mayoral candidate Forhad Hussain must be thinking what he has got himself into. Fiaz has taken one of the safest Labour councils in the country and made the borough a series of marginals.

She may have achieved what all of the opposition parties failed to do, to bring down Newham Labour.

It would appear that he is in denial. Plaistow South was an embarrassment of the highest order, but he is congratulating the comrades on their “impact” and “data collection”.

The Independents campaigned, insisting that it was a two-horse race. Clearly they were right, though if this had been a horse race someone would have asked whether the Labour horse had been nobbled.

Firstly, Newham Independents are riding high. Their victory in Plaistow South, where they totally humiliated Labour should set the alarm bells ringing for Labour.

Andrew Baikie died on holiday in Jamaica earlier this year. The details of his funeral are as follows.

Newham Independents storm ahead in Plaistow South overturning a formerly safe Labour seat.

Plaistow South was in the safest ever Labour parliamentary constituency of Plaistow, which Will Thorne MP took with 95% of the vote.

There is a general point to be made about this. Politicians, not just Labour ones, like headlines. They equate a bold statement or spending money with achievement. It isn’t.

What they don’t like to do is continue when the cameras are looking elsewhere. But it is (Weber’s) “slow boring of hard boards” that makes the difference, not the banner headlines.

Is it too cynical to suggest that Fiaz is spending to gloss-up her own record whilst having no regard to the person who will have to pick up the bill after she goes?

It seems that within a few hours, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali is about to become the statutory Deputy Mayor. We noted on a previous occasion that the mayor might have reason to reconsider Cllr Ali for such important portfolios.