Fiaz Re-Selected as Labour Mayoral Candidate
The NEC has spoken. Rokhsana Fiaz was re-selected as the candidate who will contest the mayoralty in the local elections in May.
It seems that the Labour Party has forgotten the lessons of the not-so-distant past. Take Hull for instance. Once it was a Labour stronghold in which seemed impregnable. The residents were taken for granted and over the course of a couple of elections, Labour lost control of the council.
Or look at Scotland. Once the Scots returned 70 Labour MPs to Westminster. Again, the party took them for granted and now Labour is lucky to return a handful of Scots MPs.
Or look at The Red Wall. It crumbled to an inept and dare we say narcissistic old-Etonian who doesn’t seem to own a hair brush, because Labour had taken the people for granted.
We understand that in a last-minute intervention to avert a disaster, local MPs Lyn Brown and Stephen Timms met with Labour General Secretary, David Evans. Clearly, they were unsuccessful.
So, Labour will enter the 2022 local election campaign with the following record.
Council Tax rises every year.
Inept financial management
Broken Promises on parking and massive hikes in the costs of residential parking
Failure to build the council homes that she promised
Anger at the way local traffic free zones were introduced
Allegations of bullying against staff and council colleagues
Antisemitism across the party and the Labour Group
Both CLPs suspended
1000+ members suspended or expelled
Alienation of her former supporters
Indecision
Distrust at a candidate who entered the 2018 race stating that she wanted to abolish the mayoralty and then voted to protect her pay packet
Anger at high profile CUTS, such as the City Farm
Anger at record levels of rubbish and fly-tipping
Dog whistle politics on Palestine
A swing to the Tories of 22% in the East Ham Central by-election
Fiaz had something like 70% of the vote in 2018. How much will she retain in 2022?
We suspect that there will be the first serious challenge to Labour since 2006, from disaffected Left leaning ex-members. Our prediction is that her former supporter and now, ex-Labour member Mehmood Mirza will stand in opposition to Fiaz. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that this largely Muslim Left-leaning group would invite George Galloway to throw his hat in the ring.
As to whether either candidate would have a chance winning, probably not this time. But if they took 30% of the vote, this would come from votes that Labour had historically believed to be ‘theirs’. A high-profile candidate with a good campaign might conceivably take more.
Labour has shown contempt for the people of Newham. The cost is likely to be in votes.