Various news sources have reported that the on-off mayor of Tower Hamlets is in trouble again. Not content with a ban for five years for “corrupt practices”, (what The Guardian summarises as “vote-rigging, buying votes and religious intimidation”), Lutfer Rahman has found himself in trouble again. In February 2024, government inspectors were despatched to Tower Hamlets because of problems.

We continue to dig into the story about Cllr Lewis Godfrey’s suspension from the Labour Party. We are confident in this assertion, although, he still appears on the council website (Nov 8^th 2024) as a Labour Party and Co-operative Party member.

There was some surprise when Cllr Pushpa was reported to have migrated from Newham to Havering, less than one month after being elected to represent the residents of Plashet ward in East Ham.

We reflected on the rumour that Cllr Lewis Godfrey was suspended from the Labour Party. This seemed to be a bit odd, as he had only just been cleared of wrongdoing by the standards committee.

The impact of Reform is unlikely to be large in Newham. However, the growing distance between Labour and its former supporters in the white working class might be beginning to work to Reform’s benefit nationally.

We learn that Mayor Fiaz is endeavouring to have three miscreants suspended from the Labour Group. You will recall that Cllrs Kamali, Chadha and Masters all abstained on a vote against a Green motion.

The metaphorical vultures are reported to be hovering around the head of Cllr Lewis Godfrey. We are told that a well-known member of Green St West branch is already campaigning to be adopted as the candidate when Godfrey goes.

This is where it gets bizarre.

Just months after gaining a massive electoral victory, (securing 411 seats, with 20% of the nation’s voters), Labour’s popularity appears to be shrinking; down to 4% in early September according to More in Common.

It does seem that Cllr Thelma Odoi has not fully completed her disclosure to the monitoring officer. Her address is withheld, which seems to be the common practice now. However, we understand her to be a tenant of a council property. She may of course have purchased this.

A reader has kindly written to let us know that there should be a number of additions to the Landlords for Labour table. We are pleased to provide an update.

As we have noted, building a property portfolio has been popular amongst Labour councillors.

With the Paris Olympics about to start, Eddie Nestor of Radio London reflected on the Olympic Legacy to London, and Newham in particular.

Behind Cllr Shaban’s bid to replace Fiaz are two women, one a councillor and one a wannabe councillor. Larisa Zilickaja is a relatively new councillor who has yet to make an impression. She has, we are told, been very active promoting Cllr Mohammed’s virtues as a replacement for Fiaz.

After a traumatic few weeks in which firstly he was accused of sexual assault and then forced to stand down as a candidate for the safe parliamentary seat in Barking, only to discover that after the selections, the allegations suddenly evaporated, Cllr Darren Rodwell has chosen to stand down as the leader of the ruling Labour Group in Barking and Dagenham.

Several names have been suggested as potential replacements for Mayor Fiaz. Whatever happens, it seems that the smart money is on Fiaz being given the Spanish Archer before the next election.

We earlier reflected on the way in which allegations against Cllr Darren Rodwell, had suddenly appeared. And then, just as suddenly, disappeared. (Here and here.)

(Picture from The Conversation.com)

Locally and nationally Muslims are openly voting as a block. Not all of them. Not all the time, but the emergence of Aspire in Tower Hamlets (Bangladeshi), Newham Independents, (largely Pakistani) and four independent Muslim MPs in the 2024 election were all the result of campaigns built on the interests of a religious block, (perhaps ethno-religious blocks).

Labour, it seems is hemorrhaging councillors. Canning Town North councillor, Areeq Chowdhury has announced that he has left Labour in order to join the Greens. They have welcomed him.

We reported earlier, that Cllr Darren Rodwell, Leader of the Council in Barking and Dagenham had had his parliamentary ambitions quashed when an allegation of sexual assault was lodged with the Labour Party.

We reported on the dirty tricks campaign that saw Redbridge Council Leader, Jas Athwal, suspended from the party and therefore excluded from the parliamentary shortlist in 2019. As a result, the nomination, which was expected to go to the popular local candidate, went to a reliable Corbynite and close personal friend of Angela Rayner MP, Sam Tarry. On this occasion, Tarry was imposed by the NEC.

Back in the days when Newham didn’t stumble from financial crisis to financial crisis, Cllr Brayshaw served as Chief Whip on Newham’s ruling Labour Group.

Times change and when Wales was evicted, so was Brayshaw. He stood for the post in 2018 but lost out to Anamul Islam, who had been instrumental in getting Fiaz adopted as candidate.

One of the marks of a healthy political party is that they share a general outlook about the way a society should be organized. The other is that there is healthy competition for posts of influence.

Alas, neither seems to be true of Newham Labour Group.

Readers will be aware that a former mayor of Newham, on Robin Wales recently stood as the Labour candidate, for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner in rural Suffolk. Alas, for Labour, Wales was unsuccessful in his bid to overturn a 50,000-vote majority. He did however, see a substantial swing to Labour, reducing the majority to just over 11,000. (Con 40.2%; Lab 31.6%.)

Sadiq Khan is adamant. He has no intention of introducing pay-per-mile road charging. This is the allegation made by Tory mayoral hopeful, Susan Hall. One can see her point, in a book published in his name in 2023, (Breathe. Tackling the Climate Emergency), he made reference to “plans to introduce a new, more comprehensive, road-user charging system”.

A special meeting of the cabinet was called on on 2nd April 2024.For some reason, when you click on the video link, it goes to a special meeting of the cabinet in February. Because of this we have had to rely upon the accounts that emanate from those present.

At the weekend, members of the Labour faithful turned out to campaign for Sadiq Khan and the Assembly candidates, Unmesh Desai and James Beckles.

They were supported by some of Newham Labour’s party big-wigs.

In a process that any remaining members of the Labour Party in Newham will be familiar with, the members of the Ilford South Labour Party chose to have an open selection in deciding who would represent them on the ballot for the next general election.

It seems that there are moves afoot to make some changes in the Whip’s office.

Sources tell us that early in March, the mayor met with her ‘political cabinet’, (cabinet members without council officers present). Amongst the things they discussed were two related issues. Firstly, the forthcoming AGM and secondly the discipline, or lack thereof in Labour Group.

We hear that West Ham MP, Lyn Brown is no longer quite so keen on representing Labour in the north of the borough. The cosy relationship she had with the members of the West Ham party seem unlikely to be replicated with Tower Hamlets party members in Bow. It is our understanding that she has no desire to leave politics just yet and that she has set her eyes on the new seat of West Ham and Beckton.

We know that the party machinery is somewhat defunct, but you would have thought that Newham Labour might have done some editing of their website, it has been months since Cllr Gulamussen defected to the Independent Group.