Mayor Loses Control and Trust of Labour Group

Our thanks to all of those members of the Labour Group (and others) who kindly sent in the information that appears below. This was more than we have had for any topic. We’d like to thank you all personally, but of course, we won’t.

Within a year of the last election, the relationships between Mayor Fiaz and the ruling Labour Group seem to have completely broken down.

It appears that there are several groups who feel that the mayor isn’t up to the job and have combined to flex some muscle on the back-benches.

There are 

• those unimpressed by her financial performance as noted by the Budget Working Commission and her overall running of the council

• those who voted for her in 2018 and are now disillusioned, by her performance and her personal behaviour towards colleagues,

• those who were sacked from cabinet positions or who feel that they should have been promoted to cabinet.

We are told, that as the votes were announced, Mayor Fiaz had a “face like thunder”. On pretty much every vote, her preferred candidate was resoundingly beaten, 2:1. The results are detailed below, in full, but we will look at some highlights.

The Chairs of Scrutiny have gone solidly to the internal opposition. Daniel Lee-Phakoe has become a thorn in the side of Mayor Fiaz and he was elected first. He is joined by Elizabeth Booker, (disillusioned with Fiaz) and Susan Masters, (dumped from the cabinet by Fiaz). It does appear that Fiaz’s second term will be somewhat more demanding than her first.

Then we come to the Chair of the Local Development Committee. Veteran councillor, Harvinder Singh Virdee threw his hat into the ring. Readers will remember that Virdee’s son, Amar Virdee was elected to the council for the first time in 2022. Less than a year later he was promoted to a deputy cabinet position. The reason is said to be, that this was because he would do the mayor’s bidding, whereas the previous holder of the post had her own ideas. This change of personnel did not appear to meet the approval of their colleagues on Group. Unfortunately for Harvinder, they could not express their displeasure directly to Amar, but they could make their feelings known by opposing him. 

Harvinder Virdee was trounced by Councillor James Beckles, the same James Beckles that Fiaz had unceremoniously dropped from the cabinet. Beckles took 40 votes to Virdee’s 23, and that pretty much summed up the losses that Fiaz experienced during the night.

Jennifer Bailey took 41 votes for the post of Assistant Whip, leaving both of her opponents in the dust.

Newcomer (elected 2022) Rita Chadha humiliated another veteran, Alan Griffiths (elected in the last century, or the one before that) by 44 votes to 19 to take the post of Group Secretary.

In a contest that actually looked like there was some competition, Cllr Rohit Dasgupta lost the vote for Deputy Chair, (28 to 35), to Simon Rush. This clearly took some doing and can only be accounted for by members’ antipathy to his being a newly appointed deputy cabinet member of the Fiaz team.

There were some positions elected unopposed. It seems that after the mis-gendering scandal (or, storm in a teacup) Cllr Vaughan decided, or was urged not to stand again as Chair of Council. He will be replaced by Cllr Rohima Rahman, which will make for some interesting meetings.

The Chair of Labour Group went to Lakmini Shah, historically thought to be close to Wales and unlikely to be the friend that Fiaz needs.

Scrutiny Chair Results:

First Round:

 1. Daniel Lee-Phakoe - 26 votes

 2. Elizabeth Booker - 11 votes

 3. Susan Masters - 11 votes

 4. Imam Haque - 6 votes

Second Round:

 1. Elizabeth Booker - 18 votes

 2. Susan Masters - 14 votes (rounded up)

 3. Imam Haque - 7 votes (rounded up)

Third Round:

 1. Susan Masters - 17 votes (rounded up)

 2. Imam Haque - 8 votes (rounded up)

Local Development Committee:

 1. James Beckles - 40 votes

 2. Harvinder Singh Virdee - 23

 3. Abstain - 1

Labour Group Officers:

Labour Group Vice Chair:

 1. Simon Rush - 35

 2. Rohit Dasgupta - 28

 3. Abstain - 1

Labour Group Secretary:

 1. Rita Chadha - 44

 2. Alan Griffiths - 19

 3. Abstain - 1

Labour Group Assistant Whip:

 1. Jennifer Bailey - 41

 2. Lewis Godfrey - 14

 3. Thelma Odoi - 8

Labour Group Welfare Officer:

 1. Madeline Sarley-Pontin - 42

 2. Jane Lofthouse - 21

 3. Abstain – 1