The unforeseen consequences of the murderous attack of Hamas gunmen on southern Israel are being played out closer to home. Various Labour councillors have felt the need to put some distance between themselves and the official position of the Labour Party.

The resignation of Cllr Daniel Lee Phakoe led to a vacancy as Chair of one of the scrutiny commissions. Labour was due to select its candidate on Monday 16th. Two members threw their hats into the ring; the current Chair of Labour Group, Lakmini Shah and relative newcomer, Thelma Odoi, a maths teacher.

We understand that Plaistow North Councillor, Daniel Lee-Phakoe has resigned.

We are told that Lee-Phakoe, who is in his second term of office, submitted his resignation on 16th October 2023.

There seems to be some dispute emerging from Labour’s ranks in Newham. Some are adamant that the NEC will be making the decision, but candidates are telling anyone who will listen that the NEC has decided that the members will have a role in the decision.

We are hearing rumours that the NEC of the Labour Party has decided that Labour Party members in the constituency of West Ham and Beckton will have a role in deciding who the Westminster candidate will be.

Following his embarrassing connection to a convicted paedophile, Philip Glanville has resigned as mayor of Hackney.

The following statement comes from the website of Hackney Council:

The Labour Party has suspended its last leader and alongside him they have suspended the former front bencher, Diane Abbot. Even the Tories haven’t managed that, but then, they don’t seem to have the same problem with antisemitism.

We’ve decided to do a little number crunching in the wake of the momentous election result in Boleyn, (July 2023). We began in the first year of the mayoral system.

We’ve rounded the numbers, so they might not add up to exactly 100%.

We all remember the “Focus E15 Mothers’” Campaign during the 2014-2018 Council, particularly the occupation by the Campaign of a void on the Carpenters Estate.

It has been an open secret that the person behind this website is erstwhile councillor, Clive Furness. Over the past 24 months, he has been collaborating with the former mayor, Robin Wales on a separate project.

The fruits of their labours is the book, Left, Right, Wrong.

Readers will recall that Mayor Fiaz and her former Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Terry Paul have both lodged complaints with the Standards Advisory Committee.

The Guardian reported that Jamie Driscoll, a Tyneside Corbynista has been barred from the long-list of candidates for the prospective candidate for Mayor of the North East. An interesting decision given that Discoll is the current mayor for the North of Tyne area. It seems slowly the party machine is grinding its way through the remaining Corbynistas.

Haringey Council and former Newham councillor, Joe Ejiofor, has run into a bit of bother with the ombudsman. And the courts. And the police.

The Guardian reported that Jamie Driscoll, a Tyneside Corbynista has been barred from the long-list of candidates for the prospective candidate for Mayor of the North East.

We reported a year ago, on the increasingly nepotistic appearance of the Newham Labour Group, in the remarkable number of close relations on the council. Well, it seems that Labour has done it again.

Luke Charters and Cecelia Welsh are standing down, having served a full one year on the council.

After receiving over 200 applications from party members to stand for council, the Labour Party managed to interview almost a third of them and selected sixty plus, outstanding candidates to fight the seats for Labour in 2022.

It may or may not be known to readers, but the ruling Labour Group collects subs from its members. These are not insignificant sums and are drawn down as a percentage of the councillors’ incomes from their work on the council.

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.

Now that the dust has settled from the local elections, we thought that we’d take a look at any lessons for Newham.

Nationally, the Tories have done their level best to make themselves unelectable and Labour has been the main beneficiary, picking up over 500 of the 1000 plus seats the Tories lost. As commentators have noted, this puts Labour on track to become the largest party in a hung parliament.

Firstly, they are both MPs elected under the Labour banner.

Secondly, they represent north London constituencies.

Third, they were both lovers.