Independent Candidate for East Ham Announced

We see that Momentum stalwart, Tahir Mirza has announced that he will be standing for the Independents against (Sir) Stephen Timms MP in the forthcoming general election.

Timms seemed to have protected himself from local criticism by backing calls for a ceasefire in parliament. That will not protect him, it seems from the ire of certain Muslims in respect of the Labour Party.

He is defending one of the largest majorities in the country, (East Ham was listed as the fourth safest Labour seat). And despite boundary changes, we do not expect an electoral upset in East Ham. What will be interesting to see is quite how deep Mirza will cut into Timms’ vote. Timms is recognised for putting copious amounts of energy into maintaining good contacts and relations with the community he represents. 

Mirza is a former Chair of the East Ham party and was one of a group that affected an “Asian takeover” of the party apparatus, before it was suspended. 

In his statement released on X/Twitter he is looking decidedly unwell.

He makes reference to the same list as his namesake on the council. We can see the refrain that will characterize the election, “Labour has failed us”.

He has a neat five-point set of (Utopian?) demands:

And introduces a new catchphrase.

He portrays himself as a “human rights” campaigner and states that he has supported Palestinians, Kashmiris and Rohingyas. It appears that the only “humans” whose “rights” he seeks to protect all come from one religious’ group. Interestingly, he hasn’t identified the suffering of Muslim peoples under Muslim rulers as being in need of his support, nor the suffering of those under communist regimes. 

Funny that.

Anyway, we expect to hear more from him in the coming months.