Mirza Calls Upon Labour Councillors to Resign from the Labour Party.

In what must be one of the more unusual twists in a local byelection, Mehmood Mirza has called upon Labour councillors to resign from the Labour Party because of their disagreements over Gaza.

In an open letter he invites Labour councillors to join him on the independent benches if they oppose Starmer’s position on the ceasefire. He notes that there have been many Labour councillors across the country who have done this.

We do not know how well this will be received by pro-Palestinian Labour councillors, but it is possible that the appeal will be well received on the streets of Plaistow North and in the mosques.

We suspect that many Labour councillors will be consulting the electoral records to check up on their majorities. When Mehmood Mirza stood in Plashet in 2022, he came within 200 votes of the Labour candidate. Labour must now worry whether they can retain this ward in the face of a sustained campaign. 

It is becoming apparent that the hold Labour had on the Newham electorate is faltering. Mirza took Boleyn with a 42% swing. Despite assurances to the contrary, it seems that one community at least, is willing to vote as a block. Massive majorities are now seen as at-risk. The personal vote for the mayor dropped from a massive 74% to a more modest 56% (the lowest since 2010), and Labour is now seen as vulnerable.

There are a number of wards neighbouring Plaistow North, where Labour has polled 2000 votes. It is apparently a Herculean task to go from zero to overturn a majority of such size. But that is what Mirza’s Independents are attempting in Plaistow North. If they pull it off it will be a political earthquake, (at least in Newham).

And, we wonder, how many Labour councillors in the north-east of the borough will be contemplating their political future after the byelection, and in which party. Wags outside the Labour Party have suggested that certain councillors, wishing to hold onto their seats in 2026, might jump ship before the election.

The undertone of the appeal is clear.

Our sources close to the campaigns tell us that community feeling on Gaza is immensely strong. 

Once again, Mirza and his team are setting the agenda, albeit with a strongly communitarian appeal. We recently asked, in another context, “how long before voting Labour becomes haram?” The events of October 7th which precipitated the current crisis for Labour were outside anyone’s imagining and no-one had an inkling that Cllr Lee-Phakoe would resign. We thought that local issues, such as prostitution along the Romford Road would provide the spark and that we would probably have to wait for a couple of years.

We continued,

Clearly, we did not have to wait long. 

We are interested to see how Labour will respond.