To recap. Fiaz and her buddies announced a new LTN for the West Ham Park area.

Labour mayoral candidate, Forhad Hussain opposed this.

Hussain won the support of the Labour Group.

Times change and Clive is moving on to other interests, but with news that will either delight or horrify readers, Open Newham has been sold to a foreign buyer.

A recent article in SP!KED revealed that former Newham Mayor, Robin Wales and former Canning Town councillor, Clive Furness have recently left the Labour Party.

Not content to alienate the future leadership of Labour in Newham, former Labour councillor Lewis Godfrey has taken metaphorical pen to paper to alienate Labour’s leader and its apparatchiks.

Godfrey was suspended from the party and subsequently was ineligible for re-selection. We are yet to hear who Labour will stand in his place, albeit for a ward where Newham Independents are very confident of a clean sweep.

Here at Open Newham we understand that mistakes are made, although this is a whopper. What we can’t understand is the lack of transparency around this mistake. 

Silence from the Mayor… 

Silence from the executive member for Children and Young People… 

James Asser has already stuck the knife into two Newham Mayors; is he about to go for a hat-trick and team up with the small group of vocal middle classed councillors and Labour activists who are opposed to the idea of Hussain giving residents a voice in decisions that affect them.

It seems that Candidate Hussain has a fight on his hands with the current mayor and the middle class leftists of Forest Gate who seem determined to make it easier for Mehmood Mirza to win in May and become the very first Non-Labour Mayor of Newham.

We have seen little evidence of Fiaz’s pet programmes being systematically evaluated. The new mayor will have some breathing room, but rest assured, there is still much left to do. Before embarking on any new programmes, the new mayor will need to focus on rebuilding financial stability.

Readers will recall that the majority of the majority party. i.e. most Labour councillors backed the proposal submitted by supporters of the 2026 mayoral candidate, Forhad Hussain. This was essentially, “let the people choose”. 

The main contenders in the race for mayor of Newham have now declared.

Cllr Mehmood Mirza and Forhad Hussain will face of in the upcoming local elections in May 2026.

Conrad Hall, is about to announce that he is moving on to pastures new. As to whether he was pushed or jumped is of little relevance as the longest serving member of the golden triangle with responsibility for the finances surely Newham’s shambolic handling of its finances has to land at his door.

“Your Party” have provided us with a wealth of political distraction over the last weekend.

To honour their first conference, we have taken some time out from Newham to savour some of their antics. 

Labour started this term of office with 64 out of 66 councillors; the Greens had two. They suspended one successful candidate before she even took office, so it was actually 63. They suspended one more, lost three to defections and lost three seats in byelections. This is the Fiaz legacy.

Ms McKoy left the authority at the same time as former chief exec, Abi Gbago.

Sources close to the scene tell us that Forhad Hussain has made a decisive break from the Fiaz era. Under his leadership, Newham Labour will apparently stop waging war on motorists and start doing something pretty radical for this borough.

Let local people decide.

The Big Issue has revealed that “Newham Council, which runs the east London borough with England’s biggest social housing waiting list, sold off 130 properties for £10.6 million, only to buy them back for £33.3m

We earlier revealed that the poor collection rate meant that Newham lost up to £5m a year.

As to who is responsible for this, since 2020 Newham has had three chief execs but only one mayor.

Former Deputy Mayor Charlene McLean currently Cabinet member for Resident Experience and Engagement has been given the chop.

Being a key Fiaz confidant perhaps it's only right and proper that Charlene goes down with HMS Fiaz.

Cllr Nur Begum has informed the council that she will be sitting for the remainder of her term as a member of the Newham Independent Group.

This brings the total number of Newham Independents up to five. Two defections and three elected in byelections.