What is of interest to us is the value of this astonishing generosity. Remember, Newham had to go cap in hand to the government recently begging for an additional £51m to balance the books. You would expect that all of these highly paid individuals would bringing down costs and making the council run more efficiently. That is certainly what they would have us believe.

In 2023, the other Mirza (Tahir) took just under 18% of the vote in East Ham. If the general election was today, the Independent candidate would be expected to take 35% of the vote and the additional numbers would be taken from Labour.

The offhand attitude that the Labour Party has taken towards local government may now be coming back to bite it.

Labour were humiliated on 27th March. Another Independent candidate trounced the Labour hopeful.

the council’s auditors, Ernst and Young stated that the “Council were unable to provide full supporting records for the 2023/24 audit and therefore we concluded that they were not ready for an audit.”

We didn’t see any press releases saying that almost the entire independent membership of the standards board had resigned, but looking at Newham London Twitter/X account, that seems to be the only explanation.

About a week after publication we learned that Mr Desai had had the suspension suddenly lifted and that all “enquiries” were seemingly at an end.

The largest council tax rise in London is in Newham at £155. This is nearly £30 above the next borough, Kingston upon Thames.

we are led to believe that that won’t be “Rokhs’” problem. From what we hear, she has been busying herself looking for a new job. Not with much success so far, and time is getting short if she wants to promote herself as the sitting mayor rather than the deselected Mayor of Newham.

After a lull, Newham Independents have announced another candidate for the 2026 council elections.

Of course, the publication of their candidate for Forest Gate North may mean nothing more than he was the next in line. Having something of a conspiratorial mind we, however, are bound to ask whether there is more to this than first appears.

At the beginning we said that we thought that this was a local east London matter, but it appears not. Making anonymous allegations are enough to send honest men to the verge of suicide.

Quite how the abuse of a process which is rightly there to protect (mainly) women and secondly the reputation of political parties is stopped is a good question.

For ourselves we must express our gratitude to Fiaz and her acolytes. Without them the council might operate as a reasonable and efficient body. While they continue to mess up the borough and fight amongst themselves we have plenty of material to work with.

We have seen that those members of the council who have sought to address the issue have been harangued and bullied by the mayor and her cabinet colleagues.

The problem for Labour in Newham is not that the mayor is incompetent, but that certain members have pointed out her failings. It is these councillors, not the mayor’s ineptitude that is seen as the problem by the Labour Party.

In a world where politicians did the honourable thing, we might see the resignation of the cabinet member who has overseen this deterioration in his portfolio area. But don’t hold your breath.

This is a commitment that the mayor appears to have reneged on, and the various providers face having to make staff redundant in the next six weeks.

They note the lack of consultation and the “immediate and severe impact on children and young people across the borough”.

Readers will recall that Mayor Fiaz is a recent convert to the role. Having stood on a platform to abolish the post, after being in post for a few years she saw the wisdom in keeping the elected office. An office which saw her pocketing almost £100k per year.

A couple of councillors objected and made their views known, and here we must acknowledge the stand taken by two councillors in particular, Cllrs Gray and McAlmont. They pointed to the illogicality of supposedly independent councillors agreeing to cast their votes without seeing what they were voting for.

The decision, we are informed, was made by the Director of Legal and Governance, (Rachel McKoy) “in consultation with the Chief Executive”, (Abi Gbago), under powers delegated within the constitution.

One of the criticisms of the Fiaz mayoralty has been her fixation on, what we hesitate to call ideology over pragmatism (only because her ideological position appears infinitely fluid). It was perhaps more to do with needing to placate what was then her political base.

Settlement Statement Branded “Devoid of Reality”, “Untrue”. Senior Council Officers Accused of Obstruction and Bending to Pressure!

 In each of the last four years, if Fiaz had simply maintained the work done under Robin Wales, Newham would have brought in between £24m-£30m more cash!