A House Divided

Reports are leaking of the increasingly fractious nature of the ruling Labour Group. At the last meeting on Thursday evening, (20th Feb), it seems that the underlying tensions exploded.

This time round they managed to have the ‘yellow book’ available, but important discussions were sidelined as the debate slipped into personal attacks.

The main item was again, the budget.

Cllr Zulfiqar Ali mumbled an introduction. As we know, the 9% council tax rise will be slapped on residents’ bills. It seems that Cllr Hudson was keen to know whether this presaged another similar rise in 2026. Alas, it seems that Cllr Ali wasn’t able to say.

Unfortunately, Ali’s lack of candour suggests that Hudson’s concerns are well founded.

Additionally, it seems that Fiaz is repeating the problem we exposed last week, of trying to whip members on documents that they haven’t seen. The spend for the council’s development arm, Populo, was in the yellow book. Unfortunately, the details for this money pit are all contained in the business plan, which won’t be published until March!

The centralised control and inability to delegate criticised in the Peer Review, seems to have been perpetuated and those councillors with the ability and willingness to make their voices heard are being marginalised.

Mayor Fiaz has rejected the recommendations of scrutiny arising from the ‘call-ins’ regarding both People Powered Places and the Carpenters redevelopment.

Councillors Chadha and Masters raised their concerns about the budget. Reflecting on those who expressed concerns, there are a remarkable number who were supporters of Fiaz in her successful attempt to remove Wales. They appear to have discovered that their candidate is no longer interested either in their support or their opinions. 

Cllr McAlmont warned of the dangers of refusing to have open and frank discussions in Group. If members are not allowed to freely raise and debate their concerns assured that there will not be repercussions, then Group members will continue to leak. And articles like this will continue to appear. (It has been suggested to us that the only way that Group members and council officers find out what is going on is by consulting Open Newham.)

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. Heaven forbid that they should sort themselves out and put residents first.

Which brings us to the excitement of the night, and while this may be amusing to those of us on the outside, it suggests a Group riven with petty ambition and a leadership unwilling to tackle the hard questions.

Various cabinet members outlined how they intend to cut their costs in order to stay within the budget constraints. And then it came to Madeleine Sarley Pontin. Cllr Pontin, (rather unkindly referred to as Fiaz’s mini-me) set out how the savings will be made in her area.

During the course of her address, she happened to note one Cllr Terry Paul. We are not actually sure what Cllr Paul was doing, but evidently, his “body language” offended Cllr Pontin and she made her displeasure known in a manner that caused Cllr Paul to take offence, not least because this seemed to be yet another attack on Black men on the council. He insisted that Pontin withdraw the remarks, and Cllr Rush, in the chair also invited her to do so. She didn’t.

As the exchange continued for ten minutes or so, tempers and emotions were stretched leaving Pontin “on the verge of tears”. (Sounds like another legal case is in preparation against the council and Cllr Paul. This time for misogyny; will the taxpayer be left with another whopping bill for Pontin’s legal fees?) Cllr Rush adjourned the meeting. 

Veteran councillor, Winston Vaughan opined that he, in his 25 years on the council had “never seen anything like it”.

It has been suggested to us that the hostility expressed by Cllr Pontin was an example of the way in which cabinet members “take their leadership from the top”, attacking the person not the principle. To outside observers it appears that the leadership is bereft of ideas and therefore has only one option; to attack anyone that has the impudence to challenge any proposals. It may or may not work in the case of Cllr Paul, but it will serve to intimidate and therefore silence less confident councillors, (or those who simply want opportunities for preferment).

Following a break of 15 minutes, the meeting resumed and concluded in a somewhat more subdued fashion. The whip on the yellow book was agreed by 33:12 votes, with Cllr Gray abstaining this time.

We understand that Cllr Ruiz gathered the cabinet members at her home following the meeting either to lick their wounds or plan their responses.