A Massive Labour Win, with some Lessons for Newham?

Now that the dust has settled from the local elections, we thought that we’d take a look at any lessons for Newham.

Nationally, the Tories have done their level best to make themselves unelectable and Labour has been the main beneficiary, picking up over 500 of the 1000 plus seats the Tories lost. As commentators have noted, this puts Labour on track to become the largest party in a hung parliament. 

If voters are unsure of what Labour stands for nationally, they may be even more bemused locally. The only consistent discernable policy is to increase taxes. Since she came to power, Mayor Fiaz has raised local taxation by some 25%. This is somewhat more than has been received by most workers in the private sector and by pensioners.

It’s okay though. It won’t affect the poll results.

That’s what the eminent burghers of Slough thought. In 2019, Slough returned 36 Labour councilors and five Tories. It was a whitewash and a complete humiliation for the Conservative Party.

Labour then proceeded to squander the goodwill of their voters. By 2021 they had so mismanaged the council that they were effectively bankrupt. They hiked council tax by some 10%, went on a swinging round of service cuts and started the sell-off of some £600m in assets.

A question for our councilors is, does any of this sound familiar?

In May 2023, the landslide majority was slashed and Slough returned 18 Labour, 23 Conservatives and three Liberal Democrats. The Labour Leader lost his seat.

Slough is not Newham. The Tories in Slough fought hard to put pressure on Labour, and they picked up many disgruntled Labour members and councillors. You’d be hard pressed to find a Tory activist in Newham more than a month before the next election.

The mantle of the official opposition in Newham has fallen on the Green Party, but they are inclined to treat the council like a student union meeting. And, if they are not living on another planet, they seem to be receiving regular instructions therefrom.

So far, the Greens are simply the receptacle of protest votes.

Any hope for Newham must lie with the Labour Party. The constituency parties remain suspended, which suggests that the national party has little faith in them. They remain riddled with ethnic and religious rivalry. The Corbynista element has not disappeared, indeed we noted that there is one ageing Corbynista on the executive payroll.

It is difficult to determine what direction Fiaz and the Labour group wish to take. At the same time, Fiaz wishes to make Newham into London’s Preston, (Corbynista) and at the same time demonstrate her affection for the party under Starmer, (but we’re still not sure what that is). She virtue signals as well as any social justice warrior half her age, but puts up tax better than any municipal socialist of yesteryear.

If Labour is to renew itself in Newham, it will take some of the younger members to put people before (half-baked) ideology and prepare reasoned alternatives. And then to fight for them. As the parties remain suspended the only individuals who can effectively do this are already on the council, but they largely seem to have their focus on acquiring parliamentary seats.

Is there any wonder that voters get cynical?

It seems that Newham will be reducing services and increasing taxes for the foreseeable future.