Another (Deputy) Cabinet Resignation

You know that you are living in a Alice-in-Wonderland state, when the same set of council papers both announce that there is a shortfall in the council finances that will require £175m in cuts and sell-offs, and you get motions demanding the additional expenditure of millions of pounds.

That was the situation at council on the 16th September. 

Newham Greens introduced a motion, ostensibly to demonstrate their caring credentials, maybe needle Newham Labour.

They paraded their opposition to the “two-child” cap on child benefit, now a Labour policy, but their main aim was to extend free school meals (eat-for-free) to secondary school children. They don’t say how much it is that they think it would cost, probably another £6m pa, nor where the money would come from.

The motion was comfortably defeated. The opposition voted for and whilst Labour largely voted against, three Labour councillors abstained; Cllrs Kamali, Chadha and Masters.

This is something of a breach and it is not yet clear how (or whether) the Chief Whip will deal with it.

Of the three, Kamali is the only one with an SRA (Special Responsibility Allowance) in her role as Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing. We are told that she jumped before being pushed and has resigned her Deputy Cabinet position.

At least this will give the mayor a chance to save a little over £20,000 towards her overspend.