Another One Goes

Labour, it seems is hemorrhaging councillors. Canning Town North councillor, Areeq Chowdhury has announced that he has left Labour in order to join the Greens. They have welcomed him.

This means that the Greens now match Newham Independent Group with three councillors each. Belgica Guana sits as an independent antisemite.

Chowdhury should fit in well. He opposes Israeli actions in Gaza. He is upset by the use of the term, “the countries that they came from”, used by Keir Starmer regarding repatriation of people with no legal status in the country. The term is apparently racist. The insult was compounded by the inclusion of Bangladesh as an example of one of those countries. Lastly, he is aggrieved by the “broken promises” of the Labour leader, though he doesn’t take the opportunity to elaborate on just which promises Starmer broke.

Choudhury is two years into his first term as a councillor. He was one of those “outstanding candidates”, specially selected by the Mayor and the Labour Party.

This specially selected team seems to be drifting away, some to higher office, some to other parties. There may be some dispute as to who now constitutes the official opposition. If so, it is a dispute that we suspect will be resolved by July 18th, by which time, we think it likely that Newham Independents will have increased their representation on the council.