Candidates Beginning to Declare (Boleyn)
Readers will be familiar with Mehmood Mirza. This former member of the Labour Party, and former constituency officer and former supporter of Mayor Fiaz, has been conducting a virtually single-handed campaign to clean up the borough.
His efforts to get Mayor Fiaz to do her job got him banned from the Newham Council Facebook page, because he kept pointing out the levels of litter and fly-tipping. This has not deterred him and he continues to raise the issue of dumped waste and the failure of the council to come up with a solution. We think that the article he is referring to is this one, but it could have been this one.
He has also become involved in community campaigns, not least of which was the campaign to save the City Farm and he notes the unjust way in which Mayor Fiaz’s council tried to prosecute former Newham staff. The judge dismissed the case and condemned Newham for “Bias”, “An Abuse of Process” and actions which were “An Affront to Justice”. This does not seem to have caused the mayor’s comrades any concern however, but Mirza is raising the issue again.
His opening leaflet also references a number of issues that might cause the ruling Labour Group to be concerned about Mayor Fiaz’s record. If they have traction in a by-election, they might have resonance when it comes to the full council elections.
He notes a rise in council tax of 30% under Fiaz.
He is critical of the “money-making scheme” that is the council’s policy of lifting cars within minutes of issuing a ticket and the use of Browning Road as a cash-cow for Newham’s dwindling finances.
And of the hefty charges for resident parking permits.
He flags up a perennial concern of crime and anti-social behaviour, where the mayor might be vulnerable given her change of direction vis-à-vis prostitution in the borough.
He raises the issue of “unsafe cladding” in Upton Gardens and,
He promotes himself as a champion of the community, which he contrasts with his opponent, a full-time staff member of the Labour Party. This might garner him some support if voters want to send the mayor a protest message.
We do suggest that he gets a copy-editor for any future leaflets, just to save the embarrassment.
Of course, some of his campaign pledges seem somewhat unusual for a council candidate in east London, (Green St not Gaza). Here we see Mr Mirza’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, (repeated twice on Facebook).
The hashtag is to Free Palestine, presumably he wants to free it from all those Jews. It seems that this determinedly Corbynite left-winger, is not above a bit of dog-whistle politics, which might go down well in some of the mosques. It was this that got him into trouble with the post-Corbyn Labour Party leadership.
But presumably, given the flag, he is not against human rights violations by Hamas and Fatah.
Mirza has developed something of a personal brand. Whether this will be enough to overcome the Labour machine is yet to be seen. He is clearly picking up support from former Labour Party members, who were on the Left of the party. Time will tell if this translates into energetic election workers.
The election has been called for July 13th. We will report upon further candidates for both wards as we get details.