Clllr Brayshaw Humiliated. Again.

Back in the days when Newham didn’t stumble from financial crisis to financial crisis, Cllr Brayshaw served as Chief Whip on Newham’s ruling Labour Group.

Times change and when Wales was evicted, so was Brayshaw. He stood for the post in 2018 but lost out to Anamul Islam, who had been instrumental in getting Fiaz adopted as candidate.

Alas, relationships between Fiaz and Islam have deteriorated somewhat and for some time she has wanted rid of her erstwhile supporter. In the light of a “peer review” that highlighted the embarrassing dysfunction of the political leadership; discontent in the Labour Group; complaints of a bullying leadership; and the rejection of her candidates in internal ballots, it was decided that Fiaz needed someone to blame. Clearly, she wasn’t going to accept responsibility for the situation so the blame had to be laid at the feet of someone else for the deterioration of Group morale.

The ideal candidate came in the shape of Cllr Islam. Fiaz and Islam had already fallen out. He was the Chief Whip and so the whispering campaign began. Islam was at fault and Islam had to go.

The opportunity appeared to present itself on Thursday 16th May, at the Labour Group AGM. Fiaz’s team marshaled support for their alternative candidate. Step forward Cllr Steve Brayshaw.

Quite why Brayshaw wanted a role that paid £4k less than he received in his current role is unknown, but it does hint at the suggestion of hidden promises.

This attempt then met with the reality of electoral politics.

Fifty-two members were present at the meeting. Two abstained. Brayshaw managed to secure 19 votes. Islam took 31.

Even in the event that the other nine members had attended and all had voted for Brayshaw, (unlikely), Fiaz’s candidate would still have lost.

There is now a pattern of the Fiaz candidate regularly attaining roughly one third of the Group votes. Generally, anyone else picks up two-thirds. It is evident that association with the mayor has become toxic.

A life in politics can be disheartening.