Fiaz Covers Every Base on Mayoral Referendum

Back in those halcyon days before the realities of office set in, Ms Fiaz was clear in her intentions to end the office of the Directly Elected Mayor, (DEM).

Gone were the days of concentrating so much power in the hands of a single individual.

It must have been a terrible emotional burden for her to inherit all that power, especially when 60 out of 60 councillors elected with all came from the Labour Party. And there she was, burdened with the “unhealthy mayoral model”, and no opposition.

We have noted elsewhere that her enthusiasm for change seemed to mellow somewhat, perhaps as she increasingly enjoyed the benefits of office, but that is to jump ahead of ourselves.

In the same HuffPost article, Fiaz announces that she favours the Leader and Cabinet model.

The Leader and Cabinet model is widely regarded as a half-way house between DEM and the old-style Leader and Committee structure. It reduces the concentration of power in one person’s hands  but still allows for consistent policy development and allows time for incumbents to bring the policies to fruition. The ‘committee’ system does not and added to the generation of policies which pull in different directions, committee chairs were elected annually. In effect, they have to start campaigning for the next election as soon as they get into office.

For those that treat council politics as some sort of harmless recreation, this works well. It gives the chance to play politics without ever having to do anything.

It came as something of a surprise to discover, that when the now unenthusiastic Mayor Fiaz was dragged back to supporting the idea of a referendum that she supported, not the Leader and Cabinet model, but the Leader and Committee model. Moreover, she expended considerable political effort and capital on ensuring that the Labour Group was whipped into support of the same.

We at Open Newham have long suspected what her colleagues on the council have feared, that Fiaz had not simply cooled to the idea of a referendum, but that she was actively seeking a second (and third, fourth, fifth) term in office. (Does this sound like someone else, surely Mayor Fiaz is not contemplating an incumbency like that of Mayor Wales, that would be too much like hypocrisy.)

Having repeatedly failed to win selection for a parliamentary seat, Fiaz may see this as her only chance for a well-paid career in politics. Possibly, but we don’t rule out the prospect that she will throw her hat in the ring for a chance at one of two, or maybe three Newham-based, Westminster seats that become available in the near future.

But before that happens, there is the referendum. We had suspected that her true position was that she wanted to remain in office and have reported the rumours that she is bankrolling the campaign to keep the mayoralty.

However, even we were surprised by the chutzpah of Mayor Fiaz this last week in the Recorder..

It seems that Ms Fiaz has managed to cover every possible position on the mayoralty in the last three years. She was publicly against the mayoralty in 2018; she was for the Leader and Cabinet in 2018; she was for the Leader and Committee in 2020; she is for the Directly Elected Mayor in 2021.

When 15% of the voters of Newham endorse the DEM model, she will be able to claim a mandate and point to it as evidence of her popularity. Meanwhile the people of Newham will be stuck with an incumbent as devoid of principle as she is devoid of ability.