Is Fiaz Adopting Wales’ Policies, or is it Hypocrisy, or Simply Opportunism?

In 2008 Newham Council, under the then Mayor, Robin Wales introduced free school meals for all children, regardless of the income of their parents.

It was a scheme that was popular with schools and with the local Labour Party. It was also remarkably effective. There was some disquiet therefore when Mayor Fiaz sought to cut the scheme to balance the books.

“Local MPs and school leaders had praised the scheme as “life-changing” and said they feared the impact the proposed cut would have on the health and educational development of thousands of children, especially during the pandemic.” The Guardian

Introduced by Wales with the intention of ensuring that no children went hungry, it was also popular with parents, particularly those on low incomes.

“Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, said: “The evidence from our free school meals programme is overwhelming –it benefits school children and their families and saves hard-working families more than £500 per child.” Newham Recorder

Fiaz’s commitment to the scheme was rather less enthusiastic when she became mayor. Of course, she wouldn’t be quoted herself, but, “a spokesperson for Newham Council said it is considering whether to alter its Eat for Free scheme with the aim of saving £1.9million.” Newham Recorder

It may be that council officers were making up policy without any reference to the mayor, but we suspect not.

It seems that some of her followers on Twitter had longer memories than she did.

Her decision to axe the programme was criticised by party members. From the same Recorder article (above); “Tahir Mirza, who chairs East Ham Labour Party (CLP), said that "surely a Labour administration would rather die in a ditch than support a policy that harms children", in an open letter.” Mirza is no longer in the Labour Party. 

In an embarrassing U Turn, Fiaz was forced to backtrack on her decision by a rare revolt amongst councillors.

Then we had the re-writing of history. “When asked whether Newham had been planning to get rid of free school meals, we discover from Mayor Fiaz, that they weren’t trying to get rid of free school meals; they were looking at ways of spending the money more efficiently to more effectively target the increased poverty brought about by Covid. It was NEVER about saving money. Apparently.” Open Newham

Now we see that the mayor is seeking to take all the credit and even using the same words as Wales. Having re-named the scheme, “Eat for Free” we find that this is a “pioneering” scheme. Of course, she does not mention just who pioneered it.

The following comes from the Newham Council website.

“The pioneering Eat for Free programme 

“It guarantees that all children in the borough have access to a healthy daily meal, as well as saving Newham families around £500 per child in annual food costs.”

Readers might notice that not only has she sought to steal Wales’ policies, but she seems to have stolen his words as well. Compare the quote with para 5 above.

The organisers of the event at which Fiaz spoke, tweeted the following.

So, congratulations to Mayor Fiaz for continuing a programme started and championed by Sir Robin Wales.

A lack of original thought is no impediment to claiming credit, it seems.