“Me, Me, Me. It’s all about Me. I’m in Charge.”

The current balance of the council is as follows. Of 66 council seats

The Majority Group. Labour has 60.

The Main Opposition. The Independent Group has 3.

The Green Party has 2.

Non-aligned antisemitic independent, (wanting to get back in the Labour Party) councillor, has 1 seat.

The election of Sophia Naqvi and the defection of Zuber Gulamussen to the Independent Group meant that the electoral arithmetic on the council changed. The Greens, who up until the end of November were the official opposition have now been relegated. The official opposition is now led by Mehmood Mirza.

This will have a small, but nonetheless important impact on the allocation of positions on the various scrutiny commissions.

In accordance with previous practice the opposition groups were invited to submit their preferences for the different commissions. They duly did this. It appears that Cllr McAlmont, as Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, took these requests into account.

On a council where Labour has ten-times the number of all the opposition councillors, it matters little who sits on which commission. Of course, this hasn’t stopped the mayor trying in the past, to fiddle the allocations to deny the opposition places, in this case, the Greens, (also here). This was later shown to be unlawful when challenged by the Green councillors.

We understand that Cllr McAlmont submitted a list which allocated opposition councillors to various scrutiny commissions, more or less in line with their preferences. The list went, via Chief Whip Anamul Islam, to the mayor.

When the list re-emerged, the names and allocations had been changed. It was almost as if the mayor wanted to be in charge of who was allowed to ask her questions. If true, this displays a degree of unease about scrutiny that suggests Mayor Fiaz is either very worried or has a serious problem with control freakery.

It's not that the decisions will be overturned. The mayor has enormous discretion over what may and may not be done on the council. It’s not about her majority. Labour has 54 votes more than everyone else combined. It is, we suspect, the worrying possibility that someone will ask her a difficult question, you know like, “How did you get into the financial mess that means Newham will have to cut £40m from its budget this year?”.

If the mayor can block opposition councillors from sitting on scrutiny commissions today, she can do it to Labour councillors in May.

To his credit, Cllr McAlmont has not taken this lying down. He has challenged the mayor on what she did and why. We await the response, as this will be discussed at council on Monday 11th December.

Cllr McAlmont writes:

Dear Rokhsana and Anam,

I have been contacted by the chief whip of the majority group this evening regarding the scrutiny allocations due to be tabled at full council on Monday.

In consultation with each other, you have allocated Scrutiny seats to the minority groups. Your allocations are contrary to the list I have provided to the chief whip. 

In my statutory capacity as the chair of overview and scrutiny, I was asked to decide the allocation of seats to the opposition groups on council.

I am dismayed to hear that you have in consultation with the chief whip, overridden the will of scrutiny, in my choice of members to take up seats on the various scrutiny committees.

Whilst it may be your right as the leader of the group to take these steps in the allocation of Council's committee seats in consultation with the chief whip, however, the allocation of Scrutiny seats has always been outside your purview, it is therefore most regrettable that you have chosen this course of action. 

Scrutiny functions at its very best when it is free from the interference of the executive, the recent Centre for Governance and Scrutiny report highlighted the inadequacies in the scrutiny function of the authority, your actions only exacerbate these weaknesses.

I am concerned that the effects of your actions will undermine the effective scrutiny of your administration.

I am therefore formally asking you and the chief whip to revert to the allocations that were given to the chief whip by myself in my capacity, to ensure that the clear demarcation between scrutiny and the executive is maintained.

It is my belief that we not only need to ensure that the separation of executive and scrutiny is maintained in deed but also in spirit. To ensure that there is no perception of executive overreach into the affairs of scrutiny.

I look forward to your swift response, as full council is on Monday.

Oh, and P.S. Labour Group still leaks!!

It is likely to continue to do so while the mayor ignores her colleagues and seeks to make every decision personally. Having received the backing of the regional party, it's almost as if it’s gone to her head.