More on that Settlement. Labour Members Fall-Out. Residents Pay the Bill.

Our thanks to LBN FOI team for the response to our enquiries. It seems that the councillors who were invited to give an opinion on the settlement and the terms of the settlement were not a committee, not even an ad hoc committee. They were only a group of individuals offering advice.

Readers may not recall that they were Cllrs, M Mirza (N. Ind.), Nate Higgins (Gr.) and the following Labour members, Ruiz, McAlmont and Rahman.

Apparently they were ‘representative’, presumably of the numbers of councillors each party holds, though 3:2, (Labour:Opposition), seems to benefit the minority parties unduly.

The decision, we are informed, was made by the Director of Legal and Governance, (Rachel McKoy) “in consultation with the Chief Executive”, (Abi Gbago), under powers delegated within the constitution. It is understandable that she would want to settle the matter, but it creates an unfortunate impression when a paid officer is making the decision to pay her boss’ legal expenses; in a case brought by the mayor against her own council; and which arose from a fall out between the mayor and some Labour councillors at a committee meeting.

Fiaz, who has a history of allegations of bullying political colleagues seems to be a bit thin skinned when it comes to criticism of her own performance. And an appointed officer was left to sort out the mess created by elected politicians.

We say politicians in the plural, but we are unaware of any case where the leader of a majority group has sought redress against the council because she had a row with Labour Party colleagues, so perhaps we should be writing in the singular.

It was the narrative included in the settlement, effectively shifting the blame onto the Standards Advisory Committee, that caused the resignation of the Chair of the SAC.

The council said “sorry” for the mayor’s hurt feelings and gave her up to £30k, plus VAT.  It’s a good job that none of the other councillors at the meeting in December 2022 had any hurt feelings. We’re not sure that Newham could afford it.