Rumours and Leaks

It was only two years ago that the Labour Party managed to hand-pick its councillors and return an obviously unpopular candidate as mayor.

Having alienated much of the Labour Group and become something of an embarrassment to Labour in London, we learn that Labour is about to take action.

So far, unsubstantiated rumours have come to Open Newham suggesting that the Labour Party is preparing to remove Rokhsana Fiaz from her role. The name of her loyal deputy (who also Chair’s Labour NEC) has been linked to this and it is believed that Cllr James Asser is the one who set things in motion.

Alarmed that Newham might have to issue a s114 Notice, we are told that the Labour Party machine is preparing to oust Fiaz.

A s114 Notice would essentially declare that the council is going bankrupt. What happens after this is that any spending is subject to the agreement of the chief finance officer. Politicians cease to have any role in allocating money; in short spending is limited to that which the council is legally obliged to undertake. 

A second impact of a s114 Notice is that council tax will rise. “Ahh” we hear you cry, “council tax has risen every year since Mayor Fiaz has been in office”. Indeed, it has, but the government has limited rises in the main to 5%, (3% council tax and 2% social care supplement). Lately, it has allowed councils which have issued a s114 Notice to raise their council tax by 10% or even 15%. 

After Birmingham, Croydon, Slough and Nottingham, Labour is keen to show that it can be responsible in government. A mayor who has lost control of her budget and her Group does not fit into this model.

On top of this, local issues and the rise of opposition parties in the borough have shown that Labour’s lead is far from unassailable. If the lessons of the two recent byelections are not sufficient, the success of Mothin Ali in Leeds, where an apparently Islamist individual won a council seat for the Greens, show that a Green-Green alliance could make some inroads into previously safe Labour areas.

When it comes to how the Labour Party would go about Fiaz’s removal, our informants are cagey. It has been suggested that a senior party officer might have a serious talk to Ms Fiaz and tell her that she had to go. 

The trouble with this is that she could simply say “no”. She might be suspended from the Labour Party, but she could remain mayor.

That would leave Fiaz in power for two more years and Labour would ‘lose’ a mayoralty.

Another option is that she is offered a peerage. It might look good to offer her a seat in the Lords; Labour needs more peers and a Muslim woman might enhance Labour’s DEI credentials.

It would appear to the residents of Newham that this was a case of being rewarded for failure.

We will seek further information and bring readers up to date as we receive it.