Anam on the Side-lines?
The most recent missive from the office of Newham’s Labour Whip shows the degree to which the elected Chief Whip has been side-lined by his supposed deputy. Lofthouse is clearly the favoured one in relations with the mayor and she has taken it as her role to implement the mayor’s instructions, leaving Cllr Anamul Islam with time on his hands.
Below is a memo from ‘Jane and Anam’. Have a look at the apostrophe in the header. The memo doesn’t come from the Whip’s office (singular, generally meaning Chief Whip) it comes from the Whips’ Office, (plural, suggesting co-equal). Is it a power grab or is it simply a way of reinforcing the fact that Cllr Islam is now a spent force on the council?
Actually, in terms of the content, there isn’t much wrong with the memo. Cllr Lofthouse gives clear instructions as to what should and should not be done. It may well be that she has seen some of the material being circulated and has good reason to be concerned.
But still, it must be galling for Cllr Islam to be Chief Whip in name only. But maybe that won’t be for too much longer. We hear that the knives are being sharpened in advance of the selections for, sorry, imposition of candidates next year.
Memo
To: Newham Labour Group Members
From: The Whips’ Office
CC: Newham Labour Group Leader and Chief Whip
Date: April 17, 2021
Re: Council 19th April 2021
_________________________________________________________________________________
Dear colleagues,
Hoping that you are all well. The following items were agreed by a large majority at Group and will, therefore, be whipped.
Item 16: Proposed Changes to the Council’s Constitution To agree (agree, approve, note)
Item 17: Special Urgency Exemption from Call-in: Schedule of Decision To note
The Referendum As briefly discussed at Group last Monday, we agreed in November 2020 that this issue is entirely a matter of personal choice. At Group and Council, we voted in October that the Committee and Leader Model should be on the ballot as the alternative to the Mayoral Model of Governance. We voted in November that we should all be free to campaign for whichever of these two models we preferred.
However, there are regulations governing political campaigning and these should be strictly adhered to. This is a strong reminder that we must be guarded about the campaign groups we support and must avoid any campaigning that promotes misinformation, false accusations or is defamatory, thus bringing us, as Labour Group members, into disrepute. These campaigns may be the subject of formal complaints. Moreover, such campaigns undermine the integrity of the genuine and honest campaigning, for either model, to which many members are committed.
Ramadan The hope is that the business of Council on Monday can be completed by 8.05pm to free members for prayer and Iftar. If business has not been completed by then, there will be a break and the meeting will resume at 8.30pm.
Apologies As always, kindly notify me jlofthouse.................. if you are unable to attend Council, and cc the Chief Whip anamul.islam………………...
Ramadan Mubarak to our Muslim comrades and best wishes to all,
Jane and Anam