The Mayoral Steeplechase. Who’s in the Running?
Having revealed that the Labour Party does not trust its members to choose their candidates for mayor and councillors, we thought that we’d have a look at some of the potential mayoral candidates. There is no shortage. We know that some of them have begun campaigning already! So here are our thoughts on the early runners and riders for the Mayoral Steeplechase 2021-22.
Clearly the mayoralty is such an easy job that anyone can do it.
Readers are asked to bear with us. We are seeking to transition to the new world of gender correct identification, so we are experimenting with what we understand to be the correct definitional forms of the moment. So,
Ladies First. (That will upset somebody! Just to be absolutely politically correct then, People who Menstruate First.)
Let’s start with the incumbent and front-runner. Rokhsana Fiaz was elected in 2018 with a massive electoral majority, 70% of the popular vote. The trouble is that she has fallen out with most of the people who brought in that vote. Not only has she lost support of the wider electorate, but she has lost the support of crucial allies and power brokers within the Labour Party. In an open selection she would have struggled to get the nomination. Her record in directing the council is poor by any standards and her administration has been repeatedly rocked by allegations of antisemitism. On the plus side, she is a woman and from a minority community. Given that Labour is now immersed in identity politics this could still work in her favour.
Ayesha Choudhury is a Bengali councillor, with strong roots and contacts in the Bangladeshi community in Newham, but has little name recognition outside of that community. Quietly spoken, she has chaired the Health Scrutiny Commission for the last three years as well as holding office under Wales. She and her husband have created a successful property development business. She is noted for her religious beliefs, but has not pursued policies which favour a single community. Her support of plurality has led the Islamist factions to decry her as ‘corrupt’ or simply not Muslim enough. She may also be too tied to the Wales regime by her history, but as she is said to have been latterly cultivating a relationship with Fiaz, we shall see.
Another East Ham potential candidate comes in the form of Lakmini Shah. It appears that Ms Shah is personally well regarded, though perhaps not by Mayor Fiaz who apparently sees her as a threat. She was a cabinet member under Wales and in the three years since the elevation of Mayor Fiaz, Shah has been one of a small number of permanent thorns in her side. Clearly being female and from a minority community will be in her favour. As a Buddhist, she has a small natural constituency inside the party but might well be a candidate that any residual supporters of the former mayor might rally around and has the appeal to reach out across communitarian boundaries.
Carleene Lee-Phakoe is a first-time councillor, who in her own words was apparently ‘Roxified’, meaning fully part of the Fiaz team, which was helpful as Fiaz was paying her wages. She is one of the husband-and-wife teams on the council and although new to local government, has been a junior cabinet member for several years. It appears that her attachment to ‘Team-Roxi’ might be diminishing as she senses that she might have a shot at the top job.
Rachel Tripp was a councillor and cabinet member under Wales. That is until she resigned over policy differences. Just because it was unclear what these policy differences were and why she had never spoken of them before is no reason to assume that she was merely jumping ship in anticipation of a Fiaz victory. That would hypocritical and suggest a definite lack of principle and that would be a terrible charge to make against a sitting councillor. So, we won’t. You, however, are free to make up your own mind. Tripp was given a cabinet post in the new Fiaz administration, before resigning again; we understand that this time it was because of the bullying behaviour of her new boss. Maybe this is payback time; from a woman whose main claim to fame is that she keeps quitting.
We are told that Mumtaz Khan is considering entering the race. One suspects that Labour would be pretty hard up to rely upon a convicted fraudster as the candidate.
Tonii Wilson. Wilson came on to the council during the Wales era. By all accounts a decent person but with little in her recent experience to suggest that she is destined for high office.
Another Ayesha and half of another husband-and-wife team on the council. Ayesha Siddiqah is a first-time councillor married to former Respect, now Labour councillor, Hanif Abdulmuhit. By profession she is a teacher. Given Abdulmuhit’s perceived closeness to He-who-must-not-named you would think that Siddiqah’s sympathies would not be with the present incumbent, but it seems not. Or at least it seemed not. The cords binding the sisterhood together seem to be fraying now that Fiaz is looking increasingly vulnerable. Regarded as intelligent and with established roots in the community she cannot be considered a favourite, but a shot at the leadership may put down a marker for future advancement.
To be sure that inexperience is not a barrier to aspiration, we hear that Moniba Khan is entering the race. Ms Khan is better known for her relationship to her husband, Obaid. He was a councillor elected first in 2014 who was so committed to the election struggle that he spent much of the election night in a local nick following scuffles with political opponents outside the polling station. He was later suspended for threatening colleagues and a female councillor from another borough. Throughout the period of his suspension he nonetheless managed to attend some Labour Party meetings, not the least of which were those where his wife was chosen as a by-election candidate. Ms Khan and her husband are key activists in the East Ham Momentum faction and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that she would be the East Ham faction’s favoured candidate. This would be a shame for Labour struggling as it is to distance itself from antisemitism, as she has an unfortunate history of mixing with some of Labour’s well-known anti-Semites.
Then we have the men, or rather the people who have never menstruated.
John Gray was the architect of Fiaz’s selection campaign. He was rewarded for his efforts on Fiaz’s behalf with the position of Deputy Mayor. Cllr Gray continued to be active on social media and still maintains John’s Labour Blog, but alas, he also moderated a Newham Labour Facebook page. It is this that saw him fall from grace. A number of Labour Party members did not read the instructions and continued to share their antisemitic posts on the page. Cllr Gray as moderator should have stopped them. He didn’t. Arguably Mayor Fiaz shared the blame for any inaction, not least because she seems to have tried to brush the antisemitism allegations under the carpet. But as any student of physics knows, shit runs downhill and it was Gray who got the boot. Outside of the council he was active in Unison, that is until he recently lost his place on the union’s national executive. This will however, leave him time to organise his mayoral campaign.
An archetypal Labour Party apparatchik, Ken Clark is a skilled political operator who came onto the council under Wales. Having been invited in by Wales, Clark was widely seen as being less than loyal, especially when it came to carving out a position for himself. Politics is politics and you don’t expect to win lots of friends, but even so, Clark’s gift for alienating his comrades is legendary. Still, he seems to have the skin of a rhino and despite his encroaching years, he seems to retain significant personal ambition. However, now that the Labour Party has elevated identity over competence, both he and Gray suffer from the same handicap.
Maz Patel held office under Wales and is reputed to have been offered a cabinet post under Fiaz and declined it. A thoughtful man who practices law; an Indian Muslim which makes him suspect by the Pakistani and Bangladeshi members, and also one who supports the principles of pluralism. Murmurings suggest that he would have the support of the Gujarati membership but he is articulate, liberally minded and young(ish) and could conceivably build support across communitarian boundaries.
Tainted by just the merest hint of Islamophobia Terry Paul might be hoping that past memories of his posts on social media have been forgotten. He has served in both the Wales and the Fiaz administrations, which might mean that he is a dedicated public servant committed to serving the people, no matter what the administration is. Alternatively, it might mean that he is a man without any principle and willing to do the bidding of whoever pays the piper. We couldn’t possibly say. His successful three years in charge of the council’s finances have seen record tax rises and record service charge increases. But even with this he has still managed to collect less council tax money than under the Wales regime and has overseen the dissolution of the council reserves. But as Fiaz has shown, incompetence should not be a bar to ambition.
The other member of the Siddiqah/Abdulmuhit team is Hanif Abdulmuhit. He is now a veteran councillor having served both Respect and Labour. Despite his history with Galloway’s crew, Abudulmuhit is regarded as moderate and because of this was the subject of attempts to deselect and defeat him at elections by the mayor’s new friends in the NPA. He was castigated for his association with the ‘extremist’ Majid Nawaz, that’s right, the centrist Liberal candidate and broadcaster on LBC. His natural support would be from the Bengali membership and potentially some of the remaining Wales supporters. But there will be several others vying for the support of the same constituencies.
The final one in this category is Unmesh Desai AM. In the days when he had to work for a living Mr Desai was a solicitor, but in the days since his elevation to the cabinet under Wales he has been a full-time politician. Firstly, on Newham Council and latterly as a member of the GLA. He has been known to exert extraordinary efforts in campaigning for a position and has a contact list that would be the envy of any likely contender.
The Outsiders
Having bottled his chance to challenge Wales and supplant Fiaz, Forhad Husain left the council. Young, articulate and intelligent he is blighted in that he demonstrated a fairly staggering degree of disloyalty which still irks those Wales loyalists who remain on the scene. From the point of view of those opposing both Wales and Fiaz, he bottled his chance once, suggesting that he doesn’t have the necessary nerve for the role; moreover, some who might have supported his return still feel that it is his fault that they were lumbered with Fiaz. The question is, are they in a forgiving mood? And is he interested anymore?
Another outsider who is worth a watch is Cllr James Asser. He too is a white man and thus his chances of displacing a woman of colour are limited, save for the fact that he is a gay man and sits on Labour’s National Executive. Being gay might just qualify him as one of the perennially oppressed; whether his level of oppression is sufficient to outweigh that suffered by a woman of colour is something we are unable to say. If he were facing the electorate of the two local CLPs his outstanding record in the ham-fisted imposition of the emissions-based charging system might work against him. True, Green Labour in Forest Gate might offer him support, but that much greater constituency which felt let down and lied to over parking charges are unlikely to do the same. But the decision will ultimately be made by the NEC and Asser has cultivated relationships there over several years.
The world of wannabes seems to include an ever-increasing number. We are told that UEL research student and wannabe councillor Zain Miah is planning to throw his hat in the ring. Miah’s presence is ubiquitous on any demonstration in Newham or on Palestine or in pictures cuddled up to Chris Williamson. He is the interim CLP Secretary in West Ham, apparently, (though the previous secretary still appears to be acting in the role), and evidently a good friend of Jeremy’s. So far, his claim to fame extends to increasing the Bengali membership and attendance at Labour Party meetings. Not necessarily great credentials for administering a £1bn pa enterprise, but a good way to secure votes.
And don’t laugh, but if you wanted to put a small bet on a long-odds outsider, we hear that feelers are being extended out to one Robin Wales, well known knight and former mayor of this borough. Moreover, it seems that these enquiries are not being issued by the usual suspects. Apparently, some of the former mayor’s one-time enemies have reassessed their opposition; on balance it appears that they have considered that a balanced budget, no cuts and no increases in council tax were not such bad things after all. You never know, Ken Livingstone did it. Just saying…
If any of the individuals mentioned wish to rule themselves out of the race, an email to info@opennewham.co.uk will suffice to get a retraction published. If we have missed anyone, also, please let us know.