The Race Officially Begins
On Friday 3rd, nominations from the place of Labour’s mayoral candidate closed. This is the selection which will determine the governance of Newham 2022-2026. The electorate will have their choice, but experience of the last 20 years suggests that the candidate Labour chooses is the candidate who will take office.
As we have referenced before, because both constituency parties remain suspended, the selection of the mayoral candidate, (and councillor candidates) will be done by a panel (panels?) under the authority of Labour’s National Executive.
We hear that the following candidates have submitted their name to the Labour Party for consideration as the Labour candidate for mayor.
Ayesha Chowdhury: A Bengali Muslim councillor, linked to the Wales administration. Apparently hated by the hardliners that ran Newham People’s Alliance for being too liberal, in that she was happy to work with people of other faiths and none and has avoided the sectarian religious cliques that seem all too common in Newham Labour Party. The first of two significant private landlords on the slate she is not the front runner we suspect.
This son of immigrants from East Africa, Desai cut his political teeth in the anti-racism movement in Newham, (when it actually engaged in anti-racism!). He was a solicitor, and had 20 years on the council before becoming the GLA Assembly Member for East London. Under the Wales administration he was cabinet member for Crime and ASB. A strong track record and a determined campaigner must put him in with a strong chance.
Rokhsana Fiaz, the incumbent who claims to have wanted an open competition, but she is the same candidate who also wanted to get rid of the mayoral system. Funny how perspectives change. She now faces competition from several connected to the ancien regime. Normally, we would cite her as the favourite, but her performance in office and alienation from the local party as she heads a Group that is mired in scandal means that we don’t rate her chances above evens.
Lester Hudson. A sitting councillor and perhaps the one of the declared candidates most closely associated with the Wales administration. An accountant by trade, he held the Deputy Mayor post and cabinet responsibility for Finance, so his CV suggests a degree of experience that should put him in good stead.
OK, so it's not the most flattering photo! But this is the one who must be considered the outsider in the bunch. Tahir Mirza is reputedly a millionaire landlord who has spent much of the last three years campaigning against the current mayor. We understand that he felt aggrieved that, having expended significant effort and his own personal political capital in getting her selected, the mayor dumped him and his group almost as soon as she was in office. He has also been extremely active in the referendum campaign; in exposing the mayor’s flip-flops on residential parking charges and parking for shoppers in the NE of the borough; and on the appalling state of litter and fly tipping across Newham. As a strong Corbynite, at least he was last time we checked, (but then three years ago so was the mayor), he must now attract very long odds in Starmer’s Labour Party.
Lakmini Shah is another of those associated with the Wales administration, having served on the cabinet with responsibility for reducing domestic violence and for work and skills. Her unique claim to fame Is that she is probably the council’s only fluent Russian speaker. Not seen as a political bruiser, she has expended significant effort building community and interfaith links and was seen to be particularly active during the lockdown where she was responsible for feeding many without recourse to public funds. Not necessarily the most obvious choice, but one to watch.
And those that didn’t
Cllr Mas Patel it seems, has chosen not to put his hat in the ring. It was long rumoured that Cllr Patel would announce his candidacy, but it might be that after appearing on the platform with Moazzam Begg recently, he decided better of it.