Independents accuse Greens of making deal with Labour in Newham

Independents are the main opposition to Labour in the London borough of Newham, and have just accused the local Greens of entering “into an unholy alliance” with Labour. The Newham Greens, which will now chair the council, have denied this and said “all 3 groups” will be “power sharing” in the borough.

Newham Independents “refused to work” with Labour

One of the candidates for Newham Independents Party who defeated Labour in the Little Ilford ward was Tahir Mirza. And he spoke to the Canary about what happened at the annual council meeting on 20 May.

Mirza suggested that the tanking of Labour’s vote in Newham in the election was a result of the serious concern local people had about the party’s performance and direction of travel under Keir Starmer in particular. He said that, with Labour too small to run the council, the ruling party had to seek an understanding with its opponents:

But obviously we refused to work with them, because we got a vote from the people on the basis that we are not going to be Labour version 2. We have different pledges, and people voted against Labour. They voted for us and the Greens.

He added:

We have only one aim – to serve our voters, to serve our residents. They’ve been suffering for a long, long time – 60 years of Labour rule. Labour had never seen any kind of opposition in this borough. But this is the first time ever. So they are desperate. But we are firm in our own stand. We cannot ally with Labour.

A deal had been on the table between independents and Greens, Mirza explained, but:

there was a last-minute deal [the Greens] struck with Labour, or maybe Labour struck the deal with the Greens when they saw that we were not going to the Labour camp. I’m afraid, they choose to shake hands with those people who’ve got blood on their hands.

He’s not sure what happened, but said:

There must be something deep behind the closed door, which we don’t know of. I think only time will tell. We’ll see how it goes.

Independents and Greens had previously had a “brilliant working relationship” before the election, he asserted, but:

the trust deficit now is being built up between us

Newham Greens claim they’re breaking Labour’s ‘stage management’ of meetings

A Green statement insisted that:

The committee allocations sees all 3 groups power sharing representing the democracy of the election…

Power sharing requires that someone is prepared to put their personal desires aside to set a better precedent, the green group have done this.

It highlighted in particular the hope that Labour will now release the information about where the council invests money. Green councillor and new pensions committee chair Ibrahim Alom stressed that:

Residents have a right to know how the council invests their money… I do not believe our pension fund should be invested in companies complicit in genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, or climate destruction, and I am committed to pushing for a more ethical and transparent approach to investment.

Fellow Green councillor Joe Hudson-Small, meanwhile, said:

Greens have chair of council – for the first time in history our meetings won’t be stage-managed by Labour – we will treat all councillors equally and guard against executive overreach. NIP [Newham Independents Party] have chair of overview and scrutiny, probably the most powerful role besides the Labour mayor

He added:

Together Greens and NIP chair all the scrutiny committees. We also chair pensions and most other committees – and between Greens and NIP, we have a majority on every single committee.

And he denied that Labour getting “vice chair of council” meant embracing an alliance with the party.

Labour only remains on the council by the skin of its teeth

The local election was clearly a direct face-off between the Greens and Newham Independents to see who was in the best position to defeat Labour.

In some places, Independents were stronger, and in others Greens were. The former ended up with 24 councillors, and the latter with 16. Newham Greens’ consistent claim to be “Newham’s second party” was wrong by quite some way, even if the party was aiming for second place.

The division to the left of Labour, meanwhile, often allowed the ruling party to come up through the middle.

For example, there were numerous wards in Newham where Labour would not have won any councillors if there had been an agreement between Independents and Greens. A joint mayoral candidate, meanwhile, would have overwhelmingly defeated Labour. In reality, Labour was very lucky to win 26 councillors and the mayoral race.

At a time where a far-right party has just dominated the local elections, the time for testing the waters is clearly over. Our putrid electoral system means opponents of Reform, Labour, and the Tories must come together and cooperate, even if that’s only with the aim of changing this system. If they don’t, genocide–backing fascists will win.

Featured image via GreenPartyNewham