We are not in my view really into "pomp and circumstance" in Newham but this is the formal Annual General meeting of the Council and I freely admit to liking appropriate local historic traditions but this meeting is also very political.
While many do not understand that we have in Newham, a directly elected Executive Mayor, with very strong powers (I would prefer a different governance model but that boat has sailed), the AGM does elect important constitutional posts such as the Chairs of Council and of other important committees.
The election of these important positions was disrupted by some simply bizarre and aggressive interventions by the so called "Newham Independent Group" who stormed off in the middle of the meeting because they I think they did not understand what was going on.
In the election on May 7th, the Labour Candidate for Executive Mayor, Forhad Hussain, won convincingly and will the be Executive Mayor for the next 4 years.
Labour is the single largest party but we did not win a majority of seats on this occasion (next time will be different). The Independents came next then the Greens. Council officers had made a recommendation to all the Groups about sharing Chairs of Council committees according to the number of seats each Group they held.
While I would of course rather the Labour Councillors elect all Chairs that was not going to happen . I will not comment on all the discussions that went on but it is crystal clear that the independents were wheeling and dealing and for them to suggest otherwise is just hypocritical and rather silly.
Labour and Green members voted largely to adopt the original Council officers recommendations about a fairish allocation of positions while it was clear to me that the independents did not understand that they had been given some of the most important positions in the Council outside the Executive but they still were against?
I pointed out to them during the debate that Mayor Forhad Hussain had "put the hand of friendship out to the Independent group and to the Greens”.
However, the fact of the matter is that the Independent group did not wish to work with the mayor for the betterment of Newham and our residents.” https://www.newhamcitizen.co.uk/newham-independents-green-labour-council-roles/
Apart from this daftness the meeting ran smoothly and it was good to meet up with many comrades and guests.
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