Rokhsana Fiaz Wins - She is the Newham Directly Elected Labour Mayoral Candidate 2018

Fantastic news. Rokhsana beats Robin Wales by a staggering 861 to 503 votes in huge turnout. Will blog further when I can stop the uncontrollable laughing and smiling. 

Planning Battle Won for More Social Housing (War continues)

I was really proud tonight of West Ham Ward residents who objected, organised and worked hard to oppose a planning application that would have robbed local people and the homeless of chance of homes at an "affordable" or social rent.

We managed to persuade the Newham Strategic planning Committee to unanimously defer the application due to failures in consultation and uncertainty around the provision of social housing. Many thanks for taking this decision and to the members of  West Hammers Team 4 Social Housing - Tina, Ian, John, Joe & Seyi (sorry if I have missed anyone out).

Tina was very good at the meeting, quoting that the Newham Mayor, Robin Wales, had very  recently told Clive Betts MP and his House of Commons Select Committee that at least 35-50% homes are always affordable in Newham development. So she asked why in this scheme are we only be offered 25%?

We all had 2 minutes to speak.

I said "My name is John Gray and I have been a Cllr since 2010 for West Ham ward where this site is located, speaking in support of residents objections against this application. I would like to start by saying ward Cllrs and Residents want to work with the developers to resolve our differences but the percentage of social housing offered is utterly and absolutely unacceptable

I also speak as someone who has spent most of his professional career working in housing in east London, I am genuinely amazed that this application is only proposing that 25% of these homes to be so called “affordable”.

This is a prime site, right next to a tube station with excellent other transport, retail & leisure facilities. There is limited decontamination works to be done to prepare the site.

Therefore, if Cllrs were minded to pass this application, I would like them to suspend the process and order that the financial viability plan put forward by the developers, claiming that they can only only afford 25% is published and put out to public scrutiny like other local authorities do.

Let me be clear, I have never met nor no knowledge of these particular property developers however it is in the public arena that other developers have padded out their plans with costs that they have no intention of spending.

For example, claiming they will use expensive building materials, when in practise they use much cheaper materials, in the knowledge that the local authority will not have the ability or resource to check.

So please, pause this application and let elected representatives and residents make sure that no one is cooking the books".

Result was application deferred and developers have (sort of) agreed to disclose viability plan and agreed to meet us in person (and I will want team West Hammers)

(see pictures of some members of West Hammers outside the dreadful hoarding outside the Stratford Town Hall which I have already complained about further to the Newham Chief Executive Officer) 

EXCLUSIVE: Sir Robin Wales challenges critics and claims trigger ballot ‘fix’ against him as re-selection contest looms

Blimey, is this supposed to be an Alan "Olive Branch" to the community?

Since nearly all the young, talented (and mostly female) Newham Councillors are now standing down - I think this is just a little late...

But rather bizarre and strange quotations methinks?

Hat tip article in "On London" by Journalist Dave Hill

"Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales has urged local Labour Party critics to judge him on his record and told his critics to show that they have better policy ideas as he prepares for a selection battle that could end his 23-year leadership of the East London borough in May.

In an in-depth and often combative interview with On London, his first since the “open selection” contest was announced, Sir Robin pledged that, if he wins, his next mayoral term will be his last “no matter what” and that he would bring new councillors into his mayoral team to “give them a chance to show what they can do” as he prepared the ground for his successor.

He characterised Newham’s as “the most radical council in the country”, citing current policies on employment, housing, homelessness, education and supporting poorer residents as models that could be followed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and saying that improving health care and skills would be his priorities in any fifth mayoral term.

Sir Robin also strongly defended the conduct of the 2016 “trigger ballot”, which initially saw him re-selected as Labour’s 2018 mayoral candidate by 20 votes to 17 but was later annulled following complaints and legal action by local members, claiming that the main problem was simply poor record-keeping by party volunteers and that he was the true victim of procedural irregularities.

He claimed that the outcome of the Newham Co-operative Party trigger vote in 2016, which went against him by a single vote, was “fixed” by what he said was his wrongful exclusion from casting a vote himself and by a fellow Co-op member being permitted to cast one against him despite leaving the relevant meeting before the ballot itself was held.

He also said he has evidence of invalid votes having been cast at ward branch meetings during the original trigger ballot process and that there had been, in breach of party rules, a concerted prior effort to sign up members in order to influence the outcome, leading to “about 200 votes across a number of wards” being cast against him. There were 20 individual branch ballots, resulting in nine trigger ballot “yes” votes to Sir Robin going forward automatically as mayoral candidate for 2018 and eleven “no” votes.

Sir Robin said he has written to individuals he believes were involved, informing them that “we might take you to court”. Referring to “a particular group in a community” he likened the situation to that in a neighbouring East London borough, Tower Hamlets, where Labour has a history of contending with allegations about the signing up of substantial numbers of people from among its Bangladeshi residents, who are thereby enfranchised to vote in candidate selection contest ballots but who make no other contribution to the party.

Though declining to identify the “particular group” by its ethnicity or religion, Sir Robin said the members concerned were “all men”, reiterated his long-standing disquiet over that he terms “community politics” and was keen to place on record his view that in Newham Labour “there are loads of Muslims who are progressives”.

Describing his approach as Mayor as guided by “considered risk”, he talked up the potential of the Newham-owned Red Door Ventures housing company to build new homes for market and affordable rent on the large scale required and stressed the need for such initiatives by London councils, given that commercial developers have consistently failed to meet housing demand in London and that government policy restricting borrowing for house building was “moronic”.

Responding to criticism that Newham’s £40m investment in the conversion of the 2012 Olympic stadium, now the London Stadium, has failed to produce a return, he urged people to look at the bigger picture of the Olympic Park and its environs, saying that Newham’s commitment had been to a wider regeneration programme and that this would eventually produce “somewhere between £120m and £160m in value” to the borough".

Read the full On London interview with Sir Robin Wales here.

THANK YOU for visiting this website. OnLondon.co.uk has led the way in covering the Newham trigger ballot story. It needs your donations to keep it going, growing and continuing to provide fair and detailed journalism about a range of big issues facing the capital. Please support this Crowdfunder today.

All 10 West Ham Labour Party Branches Vote Overwhelmingly for Newham Mayoral Trigger & Open Selection

Another massive vote by local Labour Party members for a Mayoral trigger and open selection. All 10 West Ham Labour Party branches have voted in favour with only a tiny handful of individuals in favour of the current Mayor being automatically the Labour Candidate in May.

The 10 East Ham branches will meet on Saturday in the Newham Town Hall (at great and completely unnecessary expense).

West Ham Women's forum meets on Sunday and the other affiliates will cast their votes by Monday noon.

Hopefully, we can then get on with this overdue open selection process and the current candidate can justify why he should remain in power for 28 years and others will have the opportunity to call for a change and unite the Party in time for the elections in May. 

BBC1 Sunday Politics London report on Newham Mayoral Trigger rerun after "decades and decades" of one person in power...

A somewhat neutral and balanced report by BBC London on the Newham Mayoral Trigger ballot rerun to decide our next Labour Candidate in the local elections in May.

The clip features Cllr Conor McAuley, a former Newham Cabinet member, who strongly criticises the current mayor, Robin Wales, over his housing policy citing 389 homes in the Stratford Carpenter Estate being left empty since 2005, while only the day before, homeless people were being evicted a short walk way by the Council and issued with CPNs (Community Protection Notices).

I will admit that I have not always seen eye to eye with Conor over the years but I am mystified that some people have been given all the credit for the 2012 Olympic bid and for the regeneration in Newham, when in fact it was Conor, as the Chair of the Council's main planning Committee for many years, who was as much as anyone responsible for facilitating the construction of the Westfields Shopping centre, which then made possible the successful Olympic Stadium bid.

There were some errors in the clip. I am not sure what "Centralist Labour" actually means? and why Conor is definitely not a supporter of Momentum, there is a very widespread coalition of Labour Party members across the entire Labour political spectrum who have supported the call for an open selection, which includes Momentum, Fabians, CLPD, Progress, Co-Op Party, Labour First, Compass and a number of trade union affiliates.

So far 8 branches have voted overwhelmingly for an open selection. There are 12 more to cast their votes as well as trade union and socialist society affiliates.

On Friday Cllr John Whitworth withdrew his challenge to the Mayoral position in favour of Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz.

Newham born and bred, Chair of Scrutiny and Custom House Councillor, Rokhsana Fiaz has made it clear that she would stand as a Mayoral candidate if there was a contest. 

Cllr John Whitworth withdraws from Newham mayoral challenge to support Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz

Newham Recorder "Cllr John Whitworth has announced he will no longer be challenging Sir Robin Wales to be Labour’s candidate for the mayoral elections and will instead be supporting Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz’s bid for selection.

The West Ham ward councillor had announced in November 2016 that he would be standing as a candidate if the trigger ballot vote resulted in an open selection.

The result of the 2016 trigger ballot was later scrapped after a legal challenge was mounted, and is currently being re-run.

On Monday, Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz declared her intention to challenge Sir Robin if members voted for an open selection.

That same day, Sir Robin called on members to vote in favour of an open selection.

The first five wards to cast their votes - West Ham, Custom House, Canning Town North, Plaistow South and Plaistow North - have all overwhelmingly voted in favour of an open selection.

Cllr Whitworth, whose own ward returned a 24 to 1 vote in favour of an open selection, declared his support for Custom House’s Cllr Fiaz.

Explaining his decision, he said: “I am doing this because I think she has the best chance of carrying out the changes I consider necessary in this borough.

“I believe Cllr Fiaz has the will to transform the governance of Newham to make it transparent, accountable, collegiate and - in a word - democratic.

“This includes consulting the people of the borough on the future of the office of directly-elected mayor.”

He added: “I also believe Cllr Fiaz has the ability to conduct a review of the council’s structures and resources, so they are used more effectively to meet the needs of the borough’s least fortunate residents while helping to make life better for all.

“I believe, furthermore, that a leader with her skills, qualities and socialist values will attract increased support for the Labour Party in the forthcoming local elections.”

The rest of the trigger ballot meetings will take place between now and Sunday, February 11.

After that, the party will have less than three months to choose its mayoral candidate and campaign to win the election, which is taking place on Thursday, May 3.

Super Thursday Massacre in Favour of Open Selection in Newham Mayoral Trigger

I took part as a local member in the Newham Mayor trigger ballot meeting for my ward, Forest Gate North.

All members present had the chance to make a contribution before they had a vote on whether to affirm Robin Wales as the Labour candidate for Newham in May 2018 or have an open selection with other candidates putting themselves forward and being given the chance to be selected.

I made the point to the meeting that it was more than daft that Robin had been in power in Newham since 1994 and that it was about time that he had to stand on his record and also allow alternative candidates to make their case.

It is called democracy.

While we were at the meeting we heard that Stratford Ward voted 26-1 in favour of any open selection and in the former Robin Wales stronghold of Forest Gate South it was 30-1.

In Forest Gate North we voted 25-2 which means that so far, Robin's powerhouse in our CLP is in Forest Gate North of all places with 2 votes in favour of him being our mayoral candidate out of 25.

A 100% increase for him compared to all other votes :)

"Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz set to challenge for mayor of Newham"

"Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz has announced she will challenge to be Labour’s candidate for mayor of Newham if party members agree to an open selection.

The Custom House councillor has thrown her hat into the ring ahead of the first wards casting their votes tonight in the re-run of the process.

She said: “I’m putting myself forward for this because I want to offer a fresh start for this council and a new ambitious alternative for Newham.”

Cllr Fiaz, who was born and brought up in the borough, was first elected as a councillor in May 2014 and currently sits as chair of scrutiny as well as a member of the council’s audit board and strategic development committee.

She explained that she was passionate about the issues facing a lot of people living in the borough, including affordable adult social care, the safety of young people and investment in early years education.

“I’m passionate about making sure there are genuinely affordable, quality homes for people,” she added.

“I’ve been working closely with an organisation called Peach, who are in my ward of Custom House, to allow residents to have their say during the regeneration.

“Uniquely, I’m also the only councilor who does regular youth surgeries for young people to come and meet me.”

The trigger ballot, also known as the affirmitive nomination process, is being held to decide whether to automatically select incumbent mayor Sir Robin Wales as Labour’s candidate for May’s election or whether to open it up to other prospective candidates.

The original ballot was held in December 2016 but earlier this month, the result was scrapped after legal action was launched.

Last time, Sir Robin won the trigger ballot with 20 votes to 17 thanks to most affiliated organisations backing him - but 11 out of 20 Labour electoral wards called for the involvement of other candidates.

Cllr Fiaz said: “If there is an open selection, I look forward to discussing with members my vision and their hopes.

“Whatever the outcome of the trigger ballot, members should have the opportunity to choose from a range of candidates and I am stepping forward to be one of them.”

Newham Recorder

Newham Mayoral candidate admits he will lose "trigger"

A very interesting evening tonight. The first rerun Newham Labour Mayoral trigger ballot took place at West Ham Ward.  To the surprise of the 25 members who turned up (but not to me since it had been widely leaked) the incumbent, Sir Robin Wales, had sent a statement to the meeting saying that he now wanted an "open selection process" not a trigger.  He therefore wanted everyone to vote NO to him being automatically selected for the fifth time as the Newham Labour Mayoral candidate in May.

The whole point of this meeting (and the 21 other meetings that had been arranged over the next 2 weeks) had been to decide whether or not there should be an open selection.

I understand that a number of members were pretty angry that he had wasted their time by informing them of this at the last possible moment and why did he allow Labour Party resources to be wasted on frankly, a pointless meeting.

24 members voted for an open selection and 1 against (I understand that the person "against" said privately that they would automatically vote against anything Robin wanted).

Robins' very odd statement reminds me of his previous intervention in December when he issued a press statement  http://www.johnslabourblog.org/2017/12/newham-mayor-accepts-that-his-selection.html  demanding  a rerun of the trigger process?

It turned out that this was only because the Labour Party had told him that they would be rerunning the original trigger ballot since many local Labour members had taken legal action against the Party over it and therefore surely "Robin accepts that there is overwhelming evidence his selection process was indeed 'rigged' and that the Court would find against the Party over it or he would not now be calling for it to be rerun?

Why didn't Robin tell us months ago that he was willing to have an open selection so we could have got on with it there and then and not leave things to the last possible moment (we have not yet selected any Councillor candidates for the elections on 4 May 2018).

The only logical reason for him to call for an open selection at this stage is because he knows he will lose a "trigger".

There are 21 equally pointless "trigger" meetings due over the next 2 weeks. East Ham Town Hall has been hired at a huge cost for all their meetings. 

What on earth is going on?   

Newham Labour Supporters for an Open Mayoral Selection - West Ham Ward is First!

Newham Labour Mayoral Rerun Trigger Ballot is Go, Go, Go!

The rerun is starting next Monday 29 January 7.30pm at the West Ham CLP Headquarters, 306 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 for my favourite Newham ward, West Ham.

If you are an eligible West Ham ward member (there is a "freeze" date, so if you were not a party member by 26 April 2016 and also living in the borough since 25 October 2016 you cannot vote) then you should have received an email or letter informing you of date, time, location and identity requirements.

I would suggest that you arrive at least 30 minutes early for registration and that the Party asks you to bring some form of ID with you such as your Labour Party membership card.

West Ham Labour Party Executive Committee is running its 10 ward trigger ballot meetings over the next 3 weeks (details to be published on this blog and others). Each ward will be given at least 7 days notice.

East Ham Labour Party ward trigger ballot meetings will all be run on the same day by London Regional Labour Party at the East Ham Town Hall E6 on Saturday 10 February. All eligible members should have got an email or letter from London Region.

You will not be able to attend and participate in these meetings if you are not eligible to vote or in arrears with your Party subscriptions (so get up to date!).

(To be clear, even though I am an Executive officer of West Ham CLP, I will not be taking part in the above process since I am openly calling for a NO vote and wish an open mayoral selection process).

"Veteran Newham mayor faces deselection fight ahead of local election contest"

For once, a balanced article by the London Evening Standard about Labour Politics. I and many other Councillors and Party members support the call by Cllr Marriott, Charlene Mclean and West Ham Labour Party for an open selection to decide the next Labour candidate.  I think that the "trigger" process in Newham has been completely discredited by the so-called previous "process".

Robin Wales has been in charge of Newham since 1995 and if he is not "triggered" then he would have been in power for a staggering 27 years (until 2022) without any open democratic process since 2001.  

The directly elected Newham Mayor is a hugely powerful position responsible for over 300,000 residents, employing thousands of staff and a Billion pound plus turnover.

There is also not enough time for another "trigger" before May 2018, which practically everyone believes will result in Robin Wales being "triggered", which will automatically lead to an open selection. 

We also have not finished the appeals for Council candidates who did not pass their initial interviews.  We therefore have no Labour candidates in place to organise the May election for the 60 Newham Labour seats.

"Veteran Newham mayor faces deselection fight ahead of local election contest"

Labour members in the borough have written to the party’s National Executive Committee calling for an open vote to pick their candidate.

Newham Labour councillor Julianne Marriott, who was behind the letter, said she did not believe another trigger ballot was “in the best interests” of residents.

It comes after Sir Robin called for the first result to be scrapped after legal action was launched.

Charlene McLean, chairman of the West Ham constituency party which passed a no-confidence vote in the ballot, has also written to Labour general secretary Iain McNicol. In her letter, seen by the Standard, she warned there was not “sufficient time” to run a new trigger ballot, followed by an open selection if Sir Robin were deselected, as the local elections were in just four months’ time.

The calls follow the disputed trigger ballot in autumn 2016 which Sir Robin won by 20 votes to 17. Eleven out of 20 local Labour wards called for other candidates to be on the slate.

It was announced this month that the trigger ballot would be rerun following claims of irregularities and a legal challenge.

Ms Marriott said: “I believe we should go straight to an open selection as that will be the result of a rerun of the trigger ballot.”

The successful candidate is almost certain to become mayor in the Labour-dominated borough".

Hat tip pic Jo G

"Newham mayor ‘trigger ballot’ to be re-run by Labour region" (and a possible new contender?)

See post below from former Guardian Journalist Dave Hill on his "On London" website. I see that Dave mentions Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz, as a possible contender.

"The process which led to Sir Robin Wales being endorsed to seek a fifth term as Labour Mayor of Newham is to be re-run following claims by party members first made a year ago that a number of alleged irregularities had made “a material difference to the result”.

In an email sent out this evening, Neil Fleming, the acting regional director of the Greater London Labour Party, said the re-run had been “agreed” because the prospect of a court case to determine the dispute “would be costly to the party” and “a massive distraction” from the mayoral and council election campaigns to take place in May.

Just before Christmas Sir Robin made known through the Newham Recorder that he favoured Labour cancelling the result of the original affirmative nomination or “trigger” ballot, which he was declared winner of by 20 votes to 17, making the same points about the financial cost to the party of fighting a court battle and loss of focus on the borough election contests.

No date for the start of the fresh process is given by Fleming, though he does say that the same “freeze date” of 25 October 2016 will apply, meaning that members will again have had to have been members for at least six months prior to that date to be eligible to take part.

The email says nothing about the eligibility or voting entitlements of affiliated organisations, primarily trade unions, which was a focus of some of the main complaints about the process. However, Fleming states that “the process will be administered by the Greater London Labour Party”, thereby removing it from the control of Labour’s Local Campaign Forum (LCF) in Newham, which the complainants contend failed to administer or the process consistently or properly.

Fleming writes in his email that “the Labour Party maintains that all rules and procedures were applied correctly and that officers of the LCF acted in good faith with the information they were provided with”.

In a letter to Labour’s governing National Executive Committee, sent in January 2017, 47 party members in Newham, including 10 councillors, argued that there were grounds for questioning the validity of seven of the votes cast in favour of Sir Robin going forward automatically as Labour’s mayoral candidate in May this years rather than facing possible challengers in an open selection contest.

On London has learned that that the ballot paper for an affiliated branch of the TSSA union was conveyed directly to an officer of that branch by a councillor who is a member of Sir Robin’s mayoral team rather than being sent initially to a more senior figure in the organisation, as appears to have been the case with other unions. The TSSA vote was eventually cast in favour of Sir Robin.

A review by the Fabian Society of the approach taken by its Newham branch to deciding which way to vote found that it had “breached the society’s rules” in coming to its decision to back Sir Robin’s automatic candidacy.

The headquarters of Bectu, one of the unions with a local affiliated branch at the time of the ballot and which supported Sir Robin, could not confirm to On London that an affiliation fee was paid for the relevant year. Bectu seems certain not to participate in the re-run due its unconnected disaffiliating from Labour at national level at the end of 2016, following its amalgamation with another union.

At least one of the other unions which still has local affiliation status might cast more votes in the re-run than in the original ballot due to differing understandings of the rights of separate affiliated branches at that time.

Party members who’ve been pressing for the re-run believe its outcome could be close, depending on changes in the numbers of union preferences either way and because the memberships of some of the ward branches were finely balanced in their views the first time round.

Should Sir Robin fail to secure a majority in the re-run ballot he would certainly face challengers in an ensuing open selection battle, should he decide to contest it. Councillor Rokhsana Fiaz, who sits on the council’s important overview and scrutiny committee, is thought a possible contender. Councillor John Whitworth said in November 2016, when the original trigger ballot was taking place, that he wished to challenge Sir Robin to become Labour candidate.

Updated on 6 January 2018. Read all of On London’s coverage of the Newham mayor trigger ballot dispute via here."

"All we want is democracy for all" Newham Mayoral Trigger

In last weeks letter page of the "Newham Recorder". Cllr John Whitworth argues that following the unfairness and wrongdoing in the previous flawed process there should be an open selection to be the Labour Candidate in the 2018 Newham Mayoral local elections.

While Jo Phillips demands "change, honesty and transparency and above all democracy for all".

I must agree.  At the risk of seeming over dramatic millions have died, suffered and risked their lives for these basic and absolute human rights.   

West Ham Labour Party January 2018 update – want to get fit and lose weight? Go canvassing!

West Ham Labour Party January 2018 update

Dear Members

I hope that everyone had a refreshing break and are now ready to get involved and active in the local and national party.

West Hammers News

Newham Councillor Candidate’s selection meeting & Mayoral Trigger

There is still no date set for Councillors' selections. We will let you know as soon as we find out from the London Labour Regional office. You may have noticed a newspaper report that the Newham Directly Elected Mayor, Robin Wales, believes that there will be a rerun of his selection process. So be prepared to be called to your branch or affiliate meetings to participate in both processes (if eligible to vote)

Friday 5 January. Newham Fabians. You have to have renewed your local membership by this day to participate in the AGM on 15 Jan. See details below.

Monday 8 January 7.30pm West Ham CLP BAME at 306 High Street, Stratford E15 1AJ

Solidarity Saturday – 20 January!
Do you want to make a difference and help Labour win in the new marginal seat of Chingford? Check out Saturday 20 January below.

All future campaign and event dates (check web site for updates)

Thursday 4 January 6.30pm Forest Gate North canvass meet outside Forest Gate Tavern E7 (before ward meeting) John Gray organiser 07432 150 530

Thursday 4 January. The Mayor, Robin Wales, is speaking to first Stratford & Newtown branch meeting then Forest Gate North on the London Stadium. Branch members should contact their secretaries for timings. 

 
Monday 8 January 7.30pm West Ham CLP BAME at 306 High Street, Stratford E15 1AJ. Meeting to discuss Labour Party Democracy review and decide upon a possible submission (needs to be in by 12 January). Apologies for lack of notice. All welcome. Contact West Ham BAME Officer Anam Islam, Email:Anamul.Islam.30@gmail.com.

Thursday 11 January 6pm-6:45pm West Ham Branch canvass/Petition on social housing. Meet Plaistow station E13 (before ward meeting)

Tuesday 9 January strike & picket outside Cumberland school from 8.00 am outside the school gates. On strike to protect the children’s education from privatisation. Oban Close, E13 8SJ
Saturday 13th January at 11am Plaistow North canvassing session on meeting at Plaistow station E13 contact Daniel or Mehmood.

Saturday 13th January 11-1pm Custom House Canvass check CLP website for meeting point and organiser)

Sunday 14 January 11.30 Forest Gate North Canvass (check CLP website for meeting point and organiser)

Monday 15 January Newham Fabians AGM time and venue to be confirmed. Contact Rohit K Dasgupta, rhit_svu@hotmail.com (note you have to renew your local Fabian membership by 5 Jan)

Wednesday 17 January. Custom House New Year Social. Save date. Contact Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz OBE rokhsanafiaz@yahoo.co.uk for further details.

Saturday 20 January – 11am Solidarity Saturday with comrades in Chingford doing their best to get rid of IDS. Meet outside Chingford War Memorial, 3 Old Church Road, E4 6SJ. It takes about 25/30 minutes to drive or cycle from Stratford. Buses 97, 158, 215, 357, 385, 397, 444, W16. contact John Gray 07432 150 530 or Alan Griffiths if you want a lift.

Saturday 20 January 20 – 1100 am to 1 pm. Canvass Plaistow South Meeting at Plaistow Library E13 9HL. Organiser Neil Wilson 0789 653 9001

Monday 22 January 7pm-8.30pm Branch Officer Training. 306 High Street, Stratford E15 1AJ. Roles & responsibilities of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer & Social Secretary. Sharing good practice. Organisers Carol Buxton/John Whitworth jhnwhitworth@yahoo.co.uk

Thursday 25th January – West Ham CLP GC, 306 High Street, Stratford E15 - Visiting Speaker Nia Griffths, Shadow Defence Secretary

Saturday 27 January 11.30am Forest Gate North Canvass meet outside Hibiscus Community Centre E15 1SP organiser John Gray 07432 150 530

Sunday 28 January 11-1pm Custom House Canvass check CLP website for meeting point and organiser)

Sunday January 28th 2.00pm to 4.00 pm Plaistow South Canvass at Plaistow Library E13 9HL Organiser Neil Wilson 0789 653 9001

Tuesday 30 January. IT training for Branch Secretaries & others interested. 7-8.30pm. Vicarage Lane Community Centre, Govier Close, E15. To include methods for sending out bulk messages/attachments etc. organised by Shaban Mohammed/jhnwhitworth@yahoo.co.uk

Sunday 4th February. West Ham CLP trip to Tate Britain. Exhibition "RED STAR OVER RUSSIA A REVOLUTION IN VISUAL CULTURE 1905–55" (but entry fee).
Party members are encouraged to use sustainable transport options. The Jubilee Line is running, and is ordinarily accessible. We will meet at the Westfield exit for Stratford Station at 10.30am where many will cycle to Tate Britain along a safe, mostly segregated route. There is a santander cycle stand near the meeting point.

Monday 26 February 7pm Newham Full Council Meeting, East Ham Town Hall E6

Surveys & Petitions

West Ham CLP members are also asked to support these surveys and petitions that are still live.

“Bookmakers target people who can’t afford to lose their money on these machines”
Our MP Lyn Brown asks you to support her call to curb the blight being caused to our community by Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) and take part in the government consultation. Check out further information https://westhamlabour.org/2017/12/11/west-ham-clp-member-fixed-odd-betting-terminal-fobt-consultation-call-for-action/

“In response to years of Newham’s campaigning the Government has now launched a consultation survey which might lead to these terrible FOBT machine stakes being reduced. But we need to make sure that gambling industry lobby don’t dominate the responses, which is why we would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to respond to the survey online by clicking this link.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3XGGFP7
Newham Council: More Social Housing in Plaistow Petition
West Ham Ward ask you to support their online petition on a controversial planning application. See Canvass/Petition . So please share with all your Newham friends and family: http://chn.ge/2iq4UKb
If you are interested in planning policy then Newham Council is also undergoing a review of its #LocalPlan Proposed Submission is open until the 16th January, so have your say! www.newham.gov.uk/planningconsultations” (warning this is heavy going but important)

Marked Register data inputting
If you have some time to spare then contact our CLP secretary alangriffiths_per@yahoo.co.uk to volunteer to help us input the “Marked Register” data from the General Election into Labour Party records. He will explain if contacted.

We look forward to seeing you at future events and campaigns!

Regards
John Gray
Vice Chair (Campaigns and Comms) West Ham CLP
e westhamlabour@gmail.com t @westhamlabour f westhamlabour w westhamlabour.org

Democracy Rules..."Newham councillors welcome call to cancel trigger ballot result"

Latest in local newspaper about the "rigged" selection for Newham Mayor and call by local Councillors for an open and this time, democratic, selection process.

"Two councillors have welcomed mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales’ call for Labour to cancel the result of the controversial trigger ballot.

Cllrs John Whitworth and Kay Scoresby both put their names forward as potential mayoral candidates at the end of last year if the result of the trigger ballot was for an open selection process, rather than automatically putting the incumbent Sir Robin as the party’s candidate.

Sir Robin won the trigger ballot with 20 votes to 17 thanks to most affiliates backing him - but 11 out of 20 Labour electoral wards called for the involvement of other candidates.

In a statement issued on December 21, he explained that he would be “supporting a new process to be undertaken under the auspices of the national or regional Labour Party”, having called for the previous result to be scrapped after legal action was launched.

This was set to focus around the allegation that Labour’s governing body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), failed to investigate any allegations of wrong-doing.

Those criticising the process claimed that some of the affiliated organisations voted more than once in the trigger ballot - known as the affirmative nomination process - while others did not as the rules were “inconsistently applied and explained”.

Cllr Whitworth, who represents West Ham, was the first to throw his hat into the ring last year and said: “There is not enough time for another trigger ballot process. The Labour Party must organise an open democratic selection for a range of Newham Labour Party candidates including Robin to be chosen democratically and fairly as our Labour candidate in 2018.”

Cllr Scoresby, who represents Canning Town North, added: “We need to bring and unite the local party together once again and for all let them decide in an open, honest and transparent process who should be our mayoral candidate.

“Trust East Ham and West Hammers to do the right thing for the party and the people of Newham. An open selection of candidates. A secret ballot. One member. One vote. Democracy rules.”

The election for the mayor of Newham, along with ward councillors, is set to take place on Thursday, May 3.

Sir Robin Wales speaking at Forest Gate ward meeting 4th January 2018

Dear John

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Forest Gate North Labour Party.

Our next meeting is in January and will be a BIG EVENT. See details below:

Forest Gate North Branch Meeting
Speaker: Sir Robin Wales will be speaking on the Olympic legacy and recent issues about the stadium.
Thursday 4th January 2018 8.00 p.m. Durning Hall,
Earlham Grove, Forest Gate London E7 9AB

Come along and hear Robin Wales speak and ask questions.
We want to hear your point of view. 

Carel Buxton, Secretary Forest Gate North Labour

email: xubcb@yahoo.com

(I understand that he will be speaking to Stratford & Newtown branch immediately beforehand on that day)

"Sir Robin Wales calls for contested mayoral ‘trigger ballot’ outcome to be cancelled"

Hat tip Dave Hill's On London blog 

"Sir Robin Wales has asked the Labour Party to cancel the outcome of the internal selection process that saw him endorsed to seek a fifth term as Mayor of Newham following a campaign by local members for an investigation into its conduct.

An affirmative nomination or “trigger ballot” held in the autumn of 2016, saw Sir Robin prevail by 20 votes to 17, and Labour’s governing National Executive Committee (NEC) has resisted calls by party members in Newham, including ten councillors, to look into what they described as “many failures of process/propriety and procedural irregularities”.

But now Sir Robin has told the Newham Recorder that although the trigger ballot outcome was confirmed by the NEC, legal action against it by some of the complainants had prompted him ask for it to be quashed because “the costs of a court case would be significant and Labour Party members’ money should not be used in this way”.

Sir Robin’s initiative came after those pursuing the legal action secured the funds they required to move to the “statement of claim” stage, setting out the grounds for their case that their party has “behaved improperly” over the trigger ballot, both locally and nationally.

A letter to the NEC sent in January signed by 47 Labour members, including 10 councillors, argued that seven of the votes cast in favour of Sir Robin going forward automatically as Labour candidate for next year’s mayoral election rather than facing potential challenges from other hopefuls had been dubious and that there had been inconsistencies in the way unions affiliated to the party locally had been enfranchised.

Each of Newham’s 20 ward branches had a single vote in an electoral college, which also included 11 affiliates, seven of which were trade unions. The branches voted by 11 to nine against Sir Robin progressing without a further contest, but the balance of affiliates’ votes gave the incumbent the majority he needed.

A review by the Fabian Society of the approach taken by its Newham branch to deciding which way to vote found that it had “breached the society’s rules” in coming to its decision to back Sir Robin’s automatic candidacy.

It has been established by On London that the headquarters of Bectu, one of the unions with a local affiliated branch at the time of the ballot, cannot confirm that an affiliation fee was paid for the relevant year. (For unrelated reasons, Bectu is no longer affiliated to Labour).

On London has also learned that the ballot paper for an affiliated branch of the TSSA union was conveyed directly to an officer of that branch by a councillor who is a member of Sir Robin’s mayoral team rather than being sent initially to a more senior figure in the organisation, as appears to have been the case with other unions. The TSSA vote was eventually cast in favour of Sir Robin.

One key point of the dispute has been whether Labour party rules entitle each affiliated union branch to vote separately in mayoral trigger ballots or whether just a single vote per union should be accepted, regardless of how many different branches are affiliated locally.

Not all the unions involved interpreted the rules in the same way, resulting in Unison casting just one vote – against Sir Robin going forward automatically – despite having six branches affiliated, whereas the GMB – which supported Sir Robin – cast four votes, the CWU cast three and Unite cast two.

It is understood that an audio recording, heard by On London, which those who have been seeking an investigation believe reveal an ally of Sir Robin disclosing questionable conduct concerning the trigger ballot process, has been sent to a senior Labour Party official.

In his comments to the Newham Recorder Sir Robin says he is “supporting a new process to be undertaken under the auspices of the national or regional Labour Party”. The complainants have criticised the involvement of at least one member of Sir Robin’s mayoral team in the running of the process.

Any decision by the party to instigate a fresh trigger ballot or to hold an open selection contest will entail settling on a “freeze date” in advance of which members and affiliates will have to had have had their documentation in order to be eligible to vote.

Since the completion of the original ballot, the GMB has affiliated 26 branches to West Ham constituency Labour Party in Newham, each of which would have a separate vote if a freeze date subsequent to their affiliation were set and multiple votes per union again accepted.

Read all of On London’s coverage of the Newham mayor trigger ballot dispute via here.

Newham Mayor admits that his selection process was "rigged"?

I have received a number of comments from Labour Party members in Newham today who were somewhat surprised to get a very odd email from our  Labour directly elected Mayor, Robin Wales.  He wants a rerun of the very controversial trigger ballot selection process that "elected him" as a Mayoral candidate for the 5^th time (20 years in power) for the local elections next May 3^rd 2018. 

This email appears to have been sent at the same time as a press release from Robin to the local newspaper, Newham Recorder - see here. 

I would not normally comment on such internal Labour Party matters but I can on this occasion as I was the campaign manager for Councillor John Whitworth   John had previously declared in the controversial selection process that he wanted to be a candidate, if the trigger ballot had resulted in an open selection.  I therefore think I ought to point out some points of clarification. 

Robin suggests in his press release that "anonymous" people are attacking him and have filed a court case against the Labour Party. Since Robin has brought this out into the public arena, I feel that it is only right that I point out that in British law if you are "anonymous" you CANNOT take such legal action and that I understand the claimants in this legal action are actually named former senior Newham Councillors and long standing local Labour Party members from all political wings of the Party. 

I assume from the email and the press report (which are different but the full email has been widely published on social media) that Robin accepts that there is overwhelming evidence his selection process was indeed 'rigged' and that the Court would find against the Party over it or he would not now be calling for it to be rerun?

There are other allegations flying about which I cannot comment upon but I am, to say the least, disappointed that Robin has done this public act without any apparent consultation with the local Party. 

The only thing now is for the Labour Party to order an open selection process, not yet another a discredited trigger ballot, for local members to choose from a selection of candidates including Robin (who will automatically be shortlisted by the Party) by secret ballot. 

There is a real practical problem in that there is simply not enough time to have a Mayoral trigger ballot, which could end in an open selection before 3 May 2018 and complete the outstanding Newham Councillor 2018 candidate selections.

Open selection. One member. One vote. Decision.

Let’s get on with it. 

"Executive mayors and one-party councils"

"As a councillor for the London borough of Newham, I find the observations in your editorial (22 February) linking one-party councils and autocratic government only too true. 

Not only does Newham have no councillors other than from the Labour party, it also has a directly elected mayor who has been in post since 2002. 

The powers of patronage afforded to such mayors has allowed Robin Wales to appoint 22 of the 60 councillors to cabinet/mayoral adviser/lead councillor posts, which all carry substantial responsibility allowances. This has produced a culture of conformity within the council, where little criticism of mayoral policy is openly voiced and scrutiny has not effectively held the mayor to account.

This is not to say that Newham council is without many dedicated and public-spirited members, but they are faced with a choice: withhold criticism and hold the door open to advancement, or voice one’s opinions and risk being sidelined. The council has many successful achievements to its credit, notably in helping to alleviate deprivation and raising academic attainment; but unless one believes the end justifies the means, the lack of democratic accountability must weigh heavily in the balance and hold serious risks for the future.

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An excessive concentration of power can be acquired in one-party authorities with questionable methods sometimes employed to maintain it. At the end of 2016 the mayor’s supporters, working with the London Labour party, organised the selection of Robin Wales as Labour mayoral candidate for the 2018 local elections. Although I am not in favour of proportional representation for general elections, I believe a measure of proportionality is necessary in local elections to prevent councils being elected without opposition members and the consequent risk of developing autocratic and opaque governance".

Cllr John Whitworth
London borough of Newham

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

"What is Robin Wales so scared of?"

Long standing Newham Councillor and former Cabinet member and Community lead Kay Scoresby writes a passionate letter in last weeks Newham Recorder which represents the feelings of nearly all the local Labour Party members and affiliates I have met.

"Mayor should listen to views

I feel cheated of my chance to stand as a Labour Candidate to be Mayor of Newham.

Despite 424 Labour Party members from 11 out of 20 wards at the recent trigger ballot meetings voting NO, Robin Wales refuses to listen to the views of members and hold an open selection process.

Instead he is relying on the unknown and undemocratic votes of affiliate organisations as he is desperate to have five terms as mayor. What is Robin Wales so scared of?"

Members believe that Party rules and natural justice have been fundamentally broken and abused.   They are demanding that the selection process must be rerun. There are I understand substantiated allegations of forgery, fraud and misfeasance which must be fully investigated by the Party and affiliate organisations.