Has Tower Hamlets Labour backed wrong horse for London mayor?

With the election of the next London Mayor less than six months away, it’s not surprising to see Labour councillors keen to back a candidate in this important political race. It is very strange, though, to find Labour Councillors bigging up the Tory candidate so soon before the key contest!

A motion to the Tower Hamlets Council meeting held on 18th November on the new Housing and Planning Bill going through Parliament did just that. Moved by Cllr Rachel Blake and seconded by Cllr Amina Ali, it criticised the Bill – but then went on to set out in detail an amendment which Zac Goldsmith, Tory candidate for London Mayor, intends to put to the Bill.

What about all the criticisms which Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London Mayor, has made about the Bill? Not a peep.

This was particularly disappointing for Cllr Rabina Khan, who had hoped to make good this deficiency. “It is interesting that these Labour councillors have elevated Zac Goldsmith so heavily in this motion, Cllr Khan told East London News. “I know these are statements that the Tory Mayoral Candidate has made – and he has often challenged his own party on different matters. But why did these councillors not mention their own Mayoral Candidate and how he intends to challenge the Bill? He does take housing seriously – he has stated that the London Mayoral Election will be a referendum on Housing. It reads like Tower Hamlets Labour’s backing Zac Goldsmith!”

Cllr Khan had hoped to put an amendment to this motion to bring it more in tune with Labour thinking. This would have stated:

“The Council resolves;
“To work with UCATT the construction Union in submitting evidence to make the case for amendments and whose Acting General Secretary, Brian Rye, has said that;
“The 145 draconian clauses in this Bill set out to vastly increase the powers of the Secretary of State over councils. The Secretary of State will effectively then take control of the sell-off of the UK’s council and social housing. The speculators will already be circling our local authorities as I write. UCATT welcomes the Labour Party’s determination to fight this Bill with everything they’ve got.”

Cllr Khan also criticised some aspects of the Bill which were not covered in the Labour motion. “Other parts of the Bill ought to be included in this motion, like the legislation to tackle rogue landlords which states that authorities will be able to obtain banning orders but ignores ‘Revenge Evictions’,” she said. “Also speeding up the planning system means that automatic planning permission could be granted on all ‘suitable’ brownfield sites under a new ‘zonal’ system.”

Earlier in the Council meeting, local resident Michael James had asked Labour’s John Biggs what progress was being made on the previous Administration’s plan to set up a Private Landlords’ register.  Cllr Islam replied that this was to be considered by the Cabinet next February – giving no reason for the long delay.

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