East London News A Force for the community…
IT WAS the opposition that won it for Labour. Rokhsana Fiaz stood down as labour Executive Mayor after two four year terms, and Labour selected Forhad Hussain as their candidate.
Forhad, a former Labour Councillor for Plaistow North ward, won the election against a divided opposition. This is no ringing endorsement of Starmer’s Labour Party.
Full result
Terri Bloore, Conservative, 6,360
Areeq Chowdury, Green 18,999
Clive Furness, Reform UK, 7,313
Forhad Hussain, Labour, 25,538
Kamran Malik, Communities United Party, 324
Mehmood Mirze, Newham Independents Party, 20,234
Bharath Swarmy, Christian Peoples Alliance, 1,550
Laura Willoughby, Lib-Dem, 3,766
The progressive parties did not put on a united front to take the mayoralty away from Labour. The Newham Independents Party were a close second, and the Greens were a very respectable third. The Greens probably received votes that would not have gone to Labour. Had they formed an electoral pack with the Newham Independents Party, they could have won. As it was, the two parties deprived Labour of anything like an overall majority.
Clive Furness, formerly a Labour stalwart, seems to have defected to Reform UK – as did the unlamented Robin Wales, former Mayor of Newham. His defection has done Furness no good – save that it has shown how low the support for the far right is among the diverse population of Newham. The Tories trailed behind Reform UK, by a small and probably insignificant margin.
It is one thing to win the mayoralty, but this vote does not guarantee that Labour will win a majority of Council seats. If they do not, Cde Hussain will find it hard to govern.
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