Tower Hamlets Mayor Passes Budget – Labour Leadership in disarray

LondonBangla report: Tower Hamlets’ Independent Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s budget proposals were passed unamended on 8 March, as seven Labour councillors voted against amendments put forward by the Labour party.

Leader of the Labour party, Cllr Helal Abbas ended the night with a task of healing divisions within his own party. Among the proposals rejected by his own backbenchers were to scrap Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers (THEOs) and to fund afterschool childcare year after year. These proposals have been described as ‘poorly costed and badly thought through’.

Labour councillor, Marc Francis of Bow East voted against his party’s proposals and criticised the Labour leadership of opposing the Independent Mayor’s budget proposals just for the sake of opposition. He also defended the THEOs with an anecdote. He was once fined by an enforcement officer for dropping a cigarette butt on the floor. He said that not only did it teach him a lesson, but it showed that THEOs were effective in dealing with low level crime. Another Labour Councillor, Kabir Ahmed of Weavers also voted against his party’s proposals citing that he could not support job cuts of council employees if THEOs were scrapped.

Councillor Abdul Asad of Whitechapel who has been a Labour councillor for over 21 years appealed to the progressive elements within his party as he voted against Labour’s costly amendments. Other Labour councillors who voted against the proposals were Shahed Ali, Rofique Ahmed, Shafiqul Haque and Ahmed Omer. As amendments from Labour and Conservatives failed to get a two-thirds majority, Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s budget was passed unamended.

At the Cabinet Meeting on 9 March, Mayor Lutfur Rahman said, “I want to salute the courage of my Labour Colleagues who voted with their heads last night. They showed the principle and conviction that has often been missing from progressive politics.”

The Labour leadership publicly refused to work with the Independent Mayor after he was elected in October last year. Jim Fitzpatrick MP said that it was extremely naïve. He has established regular meetings with the Mayor and urged Labour councillors to engage. He wrote in a local newspaper, “Obviously Labour did not win last year’s General Election. Nor did it win the election for Mayor of London in 2008, nor October’s contest for Mayor of Tower Hamlets. But we have to live in the real world – and that means engagement.”

People of Tower Hamlets now wait to see how the Labour leadership react to Labour backbenchers’ support of the Mayor. Ms Hafsa Begum said, “It is good news for Tower Hamlets. The mayor’s budget is a victory for common sense and progressive politics. It has also confirmed what we have known for sometime. That is, the Labour leadership is out of touch and right wing in their policies. They should not continue to oppose the mayor. They should listen to their own backbenchers.”

The Independent Mayor’s first budget has generated much interest in the community. We have received and published some of these views in this week’s London Bangla. Labour Group Leader Helal Abbas was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.