by Newham Socialist Party members
Newham’s former Labour mayor, Sir Robin Wales, has been appointed London Director of Local Government for Reform UK. Explaining his defection, Wales claimed he had “seen Labour abandon its roots” and that it had “become a party that prioritises the wealthy elite over the working class it was built to represent.”
Photo: London SP
Lois Austin, a Socialist Party member who has stood for Newham mayor as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, including against Wales in 2014, responded:
“It is true that Labour under Keir Starmer has shifted the party dramatically to the right since Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters were purged. Today’s Labour government has attacked pensioners and families in poverty with its policies, only partially retreating under pressure. The government has supported the Israeli state’s devastating assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Despite limited clashes with Donald Trump, Starmer’s government is allowing the American military to use British bases for operations in Iran and the Middle East.
“However, Robin Wales bears responsibility for that. He was a supporter of Tony Blair’s project to turn Labour into a big business party and an opponent of Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity leadership. This led to his own deselection as Labour’s mayoral candidate. Now he is joining a party led by Nigel Farage, who comes from a privileged background and works alongside former Tory ministers and MPs. Reform UK is a right-wing populist party whose policies run counter to the interests of the working class. It is an even more divisive anti-immigrant and anti-trade union party!”
Lois’s socialist, anti-cuts stand was in opposition to Wales who presided over millions of pounds of council cuts. Lois demanded a reversal of austerity, expansion of council housing, defence of public services, and opposition to developer-led gentrification.
She campaigned alongside council workers against job losses, outsourcing, and privatisation, and supported strike action and trade union resistance. In response to the council’s austerity programme, Lois’s TUSC stand advocated using Newham’s borrowing powers and financial reserves to protect services, setting a needs-based budget, while organising trade union and community resistance to win the necessary funding back from central government.
Responding to Wales’s defection, several current Labour councillors in Newham have attempted to distance themselves from his record. Lois added: “These are the same councillors who loyally supported Robin Wales while he implemented austerity. They voted through cuts and continue to do so under his replacement Rokhsana Fiaz, selected on a promise of changing direction which she immediately broke. The current Labour-run council has just passed another cuts budget, including reductions to the public library service – retreating only partially after significant local opposition.”
Socialist Party members in Newham are fighting for an anti-cuts stand again, and for that Newham stand to come together with socialists nationwide fighting against austerity under the TUSC banner.