We asked the main party candidates for Mayor at the election on 5 May to put their case to our readers. Here’s what they told us…

Dr Saleyha Ahsan: Lib Dems

“I know the issues – I lost my father to Covid and I understand the issues because I face them too”

Newham Liberal Democrats have chosen Dr Saleyha Ahsan as their candidate for the Newham Mayor because of her background, experience, leadership skills and the strength of her voice as a campaigner.

She was the first British Muslim woman to attend the integrated male and female Royal Military Academy Sandhurst’s officer commissioning course where she achieved the rank of Captain in the British Army, and served in Bosnia as part of the NATO stabilisation force,completing three years in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Medical Support Officer.

She left the army to retrain as a doctor and is now a practising emergency medical doctor. During the COVID pandemic she worked in intensive care. She is a broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker, and has created documentary programmes such as Dispatches: Covid Critical and also Can our NHS Cope?

She lives in Newham and wants to make a difference both nationally and locally. At her campaign launch she said: “I am your neighbour, I live in the Prospect East development in Stratford Olympic Park. I understand the issues you face because I face them too. I am appalled at this incompetent Tory government and the way they have handled the pandemic.

“I have been bereaved myself, losing my father to COVID and know the hardships many people have felt. I have represented bereaved families in interviews on Sky and BBC news. I see the way Newham isn’t dealing with antisocial behaviour, crime, noise, litter, fly-tipping, recycling or parking properly. I know I can use my experience to represent your views, my neighbours, to get this lazy Labour council to listen to you too.”

She is also standing as a councillor for Stratford Olympic Park.

Rob Callender: Green Party

Green Party candidate for Mayor is Rob Callender, who is also standing as a councillor in the Royal Docks ward. He too lives in Newham.

He told Newham Voices: “I live in North Woolwich, and work as a technical building manager.

For the last year I’ve been a volunteer member of the Working Group for the Beckton and Royal Docks Community Assembly, helping to prioritise and mentor local projects.

“I support the Save Newham City Farm campaign so local children can keep a link to farming and nature. I strongly oppose the Silvertown Tunnel for its toxic air pollution and traffic congestion.

“I want a carbon neutral Newham, including making homes warmer, and heating bills cheaper.”

He says millions of pounds of infrastructure funding that the council receives from developers is unspent each year. This should be used for improvements to our public spaces and more affordable housing, community, mental health, sports and youth facilities.

He saisd: “We need safe protected walking, wheeling and cycle routes, more bus lanes, more trees and non-pavement EV charging points. Better recycling for flats, street litter bins, food and free bookable bulky waste collections,

“Our borough suffers some of the highest air pollution, worst poverty and worst recycling rates in the country, while the council seems unaccountable and opaque. Inequality is stark. As a private renter in a shared flat,

“I know that tenants and leaseholders are having a tough time. A decent, transparent council – and mayor who is open to scrutiny – should be supportive to all residents.

Newham can be, and has, so much more than this. I have ambition for Newham and will work tirelessly to ensure that Newham becomes the greener, cleaner, fairer, safer – BETTER place that residents deserve.” @RoyalDocksRob

Attic Rahman: Conservative

I feel our Borough can be run better than it has been for the last few decades of single-party rule.

We have many new homes being built but far too many are snapped up by buy-to-let investors.

Conservatives will prioritise Newham residents and give more people the opportunity to own their own homes. Conservatives will ensure the standard of privately rented housing is the best in London.

We held the Olympics here but many residents haven’t felt the benefit of that, so Conservatives will support a massive increase in school sport in our schools – both for primary and secondary school children. I want this to be the most physically active borough in London.

We need to take pride in our community again. Conservatives will employ a new Community Patrol Officers team, all equipped with body cameras, to fine people who drop litter and cause damage. We will build stronger relationships between communities and the police to tackle our crime epidemic. We need to abolish the mattress tax which has led to a huge increase in fly-tipping and we need to support and promote cycling with proficiency courses for all children and introduce “Boris Bikes” across the Borough.

If you elect me as your Mayor, I will never forget that every penny the Council spends is taken from residents as taxpayers so I will not waste money and I will keep council tax low. I will be accountable, inclusive and transparent. Thank you.

Rokhsana Fiaz: Labour

Incumbent Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz is different from other candidates in that she has been in the role since 2018 and so must defend her record in actually doing the job, as well as setting out her hopes for the future.

But as campaigning gets underway, she is looking forward to being judged on the ‘much needed’ changes the council has made.

“I hope people are experiencing improvement and that they will recognise the council as bringing improvements in spite of the challenges we face together,” she told Newham Voices.

Labour currently holds all Newham Council‘s seats, a situation Ms Fiaz claims she has worked to address, setting up the participatory democracy commission that was in her 2018 manifesto and introducing the UK’s first Citizens Assembly. She has been ‘lifted’ by the involvement of residents in the neighbourhood assemblies, “the largest participatory programme in the country” providing up to £100,000 in funding for improvement projects voted on by local residents in each of eight areas.

By involving a cross section of Newham residents, Ms Fiaz says she is trying to create synergy between “what residents want and what my administration and I think we have”.

Her priorities on the doorstep will be: energy costs; opportunities for young people; rubbish and fly tipping; housing – the ongoing provision of homes at social rent levels; the health and wellbeing of residents – “Covid is still with us”; ending the scourge of rogue landlords; and protecting children, particularly in an area where 4,500 children are hospitalised every year because of pollution.

Ms Fiaz has also been very vocal about inclusivity. “Social integration, racism and equality are key to what we do.

“As a woman of colour I have experienced mysogyny and racism.

These issues are fundamental to me. I celebrate our diversity, I am so proud of being a Newhamite.”

She believes more needs to be done to make the streets safer for women, including police visibility, better street lighting, and design that takes safety into account.

“We are a Borough that is evolving. Ten years ago, these issues were not sufficiently recognised in approaches to planning and design.”

Part of the solution is education.

“We have to have conversations in which we keep calling out bad behaviour – wolf whistling for example is not acceptable, it makes women feel very uncomfortable.

“Women who occupy leadership positions are often subjected to unacceptable behaviour. I have experienced this myself. Narratives are projected onto me about who people – usually men – think I am.

“There needs to be education about women in power being part of normal life. If people are dis- comforted by it, they should reflect on what they need to do to change themselves.”

Ward boundaries have changed since 2018 so there is no guarantee that Labour will sweep the board again. But Ms Fiaz has advice for her challengers.

“Put forward credible propositions that take into account the level of restraint we work under.”

Newham spends £1.5bn, the ninth highest in the country. Of that, she says, only £360m is available for use flexibly. Out of every £1, 69p goes on adult and children’s ser- vices. Only 31p per person is available for everything else, which she claims is the result of austerity policies introduced by the government in 2010.

“Do not make promises in this post truth world without taking into account what 31p in the £ can do when we have vulnerable older people who we want to live happy lives and children living in house- holds where they struggle to put food on the table.

“It is important that parties have an honest, open, transparent and truthful conversation about all these things. We have been clear, honest and truthful about the con- straints we are under, and the pub- lic have been appreciative of that honesty.

“We mustn’t get caught up in a false narrative at national level that inequality only exists in the north of England. There are high levels of deprivation in parts of London, including Newham. We are constantly making the case for high levels of support to deal with this.”

She believes the decision to give Newham £40m of the £65m set aside for London under the government’s ‘levelling up’ scheme shows that the Borough’s leadership is ‘credible and trusted’.

“I will always be the champion for the for the area I grew up in,” she said. “All of us have a stake in it.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.