Leaders from the Newham Greens and Newham Independents groups speak to Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter, about holding the new council administration to account

Opposition parties can make a real difference in Newham now that Labour no longer has a majority on the council, their leaders have said.

Leaders of the Newham Independents and Green groups at the town hall say council pledges to extend free school meals and take action for Palestine are examples of what they can achieve.

Newham Independents leader Mehmood Mirza said: “It’s not going to be an easy ride for the Labour Party.”

Arshan Baskaran, leader of the Greens, said his group wouldn’t set out to make life difficult for Labour, but would use its influence “to make sure that what gets done for residents is the right thing”.

Local elections earlier this year left Labour with the largest number of councillors, and returned a Labour mayor in Newham – but without a majority for the first time since the council was createdin the 1960s.

That means the Newham Independents and Greens can work together to win important decisions at meetings of all councillors.

In July the two opposition parties voted together on a Newham Independents proposal to look into giving free school meals to every secondary school pupil in the borough, while Labour councillors abstained.

The two groups also worked together to commit the council to investigate whether its pension fund is invested in companies “complicit” in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

They rejected a Labour caveat that the council should only divest its funds from those companies “if no harm is made to existing and future council pensioners”.

Cllr Baskaran told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We can get a lot done. I was very happy about the divestment motion, as well as the free school meals. That was a really important one for me”.

He pointed that none of the three parties on the council can achieve anything without getting support from at least one of the two other groups.

Cllr Mirza said this meant the Newham Independents could “push” the Labour leadership to implement things they agree on, such as extended free parking.

He told the LDRS: “Labour’s not going to get everything they want. They can only get things through where we have a common interest, such as parking.

“We will push them, and if they don’t do it we’ll expose them. If they don’t deliver what they said, they’re going to be in trouble”.

However, Cllr Mirza admitted it could also be a challenge to get his own group to agree, having grown from a group of four councillors before the elections to 25 now.

He said: “It’s difficult, it’s not easy. Not everyone is on the same page, so we need to convince them.”

Cllr Baskaran said the Greens would also use their position to influence what the council does.

He said: “No one group can pass anything without at least one other group supporting them. So while we are the smallest group we hold an equal amount of power as the Newham Independents.”

He added: “I’m not going to stand in the way of anyone doing work that I think is good. But I will be scrutinising and holding to account”.

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