To begin, some political context. It is, after all, just over a month before a set of borough elections take place that look sure to reshape London’s political map in dramatic ways. There is no more vivid example of that than what could happen in Newham. The east London borough has been dominated by Labour at all levels for decades, but there is a strong possibility of that changing.
Labour’s principal challenger is a local political party called the Newham Independents, which has beaten Labour in three out of the eight by-elections held since the last full borough elections in 2022 and is mounting a determined campaign to win both the Newham mayoralty and a majority on the council.
The Green Party, too, will be looking to benefit from national and perhaps also local disillusion with Labour. But it’s the rise of the Newham Independents that is of greatest significance. That is partly because they are making the biggest challenge to the political status quo, but it is also because its membership and candidates appear to be almost entirely Muslim.
What might the implications be for a multi-ethnic and multi-faith population of more than 350,000 people of a party taking power that is rooted in single, minority faith community? Muslim Londoners account for a substantial proportion of Newham’s people, but not a majority. Just over a third identified themselves as such in the last Census (conducted in 2021), slightly fewer than reported they were Christian. A further 14.5 per cent said they had no religion.
Not every Newham Muslim will vote for the Newham Independents and not every Newham resident who votes for the Newham Independents will be Muslim. However, if a political party wins power overwhelmingly due to the support of the faith or cultural group from which it springs, there will be a particular onus on it to ensure that its administration serves everyone in Newham and is seen to do so.
That responsibility would be no different in essence from that borne by local government bodies led by politicians of any other political party. But in these times of ugly “culture war” at home and abroad and of the hostility directed by some at Muslims all over Britain, a Newham Council led by Newham Independents would need to make a sustained and convincing effort to discharge it.
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Such is the electoral scenario forming some of the context in which a document was published last month by British Future, a think tank whose director, Sunder Katwala, was my guest for the latest edition of the True London podcast. Entitled Bringing People Together in a Place of Change, it reports on the findings of an Independent Commission on Inclusion and Belonging in Newham, and has been backed from the start by Newham’s current Mayor, Rokshana Fiaz (who will be standing down in May).
In his Foreword, Sunder describes Newham, with its fast-growing and heavily-churning population and, in some areas, its rapid redevelopment, as being “at the heart of the central challenge of our times”. He defines this in the form of a question: “how do we handle diversity and immigration fairly, respect our differences and work on what brings people together in our changing society?”
The report paints a largely positive picture of a wide range of local people recognising “the benefits of a diverse culture”, but it also emphasised the borough’s need for “a shared vision for inclusion” to be produced by the council, accompanied by a “strategy for action”.
In our 20-minute conversation, we spoke about that and some of the most telling detail within the report, which illuminates the importance to inclusion and belonging of everything from big community events to tackling litter and fly-tipping. Watch below or just listen here.
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