Cllr Haqeeq Dar
SLOUGH’S deputy mayor has been suspended from Labour while he is under investigation. The Observer (LDRS) understands the Wexham Lea councillor and deputy mayor of Slough, Haqeeq Dar, has been suspended by central Labour, pending investigation into complaints. It is believed the local authority figure was suspended from the party earlier this month, although it is not clear of the exact date and reasons why. When put to the Labour Party, a spokesman said: The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.
building demanding the resignation of the deputy leader.
Campaigners will again make their voices heard today for councillor Sabia Akram (Lab: Elliman) to stand down as the second-in-command of the leadership over controversial social media posts she made a few weeks back. In her now deleted Facebook page, Cllr Akram said she was “shocked and saddened” to see the Batley Grammar School teacher and his family to go into hiding after receiving death threats over showing a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed in a religious studies class. While not defending the teacher’s “disrespectful” actions, Cllr Akram, who is Muslim, said he should be forgiven for his mistake, not threatened to be killed.
Cllr Madhuri Bedi at the Foxborough litter pick
“I JOINED the Labour party because I believed it stood ‘for the many, not the few’. Sadly, I do not see that being played out in current leadership.” That’s what councillor Madhuri Bedi (Foxborough) said at a full Slough Borough Council meeting on the budget – as she resigned as a Labour member to become an independent councillor. At the meeting on Monday, March 8, she also scolded her former colleagues for choosing to increase council tax to the maximum this year. She said the 4.99 per cent spike will “prove too much for too many” and this rise “could’ve been avoided” if the council’s reserves were more “robust” and if the finances were managed better.