Committee model
Cllr John Whitworth, West Ham ward, writes:
If the committee model is chosen in the Newham governance referendum there will be major changes in decision making, as a mayor will no longer have local “presidential” powers above those of councillors.
The council will take responsibility for local government and empower its committees to make decisions for each of the different services, with every councillor having a seat on a committee which will work closely with local residents.
The committees will fit with the existing directorates responsible for housing, health, etc, so the council will still have the same structure and deliver the same services - but what is done will be decided collectively and not by a single person.
Mr Philipps said: Councillor Mughal appears to have promoted a series of antisemitic posts via his Facebook account. It is therefore astonishing that presented with this evidence the Labour Party have failed to suspend Cllr Mughal while their investigations take place.
He added an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission made clear the Labour Party must live up to its commitment of zero-tolerance of antisemitism. We are uncertain why they are failing to do that in this instance. We urge an immediate suspension and a full investigation into what appears to be an endemic culture of anti-Jewish racism among the Labour Group on Newham Council, he said.