Election results, new reports, and calls to ‘Decolonise’ Newham

Working-class ethnic minority communities across the city appear to be united by similar concerns: once welcomed to help rebuild the UK after the Blitz (WWII), many now feel they are treated with disregard by politicians and decision-makers. This month, however, People Power has broken through the political ranks in Newham, signalling that the ethnic minority votes can no longer be taken for granted by career politicians.

Just Space Network’s Alternative Plan for a caring city

First of two newly published reports represents years of interviews by researchers and campaigners from Just Space Network (JSN), an informal alliance of community groups, campaigns and organisations advocating for fairer planning and development across the city. Acting as a collective voice for grassroots Londoners and local communities, JSN regularly brings together groups such as Friends of Queen’s Market (FoQM) with other struggles.

JSN’s latest report is the result of three years of research and engagement, gathering evidence on what Londoners want from their city plan. It has been shaped by the need for an alternative to successive London Plans which, over the past 25 years, have worsened conditions for many residents by deepening the housing and rent crisis, privatisation of public land, damaged street markets while enabling unchecked property development to reshape and hollow out communities – all for a quick buck for themselves!

The report argues that the close relationship between developers, political interests and finance has contributed to a model of city-building that often overlooks the needs of existing Londoners. JSN’s proposed Alternative London Plan for a caring city, offers a different vision for London’s future and can be read online via the link below [FoQM feature on page 41]: https://justspace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Justspace_Alt_Plan-2026.pdf

_{Image (above): Printed copies of the report are available to collect from selected community spaces.}

How do we effectively address the Racism in the UK planning system?

This second published report follows the emergence of Protect Our Places (POP) in late 2023, a coalition of eleven campaigns, organisations and community groups across London, including FoQM. POP brings together anti-gentrification campaigns from across the capital, all working to protect the markets, town centres, high streets and affordable retail spaces that are central to their communities and cultural identity. You can read the Protect Our Places (POP) anti-gentrification report here: https://latinelephant.org/coming-together-pop-report-released/

_{Image (above): front cover of the report. Printed copies are available to collect from community spaces.}

Is Newham witnessing a three-way political split, or are signs of a more democratic future beginning to emerge?

Recently, our supporters posed questions at the local election hustings at the Tate Institute in Silvertown, Newham – historically a social club for Tate & Lyle factory workers. The venue remains an important community space that now needs support to continue serving local residents. Those involved are working hard to keep the space open for vital community use, and donations are encouraged to help with renovation – click here to find out more. The community organisers generously hosted a hustings with all prospective Mayoral candidates on Saturday 2nd May, yet Labour’s Mayoral candidate was notably absent – rumours abounded, suggested concerns about a potential “Green trap” may have discouraged attendance. The Newham Independents candidate Mehmood Mirza spoke about his mistreatment having been targeted, with his family being followed in the lead up to him taking public office – see these YouTube videos ‘Targeted by Labour for their ethnicity’ – see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5vHEkYo6LU
Also see: ‘The Labour Files: Episode 3. The Hierarchy – Al Jazeera Investigations’ [M. Mirza mentions being followed at point 39:49]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cHBQf5z_M

The Green Party candidate, Areeq Chowdhury, a self-described “data nerd” did really well to face the audience largely alone because Mirza had to leave early – if Areeq has further information on how Newham Council uses public and retail data trends, whether larger private companies have access to this data, or why key local data, including statistics on the importance of Queen’s Market, food poverty and community needs continues to be overlooked in favour of speculative development plans, we encourage him to share it with us.

_{Scrolling gallery of photographs (above): A sign was placed where the Labour candidate was supposed to be, reading simply: “Labour?”}

The proof is in the ballot box

Following the elections, the Newham Independents Party achieved a significant increase in council seats in and around Queen’s Market, particularly in Plaistow North (where Queen’s Market is located), Boleyn and Green Street wards – securing a whopping 24 council seats in total. However, the green shoots have been most surprising, with Green Party support resulting in 16 Councillor seats secured across other parts of the borough. Now, with no overall control, Newham Council’s long-standing one-party dominance appears to survive largely through Labour’s directly-elected mayoral system – clinging on for dear life as career politicians defend an ageing, crumbling structure that has rarely worked in the interests of Newham’s diverse and growing population.

For many local residents, the latest election results reflect the continuing importance of Queen’s Market in the lives of Londoners; at a time when food prices continue to rise and more families are being pushed deeper into poverty, people have shown what matters most by voting differently.

_{Image (above): “One finds oneself in need of an additional manservant, in order to arrive at the club with suitable haste” thought the colonial master. Are colonial roles like master and manservant being played out in Newham’s political scene?}

Are we witnessing Newham finally moving beyond one-party dominance and toward Decolonisation?

The diverse electorate inside Newham has finally woken from the outdated and ‘toxic’ colonial-style politics, calling for increasingly transparent ways to engage in the democratic process, while also safeguarding what matters most to help their communities thrive.

But will the newly elected representatives listen and understand that change is a two-way process, and that they also need to let go of what hasn’t been working for decades?

Upcoming hustings: which candidate will truly stand up for Queen’s Market?

Do candidates mean what they say, or is the real story unfolding behind closed doors?

After more than twenty years of campaigning, our community street market is still sadly under threat. Friends of Queen’s Market have always depended on community strength and the goodwill of local residents, traders, and shoppers – and once again, we find ourselves at that familiar point in the political cycle.

Recent interviews with the main political parties suggest plans to demolish the market building. This would impact thousands of families who rely on it for affordable fresh food and as an important social space. Meanwhile, councillors based in more affluent parts of Newham seem disconnected from the realities of the cost-of-living crisis, all while being funded by the public. It raises an important question: who is holding them accountable, and are they truly serving the community?

You can watch the recent REVIVE FM Newham Mayoral Elections recording below [Queen’s Market is mentioned 1:07:50 onwards]:

Newham Council Elections – Community Hustings

Hear from the prospective candidates on the following dates (in-person gathering)

Tuesday 28th April 2026 at 6.30pm
Held at: Clapton Community Football Club, The Old Spotted Dog Ground, Walter Tull Way, 212 Upton Lane, London E7 9NP (Nearest stations: Forest Gate, Upton Park)

Saturday 2nd May 2026 at 4pm
Held at: Tate Institute, 1 Wythes Rd, London E16 2DN (Nearest station: London City Airport)
Sign up to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/newham-mayoral-community-hustings-tickets-1987663387699
Stalls and activities from 2pm. Hustings start 4pm. Finish 6:30pm. Food and kids activities provided

_{Groups involved: London Renters Union, The Magpie Project, Newham Muslim Forum, Respace, PEACH, The Women in Newham Network, Newham Trades Council, Save Newham Libraries, Born Everywhere Made in Newham, Friends of Queen’s Market and Newham Poetry Group and more TBA}

FACTS about Newham show why residents need the market!

– The poverty rate is one of the highest in London: the market helps alleviate poverty.

– 45% of children are in families with below 60% of the average income: Queen’s Market provides for hungry families.

– More households in temporary accommodation than most other boroughs (59 per 1000): vulnerable families need to eat, so come to shop at Queen’s Market.

– Unemployment higher than average: the market provides jobs to heads of families, and for women too.

– Life expectancy is lower than average: Queen’s Market provides access to fresh affordable culturally-appropriate food

Some Candidates are talking about ‘developing the market’. FACTS ALSO SHOW that property developers will not protect or safeguard the market for the future. Their business is PROFIT for themselves, not the wellbeing of Newham’s residents. Developers already own land all over Newham.

WE NEED A MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS WHO will commit to PROTECTING the Market and what it is here for – no gentrification, no pushing local people and businesses out.

Position of political parties

LABOUR – The Labour Council under Mayor Fiaz has not looked after the market or managed it well. Even with a £7 million grant, promises were not kept and the money has been spent very badly. The Council’s Local Plan puts tall buildings on the site – our market would not survive that.

NEWHAM INDEPENDENTS – Councillors Mehmood Mirza (Boleyn ward) and Sophia Naqvi (Plaistow North ward) have consistently supported Queen’s Market.

GREEN PARTY – Councillors Danny Keeling and Nate Higgins have supported Queen’s Market. Zoe Garbett (Green member in the London Assembly) has supported the market.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS – Good ideas on democracy but their plans are uncertain.

CONSERVATIVE, REFORM – Regarding the market, their polices would most likely benefit developers, not residents.

FRIENDS OF QUEEN’S MARKET SAYS: “LABOUR HAS NOT LISTENED TO THE PEOPLE. LABOUR HAS IGNORED OUR NEEDS. THE COUNCIL MUST HAVE MORE VOICES AND BE MORE DEMOCRATIC. WE NEED A CHANGE.”

You couldn’t make it up!

What’s perhaps most concerning is that Newham’s former Labour mayor – often labelled by critics as overly controlling – has now aligned himself with the ‘far-right’ Reform UK party. Yes, that’s right, “Sir” Robin Wales (robbin’ us dry!), alongside Councillor Clive Furness, who is standing as the Reform mayoral candidate. Wales held power in Newham for 23 years, first as Leader of the Council from 1995 to 2002, and then as the directly elected Mayor from 2002 to 2018, until his deselection in March 2018. His ego clearly has the better of him, and he’s back under another ‘dodgy’ outfit. Many residents feel that the current challenges facing Newham are closely tied to decisions made during his leadership, with some of his former allies now seeking to return to positions of power.

Disturbing divisive politics from the far-right “weasels”: (Left-right) Clive Furness, “Sir” Robin Wales, and slippery national figure Nigel Farage, whose surname suggests his ancestry is foreign, but he does not want other hard-working people to call London, England or the United Kingdom home… seriously?!

“There is something rotten at the core of the main party politics inside of Newham. These people who have joined a ‘far-right’ political party while when in power (under Labour) ate greedily from the public pocket – from our collective taxes. It’s shocking that they feel they can get away with this kind of behaviour”, says Abdullah Isaiah born and bred East Londoner.

Pulling the wool over your eyes

Over the past few years, what we’ve observed in Newham is a pattern of superficial engagement – consultations and listening exercises that appear to invite collaboration, but in reality fall short of genuine co-creation. Instead of meaningful involvement, the process gives only the impression of participation while delivering the opposite. This is an illusion of democracy.

We ask people to walk around the post-2012 Olympic site and see for themselves – after 14 years, where are the homes local people can actually afford on the Olympics site? Where are the genuinely affordable shops? How much public money and investment is really reaching the community? Because from where we stand, those benefits are nowhere to be seen.

_{Image (above): “Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes” is an idiom that means do not let someone trick, deceive, or hoodwink you. It advises someone to be cautious, pay attention, and not allow others to manipulate them or hide the truth.}

FoQM say: when you go to vote, choose people power and change that truly protects our community and public spaces that hold the community together, like Queen’s Market.

Newham is London’s most diverse borough, and this moment will help determine whether the next generation can afford to stay – whether they can access homes promised as part of the post-Olympics legacy, and meet the everyday costs of living.

Queen’s Market celebrates diversity, unity and anti-racism, and has become a real litmus test for prospective candidates towards understanding Newham’s citizens: if they can’t commit to protecting it, what exactly are they standing for?

_{Image (above): FoQM remind you to bring along your photo ID when voting in-person.}

£7.3 million wasted – no new roof, no new floor, yet shortlisted for The Pineapples Award?

Contradictions and ‘gravy train’ style politics continue to plague Newham Council and their ‘chosen’ corporate partners.

This time it’s JA Projects, one of the architects involved in the Queen’s Market scheme, who has been shortlisted for The Pineapples Award. The awards claim to “celebrate the very best in placemaking and place-led initiatives”, yet it sounds to us like a whole lot of cover up –it’s the community that make a place, not the overnight fly-by consultant!

Traders say that throughout the most recent consultation process they repeatedly made one simple request – a new roof and new flooring. Once again, that request was wilfully ignored by the architects, the Council, and public officers – a familiar nexus of “no-sayers”. Instead, Newham’s residents were left with cosmetic nonsense: a multi-coloured painted corner, pigeon-netting that pigeons still get through, lighting that continues to fail, and a wooden-and-tin shack costing a staggering £1 million – decoration without substance.

_{Image above: “Riding on the gravy train” means securing a job, project, or situation that provides substantial financial reward for very little effort or work. It refers to an easy, often long-term, way to make money or earn excessive, sometimes undeserved, profits. [Source: the-terrier.com.au]}

Traders describe being left in the dark during the so-called “co-create” process, with minimal updates and little meaningful engagement from JA Projects. Fast-forward through a year of disruption and upheaval, and very little has actually changed. The process was not co-created – not even close.

“The roof still leaks because the pipes get overburdened. We’ve got ASB spilling over from Stratford – drugs, crack, you name it. And when the money finally came, it was wasted. Decisions are being made behind closed doors, and Newham is being looted. We’ve had enough,” said one local shopper and registered voter.

These ‘starchitect’ types were being celebrated a decade or so ago, when marketing spin took over the profession and strangled honest discussion about how architecture and regeneration actually affect people. Instead of talking about collective development, everything was handed on a golden platter to private developers. That disturbing trend has only deepened – especially now. Recently, the Mayor of London’s office allowed developers even more discounts, adding to the woes of harding-working families – read article ‘Affordable housing quota for London falls to 20%’ [BBC, 10/2025] : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrzgxj37d5o It’s worth noting that the Pineapples Awards are run by The Developer media company (in partnership with the Design Council) – We ask, is this really how the gravy train should be rolling in one of London’s most deprived boroughs?

We found it nauseating, but you can watch Jayden Ali of JA Projects present on Queen’s Market here:

At one point during the Queen’s Market consultation process there were eleven consultations running simultaneously — enough to confuse anyone. Yet Newham Council continues to claim it has successfully engaged local people. No amount of spin or marketing fluff will make that true.

_{Image (above): Are you confused, because so are we!}

Newham is now proudly celebrating five shortlisted Pineapples Award projects, even publishing a self-congratulatory article about it.

Read the article here: https://www.newham.gov.uk/news/article/1529/five-newham-projects-shortlisted-for-prestigious-2026-pineapple-awards

Inside the Council, the Director of Community Wealth Building has recently been rebranded as Director of Place-Making, covering regeneration, planning, housing delivery, and economic strategy. Career juggling within Newham is nothing new – remember the last CEO, paid off… How much was that again?

Meanwhile, the regeneration of the Carpenters Estate in Stratford has already ballooned to an estimated £1.42 billion in borrowing — a £320 million jump from earlier estimates of £1.1 billion. So who’s been eating all the pineapples there?

Shout out to our friends at Focus E15 Mothers who were pushed out of Carpenters Estate to make way for Council’s gentrification/ social cleansing projects : https://focuse15.org/about/

This is a Council that promises mountains and delivers molehills – padded out with weasel words, and then slams the door shut on local people.

It’s election year, and Friends of Queen’s Market remains proudly non-political. We welcome everyone with all their different political (and non-political) leanings, including the councillors who still shop at Queen’s Market. But the same tired rhetoric keeps coming back from candidates: free bin collections (easily solved), ASB, systemic created poverty, the usual blah blah. Families in Newham are struggling to put food on their tables, and these private consultants like JA Projects are being paid without question.

Small traders are barely surviving. Yet public officers are busy marketing wealth extraction as success.

Recently, Zoë Garbett from the Green Party GLA team visited the market and filmed short interviews with traders and shoppers – see below: https://www.tiktok.com/@zoe.garbett/video/7567082849220791574?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

We ask a simple question of prospective candidates: have you actually stepped into the market and shopped here? Because much of Newham does shop here.

Newham has endured years of corporatised, securitised gentrification with no trickle-down – just a “pi$$-down”, as one campaigner aptly put it.

^{Image (above): “Don’t pi$$ down my back and tell me it’s raining” is an idiom that means do not lie or try to deceive someone while pretending to do them a favour [Source: Urban Dictionary]}